Search results

Halal tourism despite its increasing contributions toward the global tourism industry, remains a nascent field of research, in particular, investigations that explore the drivers of halal tourism purchase intention of Muslim tourists are insufficient. To contribute to this end, this study aims to examine the moderating role of perceived behavioral control (PBC) on attitude, subjective norms (SN) and behavioral intention by applying the theory of planned behavior.

The conceptual model is tested by using structural equation modeling based on the data collected from 306 Muslim tourists of Bangladesh.

The results reveal that PBC moderates the relationship between attitude and halal tourism intention. Halal tourism intention is also influenced by attitude and PBC but not by SN.

Findings of the study contributed to halal tourism literature by identifying the role of perceived autonomy and capacity on halal tourism intention and by offering an understanding of the underlying psychological drivers of halal tourism choice.

This would help the marketer to design suitable halal tourism offerings to fulfill the unique needs of this less explored tourism market.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is perhaps the first study in the context of the Bangladesh tourism sector that focuses on customers’ halal tourism intention. The study’s findings are crucial in Islamic marketing and halal tourism.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the financial condition and the mental health of millions of workers from various informal sectors. This study aims to look into the hawkers’ community’s mental health and living conditions in Bangladesh during COVID-19.

The researchers have applied the purposive sampling technique to choose ten hawkers from Khulna city, a district in the southern region of Bangladesh. An in-depth interview was taken in the Bengali language in an unstructured manner and lasted 30–40 min per respondent.

The findings showed that the Hawkers’ income reduced, and specifically, during the pandemic, they had earned half of what they usually made before. Besides, they could not open their stores because law enforcement agencies imposed restrictions on opening business centres during the lockdown except for some emergency necessities shops. This restriction led the hawkers to stop selling their products because there was a high chance of spreading the virus through the products they sold. Due to income reduction, they had to eat cheap food, which caused their health problems. Consequently, this community mentally got depressed.

Policymakers in Bangladesh might think about enacting more effective measures to provide some extrinsic and intrinsic support in improving the mental health of the hawkers’ community.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the mental of the hawkers’ community during COVID-19.