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This study aims to investigate the effects of smart tourism technology experience (STTE) on tourist satisfaction and happiness in Bordeaux, with a focus on understanding the mediating role of self-gratification. By examining these relationships, the study seeks to provide insights into how smart tourism technologies can enhance tourist experiences.

The study uses partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze data collected from 380 tourists who visited Bordeaux. The measurement model assesses reliability and validity, while the structural model evaluates the proposed hypotheses and the mediation effects of self-gratification.

The results confirm that STTE positively impacts tourist satisfaction, with accessibility, informativeness and personalization significantly enhancing tourist satisfaction, while interactivity does not. Tourist satisfaction, in turn, positively affects tourist happiness. Furthermore, self-gratification partially mediates the relationship between tourist satisfaction and happiness, highlighting its importance in the smart tourism context.

This research extends the understanding of STTE by demonstrating its effects on tourist satisfaction and happiness. It introduces the mediating role of self-gratification, providing a novel perspective on how personalized smart tourism experiences contribute to overall tourist happiness.

Understanding tourist experiences with virtual reality (VR) products is essential for firms using VR for tourism marketing, particularly in developing countries where customers do not have access to personal VR devices or gadgets. This study aims to provide insights into technology usage for tourism marketing India, which is a developing country. It explores 360° virtual tours as an upcoming strategy for tourism promotion by analysing tourists’ perspectives through a qualitative approach.

360° YouTube video launched by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, was shown to the participants as a marketing stimulus, followed by questions to understand tourists’ experiences and intentions. Responses were collected from 45 tourists who visited popular tourist destinations such as Shimla, Manali and Dharamshala districts of Himachal Pradesh, India.

The findings of the study indicate that several crucial elements play a pivotal role in creating the 360° VR experience. Based on interviews, it was found that 360° video experiences assist in visualising a destination through imaginative exploration, generating curiosity about the destination, forming a favourable image of the destination and facilitates ease of experience. A few participants mentioned experiencing discomforts, such as motion sickness and eye strain, while viewing 360° videos. Moreover, tourists provided valuable insights into various factors, including how 360° videos elicit arousal through entertainment and excitement, develop immersion and engagement in the virtual environment (VE), aid in assessing destination suitability, offers advantage over other media, serves as a substitutes for travel during constraints, generates assurance and influences intentions. These factors have emerged as significant considerations influencing their willingness to adopt such technology in the future.

In the contemporary market landscape, 360° VR technology is anticipated to enhance the experiential elements within VEs. While existing research has focused on the technical attributes of VR, there remains a crucial gap pertaining to the experiential and destination-related elements and their influence on usage, travel planning and intentions. Therefore, this study provides deeper insights into the unexplored concepts and dimensions of the virtual tourism experience, particularly concerning interaction with 360° videos. The study contributes novel insights to the existing body of tourism literature and provides practical implications for enhancing 360° virtual tour experiences.

This study aims to explore the influence of creative tourist experiences (CTE) on tourists’ recommendation intentions (RCI) toward creative tourist destinations. This study examines the roles of tourist engagement and satisfaction in this relationship, proposing a sequential mediation model based on the cognitive-affective-conative model.

The research surveyed travelers to Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, India, using a structured questionnaire. Through purposive sampling data were collected from 413 generation Z (Gen Z in short) tourists. The study used exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and sequential mediation analysis. The present research used Model 6 by Andrew Hayes in the SPSS process macro to test the serial mediation.

The findings emphasize the importance of active engagement in creative tourism and its potential to transform cultural heritage into enriching experiences, thereby influencing tourists’ recommendation behaviors. Results of sequential mediation analysis show that there is a significant and positive impact of CTE on tourist’s RCI. Further, results showed the sequential mediation effect of tourist engagement and satisfaction on the relationship between CTE and RCI.

The findings offer valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers in creative tourism. Enhancing tourist engagement and satisfaction through creative experiences can effectively increase RCI, contributing to the sustainable management of cultural resources and preventing the over-commercialization of cultural heritage.

This research contributes to the literature on creative tourism by empirically testing the sequential mediation model and highlighting the pivotal role of tourist engagement and satisfaction in transforming creative experiences into positive behavioral outcomes. This study provides a nuanced understanding of the factors influencing tourists’ RCI in creative tourism contexts.

The study aims to review how the use of technology enhances the authentic tourist experience. Technology and digitalization have enhanced tourist experiences. However, critiques comment on its ability to over-commercialize activity and lack of authenticity. Thus, there is a need to synthesize knowledge of technology usage to increase authentic tourist experience.

The study carries out a bibliometric review of the studies focusing on the use of technology in enhancing tourist experiences. Two hundred journal articles, published between 1997 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS) database to carry out descriptive and network analysis using the Gephi, VOSviewer and Science of Science (Sci2) software. The components of authentic tourism experience are identified from the literature through a content analysis.

The findings of the study are broadly classified into two: first, the most frequently used keywords in the study include tourist experience and satisfaction, co-creation, virtual reality, smart tourism, technology, authenticity and heritage tourism. Second, the five major themes studied in the topic include virtual reality and tourist experience; media, tourist experience and encounters; technology, smart tourism and tourist experience; digital transformation, social media and tourist experience; and virtual reality and tourist experience which are still relevant in the literature because of the presence of study gaps.

The findings are used to develop a conceptual framework for the role of technology in enhancing authenticity in tourism typologies where authenticity is critical.

This study addresses tourists' post-consumption perspectives on the impact of online destination experiences and animosity on travel decisions. Developing a framework based on the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory, we examine the previously unexplored relationship between post-negative events, online destination brand experience (ODBE), tourists' animosity and destination boycott intentions within the domestic tourism context.

Data from 355 actively engaged domestic travelers in Pakistan who follow destination social media pages (i.e. Instagram and Facebook) was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The findings reveal that post-negative events ODBE significantly stimulate tourists' animosity, which in turn drives destination boycott intentions. The ODBE indirectly affects boycott intentions through animosity, acting as a partial mediator. The analysis highlights the significance of the users' prior experience levels (novice vs experienced). Multigroup analysis shows that novice visitors are more sensitive to negative online experiences, resulting in stronger animosity than experienced visitors. Animosity significantly drives boycott intentions, particularly among experienced visitors.

This study’s novelty lies in its comprehensive examination of post-negative events, focusing on how the ODBE influences tourists' negative emotions and boycott intentions. These findings offer valuable insights for tourism researchers and destination marketers, underscoring the importance of optimizing post-service failure ODBE strategies for brand repair, online reputation management, digital marketing innovation and customized service recovery to mitigate the impact of negative events.

The purpose of this study is to explore from a place attachment (PA) theory perspective the extent to which and how, a fully immersive virtual reality (VR) experience enhances tourists’ attachment level on-site at a rural destination.

This study applied an exploratory mixed method approach. Respondents were tourists visiting the Lake District National Park who were asked to try a VR experience. In Study 1, interviews were conducted to explore new themes and to develop an enhanced PA framework in VR. Study 1 confirmed existing variables from the literature and highlighted new variables (themes) to be included in the new framework on how PA is formed. In Study 2, surveys were conducted, and the proposed framework analyzed using structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). To fully understand how VR had an impact on enhancing PA, the moderating effect of tourists’ pre-existing PA was considered.

The findings revealed “Accessibility”, “Memories” and “Increased Place Knowledge” as new themes (variables) and confirmed that these and established variables “Aesthetics” and “Presence” enhance PA, leading to increased loyalty. Significant moderating effects of existing PA were found.

VR serves as a complementary and substitutional tool for tourism. Tailored VR experiences for diverse tourist needs may enhance destination marketing and competitiveness. For tourists with low PA, destinations should focus on promoting activities and highlights to enhance engagement and the experiential understanding of the destination. For tourists with high PA, VR experiences should focus on providing a comprehensive view of the destination and unveiling new places. In both cases, the VR experience leads to deeper engagement with the destination and an increase in PA.

Research on the impact of VR on tourists’ PA is limited. To address this gap, this study’s theoretical contribution lies in developing and testing a PA framework within a VR and tourism context. This also includes the validation of new measurement items developed in relation to the new themes.

While travelling, tourists like to use mobile technology to share their travel experiences. This study aims to understand how the social value gained by tourists from sharing a travel experience with mobile technology affects their satisfaction with the travel experience through onsite mobile sharing behaviour.

A second-order hierarchical model is constructed to examine the moderated mediating role of onsite mobile sharing behaviour in improving tourists’ travel satisfaction. Through systematic sampling, 304 responses were collected at ten attraction points in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, China.

The results show that, compared with self-centred values (self-presentation and self-identification), other-centred values (building social connection and reciprocity) contribute more to forming social values of sharing. In addition, onsite mobile sharing behaviour partially mediates and moderates the effect of social values on travel satisfaction.

This study applies the social capital theory to identify the value gained by sharing travel experiences and empirically evaluates the impact of these values on the overall value of sharing travel experiences. This study also contributes to tourism research by examining the moderated mediating role of onsite mobile sharing behaviour in improving travel satisfaction. This study helps destination marketing to make strategies to motivate tourists to use mobile technology to share their travel experiences while travelling.

This study explores tourist loyalty as a key for marketing Muslim destinations by integrating experience quality, innovation, smart technology and environmental concerns as determinants.

A quantitative research approach was applied by gathering data from 442 inbound Muslim tourists who visited various tourist destinations in Indonesia. PLS-SEM was utilized to examine the hypothesized association between the construct variables.

The data analysis reveals that the inclusion of smart technology and environmental concerns strengthens the innovation-quality-loyalty model. Specifically, this study highlights that smart tourism technology, and environmental concerns are essential to drive the quality of destination innovation and tourist holistic experience, which subsequently impact tourist loyalty.

This study provides hints to the marketing managers of Muslim tourist destinations to make their destination sustainable by creating loyalty among their Muslim visitors. In order to achieve this target, Muslim destinations are suggested to utilize smart technology and create environmentally friendly destinations to push innovation.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first examination of the amalgamating innovation-quality-loyalty model with smart tourism technology and environmental concerns in the context of halal tourism.

Brand gestalt has emerged as a crucial concept in marketing and branding, denoting the holistic perception and overall impression that consumers develop about a brand. This concept gains significance as it serves to measure the overall identity of a brand. Despite its importance, both empirical and theoretical exploration of this concept remains limited, particularly in the context of place branding. The present study aims to bridge the theoretical gap surrounding the interplay between brand gestalt, tourist attitude and loyalty within the city branding domain. In particular, it aims to comprehensively explore the dimensional impact of city brand gestalt (CBG) on tourist attitude, satisfaction and loyalty.

The primary data were collected through a self-administered online questionnaire containing 35 items, developed and adapted from the literature review. A total of 314 samples of Bitung City visitors were recruited, resulting in a 79% response rate. Structural equation modeling was performed using SmartPLS 3 to validate the research hypotheses.

The findings of the study indicate that CBG has a substantial and positive influence on tourist attitudes, satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, it was discovered that tourist attitude and satisfaction play a partial mediating role in the relationship between CBG and tourist loyalty.

This study is a seminal contribution to understanding the link between CBG, tourist attitude, satisfaction and loyalty. It offers valuable insights for city destination management in designing strategies and interventions to foster positive tourist attitudes, increase satisfaction and sustain loyalty. In particular, it emphasizes the necessity of ongoing investments in maintaining a positive holistic brand experience (i.e., brand gestalt) that aligns with evolving expectations. The study highlights the need to develop a compelling narrative and consistent messaging tailored to the target audience's values and aspirations. Additionally, it underscores the importance of providing exceptional sensory experiences that appeal to the target audience.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is among the first to examine the role of brand gestalt in the context of city branding. Understanding the holistic interaction of the four brand gestalt elements – story, sensescape, servicescape and stakeholders – is crucial for fostering tourists' positive attitudes, satisfaction and loyalty toward urban destinations. The proposed CBG model offers a conceptual framework to guide future research in city branding.

This study delves into the intricate relationship between specific positive and negative emotions experienced by tourists during their vacations and the corresponding emotion regulation strategies they employ. Drawing from emotion regulation theory, we examine the nuanced impact of various strategies on tourists' emotional experiences, thereby advancing our understanding of emotion dynamics in the context of tourism.

Data were gathered through an online survey and travel diaries, subsequently analyzed using linear mixed-effects models.

Our findings underscore that emotion regulation strategies exert a significant influence on both positive and negative emotions. Furthermore, we identified that different strategies correlate uniquely with specific emotions. For instance, the deployment of Expressive Suppression, Savoring, and Stimulus Control strategies notably amplifies the intensity of joy.

This study recommends that tourism managers design experiences that evoke positive emotions through curated sensory cues, storytelling, and stress-free service offerings. Tourism managers should prioritize stress-free services, guide tourists in expressing themselves, and train service providers to manage emotions effectively, thus promoting positive emotional interactions and improving overall customer satisfaction.

Theoretically, this research enriches the emotion regulation literature by contextualizing it within the tourism domain, highlighting the differential effects of regulation strategies on diverse emotional experiences. From a practical standpoint, these insights can guide practitioners in crafting targeted marketing strategies and empower tourists with knowledge to select optimal strategies for enhancing their emotional well-being during vacations.