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1 – 10 of 137Bestoon Abdulmaged Othman, Amran Harun, Nuno Marques De Almeida and Zana Majed Sadq
With growing mobility in a globalized world and an estimate of more than 300 million people going on religious pilgrimages every year, various researchers have been focusing on…
Abstract
Purpose
With growing mobility in a globalized world and an estimate of more than 300 million people going on religious pilgrimages every year, various researchers have been focusing on pilgrimage-driven travel services. In this context and within the Islamic religious tradition, the “Umrah” is used as a case study in this paper. In addition, this study also investigated the effects of Umrah SMM (promotion, place, people, product, price, process, physical evidence, marketing communication and after sale service) on customer satisfaction and loyalty toward Umrah travel agents in “Malaysia.”
Design/methodology/approach
Convenience sampling technique at four international airports in “Malaysia” was used to obtain data from Umrah travelers who had used Umrah services at least once. A total of 384 usable questionnaires were collected from this study and the data were analyzed using the partial least square.
Findings
The result indicated that the marketing mix has a significant positive effect on customer loyalty through customer satisfaction both directly and indirectly. This study will be of interest to the Umrah travel industry, for Malaysia and all the other countries, in understanding how marketing mix strategies are essential in maintaining a long-term relationship with customers.
Originality/value
The literature on Umrah travel services revealed that the traditional service marketing mix (SMM) of 7P’s is inadequate. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap and examine an innovative service marketing mix strategy for “Umrah Service” including marketing communication and after sales service. It investigates the effects of enhanced Umrah SMM on customer satisfaction and loyalty towards Umrah travel agents in “Malaysia”.
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Ali Mursid and Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu
This study aims to elucidate customer participation and value co-creation in enhancing customer loyalty in the context of Umrah travelers. First, it identifies the antecedents of…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to elucidate customer participation and value co-creation in enhancing customer loyalty in the context of Umrah travelers. First, it identifies the antecedents of Umrah travelers’ participation including service brand image, service employee performance and willingness to customize. Second, this study explores the impact of Umrah travelers’ participation in Umrah travelers’ loyalty. Finally, it explores co-creation value (hedonic, refreshment and price) and Umrah travelers’ satisfaction emerging in the relationship between Umrah travelers’ participation and Umrah travelers’ loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey draws its respondents from Umrah participants in Central Java Province, Indonesia, using the purposive sampling method with 459 samples. Data analysis used confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results reveal that service brand image, service employee performance and willingness to customize significantly affect Umrah travelers’ participation. Umrah travelers’ participation has an insignificant effect on Umrah travelers’ loyalty; conversely, Umrah travelers’ participation has a significant effect on co-creation value (hedonic value, refreshment and price). Only the price of the co-creation value has a significant effect on Umrah travelers’ loyalty, while hedonic value and refreshment value do not. Finally, Umrah travelers’ participation directly affects Umrah travelers’ satisfaction, and, in turn, Umrah travelers’ satisfaction impacts Umrah travelers’ loyalty.
Originality/value
This study attempts to elucidate the theory of customer participation and value co-creation in the Umrah travelers setting. It identifies the factor determiner of customer participation from the professional aspects of the company, namely, service brand image, service employee performance and willingness to customize. This study explored the importance of value co-creation and customer satisfaction in enhancing customer loyalty.
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Diin Fitri Ande, Sari Wahyuni and Ratih Dyah Kusumastuti
This study aims to fill several gaps in the literature. First, it examines the Umrah industry from the supply side, investigating the pivotal factors for travel agencies’…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to fill several gaps in the literature. First, it examines the Umrah industry from the supply side, investigating the pivotal factors for travel agencies’ performance. Second, it empirically investigates service leaders’ competencies specific to the hospital and tourism industry. Third, it clarifies whether there is a direct impact of organisational service orientation on business performance. Fourth, it explores the influence of network capabilities in a service context, specifically in travel agencies, which has rarely been discussed.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a mixed-method study with sequential explanatory research design. First, a quantitative approach was conducted with 150 authorised travel agencies in Indonesia, with two manager-level employees representing each agency. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling. A qualitative study was conducted to enrich the findings by interviewing the Director of Umrah and Hajj Development of the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia and three other respondents.
Findings
Service leaders’ competencies and resource capacity significantly influence organisational service orientation, leading to enhanced perceived service quality and performance. In addition, resource capacity influences network capabilities, improving performance.
Originality/value
This study identifies factors affecting the performance of Umrah travel agencies in an intensely competitive environment, which has rarely been discussed. This sheds light on how travel agencies can survive and succeed in this competitive industry. Moreover, this study provides evidence regarding the role of network capabilities in the tourism industry and the impact of organisational service orientation, both directly and indirectly, on performance.
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Aishath Muneeza and Zakariya Mustapha
There is a misconception that Hajj and Umarah is just a worship matter and the consequences of suspending these religious gathering due to the pandemic is only limited to delay of…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a misconception that Hajj and Umarah is just a worship matter and the consequences of suspending these religious gathering due to the pandemic is only limited to delay of going Saudi Arabia to perform it. However, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the impact of the pandemic in Hajj and Umrah by exploring its impact on different stakeholders affecting its disruption due to the pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a library-based study that uses qualitative method to explore the impact of COVID-19 on Hajj and Umrah. Thus, provisions of Quran and hadith on Hajj and Umrah were examined as primary data for the research to establish the importance of the rituals in Islam. Guidelines set by Hajj regulators and instruments enabling them in that behalf were examined likewise. In addition, content analyses were made of relevant secondary data from published sources including articles, books, newspapers and web resources that embody scholarly, scientific and religious views on the issue being studied.
Findings
It is realised that in the first year of the pandemic, while Umrah is entirely suspended, Hajj was scaled back and performed by 10,000 people altogether, a tiny segment of the over two and half million that partook in the ritual previously. Hajj and Umrah have been greatly inhibited and jeopardised by the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in religious, social, economic, psychological effects on the eligible but affected Muslims and Muslims countries. Along these lines, recommendations were accordingly proffered on the way forward to better Hajj and Umrah management.
Originality/value
It is anticipated that the findings of the research would assist policy makers to comprehend the impact of the pandemic on Hajj and Umrah to ensure that the policies they make in this regard would adequately cover every aspect affecting the stakeholders which is deliberated in this research. It is also expected that the recommendations provided in this paper will assist stakeholders of Hajj and Umrah to grasp the importance of taking precautions for any crisis similar to COVID-19 when it happens.
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Islam Elgammal, Ghada Talat Alhothali and Annarita Sorrentino
Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan…
Abstract
Purpose
Umrah is a religious ritual that takes place inside the Holy Mosque in Makkah. Umrah can be performed any time during the year; however, performing Umrah in the month of Ramadan is much rewarded. Although the kingdom of Saudi Arabia is hosting this event each year, studies that focus on exploring the Holy Mosque visitor segments are scarce. This study aims to explore and describe the marketing segments of Umrah performers relative to their Umrah experience inside the Holy Mosque of Makkah. Most specifically, this study aims to explore segments of Umrah performers based on their perception of servicescape, hedonic and convenience value and the visitors’ outcome behaviors [i.e. intention to revisit and positive word of mouth (PWOM)].
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed-method techniques of data collection [i.e. self-administered questionnaires (n = 278) and short discussions (n = 10)] were used.
Findings
Cluster analysis is used for data analysis. The findings revealed four clusters of Umrah performers: real, occasional, rational and passionate performers.
Research limitations/implications
This study is a first attempt to target pilgrims based on their experience with the servicescape during the organized religious event; despite its exploratory nature, it reveals interesting insights that will be useful for managers and scholars. Although the study helps to enrich the existing knowledge on visitors’ experience and proposes some implications for practitioners, it does have some limitations. First, convenience sampling was used, and hence the findings cannot be generalized. Second, the limited period of observation did not allow the authors to provide a complete picture of the pilgrims’ behavior; for this reason, the study findings partially describe the phenomenon. Another limitation is related to the difficulty of approaching respondents from Asia or South East Asia although they constitute a significant percentage of the total Umrah performers every year; this is because of the language barrier as data was collected from only English and Arabic speakers. Hence, to overcome these limitations, it is suggested that future studies could be expanded to target Asian respondents and perhaps other nationalities; and could be undertaken in other religious contexts. Moreover, an interesting future study could be carried out to compare the same model during other religious events. Added to that, another growing area of research could be approached by researchers, such as the impact of pilgrims sharing their experiences on influencing E-PWOM.
Practical implications
The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders. The segmentation of Umrah performers assists destination managers, policymakers and local firms involved in managing this mass event to identify effective marketing decision-makers, business strategies and policymakers to satisfy the needs of these visitors (Disegna et al., 2011). Particularly, the identification of the key characteristics of these visitors can help destination marketers to develop a marketing mix that suits the needs of each cluster (Smith et al., 2014). Despite that the performers’ main motivation is the religious purpose, marketing strategists can attract the attention of these visitors to visit other religious, cultural and heritage sites in the country.
Social implications
Encouraging the visit to other tourist spots in Saudi has several impacts on nourishing the economy and the community. Tourism in Saudi could encourage entrepreneurs to start new ventures to satisfy the need of visitors to the country. Small-medium enterprises could benefit from tourism as they could target market niches in which leader companies are not serving. For instance, hand-made souvenirs are one of these industries that could grow to satisfy the need of visitors.
Originality/value
The results contribute to the literature of event segmentation by identifying visitors’ profiles to rarely investigated destinations. The findings reveal several implications for policymakers and stakeholders.
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Yudha Dwi Nugraha and Yulia Arisnani Widyaningsih
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between expectations of umrah visit, the two dimensions of motivation for umrah visit and attitude toward umrah visit using the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationship between expectations of umrah visit, the two dimensions of motivation for umrah visit and attitude toward umrah visit using the expectation, motivation and attitude (EMA) model. The study aims to expand the domain of religious tourism and destination marketing by including the moderating role of gender and religiosity on the EMA model to investigate the pre-visit stage of Indonesian Muslim pilgrims.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey for 299 potential Muslim pilgrims was conducted to test nine hypotheses. A multi-group moderation test with chi-square differences was conducted to test the moderation effect of gender and religiosity on the model. The construct of motivation begins with an open question.
Findings
The paper provides empirical insights on how the interrelationship between EMA. The results indicate that umrah visit expectations and umrah visit motivations have a significant positive relationship with the attitude toward umrah visit. Moreover, this study concludes that gender significantly moderates the relationship between umrah visit expectations and attitude toward umrah visit. Religiosity significantly moderates the relationship between umrah visit expectations and umrah visit motivations.
Research limitations/implications
The authors discovered three limitations. First, the construction of the research model only added two moderation variables in the EMA model. Second, many Muslim pilgrims have other situations that influence their decision to perform umrah. Third, although this study gathers Muslim pilgrims from all regions in Indonesia, fairly small sample size can influence the generalization of findings.
Practical implications
Managers should be focusing more on accommodating the religious needs of Muslim pilgrims. Although there was no gender difference in the relationship between expectations and motivations, managers still must be careful in creating and carrying out umrah programs and activities. To capture the market for male Muslims, priority should be given to promoting aspects of the culture and history of Islam when performing an umrah. Considering the important role of religiosity for market segmentation and to capture the market of Muslim pilgrims with low religiosity is by focusing more on the aspects of religious and spiritual motivation when performing umrah.
Social implications
By increasing umrah’s visit, umrah is now more in demand by the Muslim community because it is not only an alternate pilgrimage but also to improve the spiritual and religious individual and family. This is coupled with the increasing number of umrah travel agents and people’s lifestyles that make umrah a holiday choice with colleagues and family. With these advantages, prospective Indonesian Muslim pilgrims must be more selective and look for a broad range of information about umrah departures because many umrah travel agents do not yet have a permit and offer a cheap umrah departure. Also, prospective Muslim pilgrims must prepare themselves better by studying the terms and pillars of Umrah.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature on tourism marketing and religious tourism research by comparing gender and religiosity on EMA model.
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Cedric Hsi-Jui Wu and Ali Mursid
This paper aims to investigate how motivation aspects including expected organizational rewards (EOR) and enjoyment in helping others (EHO) drive umrah travelers’ participation…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate how motivation aspects including expected organizational rewards (EOR) and enjoyment in helping others (EHO) drive umrah travelers’ participation. Furthermore, it verifies the effect of umrah travelers’ participation on loyalty and assesses the perceived value and umrah travelers’ satisfaction emerging in this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey uses the purposive sampling method. Data analysis uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling with a total sample of 438 umrah travelers.
Findings
The results show that EOR and EHO affect umrah travelers’ participation; umrah travelers’ participation has a direct effect on umrah travelers’ loyalty; and all the relationships between umrah travelers’ participation, perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty are significant.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the theory of religious tourism particularly in identifying the motivation aspects as the antecedents of umrah travelers’ participation beyond religiosity. Furthermore, this study provides the theory of umrah travelers’ participation and loyalty and proposes that perceived value and satisfaction emerge in this relationship.
目的
本研究框架调查了动机方面的内容, 包括预期的组织奖励(EOR)和帮助他人的愉悦感(EHO)是如何推动朝圣旅游者的参与的。 此外, 它验证了朝圣旅游者参与对忠诚度的影响, 并评估了这种关系中出现的感知价值, 以及朝圣旅行者的满意度。
设计/方法/途径
调查采用目的抽样方法。 共收集了438位朝圣旅游者的样本, 采用验证性因素分析和结构方程模型进行数据分析。
发现
结果表明, EOR和EHO影响朝圣旅游者的参与; 朝圣旅游者的参与会直接影响朝圣旅游者的忠诚度; 朝圣旅游者的参与、感知的价值、满意度和忠诚度之间的所有关系都很显著。
独创性/值
这项研究为宗教旅游学理论做出了贡献, 特别是在确定动机方面, 是超越宗教信仰来讨论朝圣旅行者参与度的先驱研究。 此外, 这项研究提供了朝圣旅游者的参与和忠诚度的理论, 并提出在这种关系中出现了感知的价值和满意度。
Propósito
Este trabajo investiga cómo los aspectos motivacionales, incluidas las recompensas organizacionales esperadas (EOR) y el placer de ayudar a otros (EHO), impulsan la participación de los viajeros “umrah”. Además, verifica el efecto de la participación de dichos viajeros sobre la lealtad y evalúa el valor percibido y satisfacción, que emerge en esta relación.
Diseño/metodología/enfoque
La encuesta utiliza el método de muestreo intencional. El análisis de los datos, emplea análisis factorial confirmatorio y modelos de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM), sobre una muestra total de 438 viajeros “umrah”.
Resultados
Los resultados arrojan que, EOR y EHO afectan a la participación de los viajeros “umrah”; Que la participación de dichos viajeros tiene un efecto directo en la lealtad de los mismos; y todas las relaciones entre la participación de los viajeros de “umrah”, el valor percibido, la satisfacción y la lealtad son significativas.
Originalidad/valor
Este estudio contribuye al turismo religioso y sus teorías, particularmente en la identificación de los aspectos de motivación y los antecedentes de la participación de los viajeros “umrah”, más allá de la propia religiosidad. Además, este estudio proporciona a la literature, el análisis sobre la participación y lealtad de los viajeros “umrah”, y propone que el valor percibido y la satisfacción de los mismos, sean elementos a considerer en esta relación.
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Prida Ariani Ambar Astuti, Antonius Widi Hardianto, M. Sarofi Sahrul Romadhon and Roel P. Hangsing
This study aims to examine the strategy of TV9 Nusantara, one of the local televisions in Indonesia, marketing its religious programs when soap operas are the most popular…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the strategy of TV9 Nusantara, one of the local televisions in Indonesia, marketing its religious programs when soap operas are the most popular television programs in Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a descriptive qualitative method by collecting data using in-depth interviews, observation and documentation.
Findings
TV9 Nusantara used a counter-programming strategy to seize viewers from the competing television stations; the prime time is also set differently from other televisions as well as implements a head-sterling strategy to make the audiences loyal to watching TV9 Nusantara programs and not switch the channels.
Research limitations/implications
In Indonesia, three types of television stations are broadcast nationally, publicly or government-owned, central and regional and local television. This study only focused on local television stations whose main program is religious, especially Islam.
Practical implications
The results of this study can underline the importance of establishing segmentation, targets, differentiation and market positioning as well as efforts to create products, prices, places and promotions for journalistic products, especially TV broadcast products and production processes that follow Sharia principles.
Social implications
This study can inform the public regarding TV Broadcasting products and production processes following Sharia principles.
Originality/value
This study examined the implementation of marketing strategies and the marketing mix on local television, especially television that broadcasts programs that are not the favorites of most viewers.
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Ghada Talat Alhothali, Felix Mavondo and Islam Elgammal
In recent days, there has been an increasing interest towards achieving sustainable tourism objectives globally and specifically in Saudi Arabia. The benefits can be maximized if…
Abstract
Purpose
In recent days, there has been an increasing interest towards achieving sustainable tourism objectives globally and specifically in Saudi Arabia. The benefits can be maximized if the government is successful in attracting current pilgrims and influence their future intention to revisit the country as tourists. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to measure pilgrims’ revisit intentions to understand more about the possibility of their potential contribution towards the Saudi tourism and hospitality industry in the evolving circumstances.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper uses configuration theory to identify the “ideal” type of the pilgrims and compares this to the rest to establish if they differ and if that difference matters. Data were collected from 278 visitors to the Holy Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, to perform Umrah.
Findings
The findings show that a large deviation from the “ideal pilgrim” is negatively related to revisiting intentions and dissemination of positive word of mouth (PWOM).
Research limitations/implications
The development of profiles gives a better understanding of organizations or people across several dimensions looked at holistically. Fundamental to the theory is that there are only a limited number of configurations that achieve optimal performance (however defined).
Originality/value
The analytical approach adopted in this paper leads to achieving verbal and statistical correspondence in tests of “gestalts”. The interest is in establishing whether this difference matters to intentions to revisit and providing PWOM.
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Agartha Quayson, Kassimu Issau, Robert Ipiin Gnankob and Samira Seidu
The study investigated the effect of marketing communications’ dimensions on brand loyalty in the banking sector.
Abstract
Purpose
The study investigated the effect of marketing communications’ dimensions on brand loyalty in the banking sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted the quantitative research approach which relied on the explanatory design due to the nature of the hypotheses tested. The convenience sampling technique was used to pull 377 customers of a branch of a commercial bank in Ghana. Furthermore, the PLS-SEM technique was deployed to assess the measurement model and test the research hypotheses.
Findings
Results show that the following dimensions of marketing communications are significant predictors of brand loyalty: direct marketing, public relations and sales promotion. The exception is advertising, which had an inverse relation with brand loyalty.
Practical implications
The results provide significant pointers to banks’ management that they should deploy a variety of marketing communication channels other than intensive advertising to reach and persuade customers.
Originality/value
The study illustrates the latest effort to extensively provide insights into how commercial banks could leverage marketing communication tools to sustain loyalty in an emerging economy that is intensively competitive.
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