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This paper aims to assess the sense-of-community role in affecting young Muslim loyalty towards Muslim-majority tourism destinations. Specifically, this research assesses the sense of community dimension in the halal tourism context and evaluates its effects on destination satisfaction, image and loyalty.

This research used a quantitative approach by using data from 376 young Indonesian Muslim tourists with past travel experiences to destinations where Muslims are the majority. The dimension of the sense of community was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis. The association between variables was tested using partial least square-structural equation modelling.

The finding exhibits three notable sense of community dimensions: membership, influence and need fulfilment and emotional connection. Emotional connection shapes, directly and indirectly, destination loyalty, while influence and need fulfilment affect destination loyalty by satisfaction and destination image mediating role. Lastly, membership has no impact on developing destination loyalty.

This study offers tourism destinations in Muslim-majority countries an opportunity to draw and create loyalty among young Muslim tourists. Besides offering superior halal services and products, Muslim-majority tourism destinations need to develop young Muslim tourists' emotional connection to the destinations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical examination of the sense of community's role in influencing tourist loyalty, specifically in halal tourism.

This paper seeks to revisit the interrelationship among tourists’ perceived value of the destination, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty in the heritage tourism site of Hoi An. In addition, the moderating role of tourists’ perceived crowding, which has become remarkably common at the site, in such a triangle relationship will also be explored. In other words, this study aims to validate an extended model of perceived value – tourist satisfaction – destination loyalty – perceived crowding.

The study collects data from 403 tourists who visited Hoi An during peak season through an online questionnaire. The data were later analysed using AMOS and Warp partial least squares.

The results validate the significant and positive correlation among perceived value, customer satisfaction and destination loyalty. Also, perceived crowding was confirmed to affect the relationship among these three variables negatively. In terms of academic contributions, this paper empirically proved that low levels of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among tourists who highly value their visiting experience at World Heritage Sites (WHS) can be caused by perceived crowding.

So far, current literature has investigated the direct (either positive or negative) relationship between perceived crowding and post-visit behaviours of tourists (Nie et al., 2022; Papadopoulou, Ribeiro, & Prayag, 2023; Stemmer, Gjerald, & Øgaard, 2022). Broadening this area of research, the authors of this paper used the social interference theory and the stimulus-overload theory to explain the low level of tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among tourists who highly value their visiting experience at WHS.

Based on a stimulus–organism–response theory, the purpose of this study is to empirically examine structural equation model linking personal involvement, positive emotions, tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty among sport tourists to a mega sport event. Moreover, moderating effects of place attachment on the relation between the aforementioned variables were investigated.

The validities and reliabilities of the measures were investigated through confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha and correlation analysis. A structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was tested to analyze the relationships among the research variables using 383 participants.

The results revealed positive associations among stimulus (personal involvement), organism (positive emotions) and response (tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty). Moreover, the authors found moderating effect of place attachment on the relationships between personal involvement and positive emotions, personal involvement and tourist satisfaction and tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty.

This study holds the potential to aid destination managers in acquiring a more profound comprehension of how personal involvement contributes to elicit positive emotions, keep tourists satisfied and build destination loyalty as well as demonstrating the moderating roles of place attachment. However, generalizing the findings to alternative contexts presents a formidable challenge. Enhancing the applicability of these findings could be achieved through prospective research endeavors that explore visitors in diverse cities spanning various continents.

The study contributed to the literature by providing empirical evidence that personal involvement evokes positive emotions while also plays significant role in improving satisfaction and loyalty. Given the importance of experiences in sport tourism, this study also confirmed the role of positive emotions on tourist satisfaction and destination loyalty. Additionally, this study examined the moderating effect of place attachment, which has not been investigated in sport tourism context.

This paper seeks to understand the interrelationships between destination attractiveness, satisfaction, attachment and visitors' loyalty and to determine the potential moderating effect of generational cohorts. Using expectancy disconfirmation and generational cohort theories, the paper explains how visitors' cognitive knowledge and motivation factors influence international visitors' attraction and maintenance and their behavioral/attitudinal loyalty.

Data were collected from 390 international visitors to South Africa during the Southern Hemisphere's summertime via a quantitative research method. A two-stage approach of structural equation modeling was used to analyze the hypothesized model.

There was no relationship between visitors' loyalty and destination image or destination image and destination trust. However, destination image has a significant effect on visitors' satisfaction. Additionally, visitors' experience had a positive effect on satisfaction and loyalty, while destination trust and destination attachment were positively related.

The findings show that the tourism sector could reap greater benefits from international tourists if a deeper understanding of different generational cohorts was obtained. There was a varying effect of destination marketing organizations' efforts on different generational cohorts' attraction, trust, satisfaction, feelings and expectations. This study proposes that direct marketing organizations should focus on building brand trust, as it is key to attracting different generational cohorts. Lastly, the study found that generational cohort segmentation accrues many benefits and creates and enhances superior advantages.

The paper provides evidence that more than a destination's attractiveness is required to achieve loyalty; segmenting and understanding different generational cohorts' cognitive, affective and motivation aids in generating better response actions to tourists' changing needs and meeting their demands.

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.

The main objective of this research is to establish an integrated model of gastronomy tourism to help some of the main public and private stakeholders design strategies to improve tourists' gastronomic experience and satisfaction, taking gastronomic motivations as a starting point. Furthermore, the difference between destination satisfaction and gastronomic satisfaction has been established in order to determine the degree to which each one influences loyalty towards the destination.

After detailing the theoretical framework for the development of the hypotheses, the study was carried out using a quantitative methodology based on structural equation modelling (SEM). The final sample consisted of 710 tourists who visited Córdoba, Spain – a world heritage city of international renown.

Results indicate that gastronomic motivations, gastronomic experience and destination satisfaction have a direct influence on loyalty towards a destination. Also, destination satisfaction is found to play a mediating role in the relationship between gastronomic experience and loyalty towards the destination. Differences between destination and gastronomic satisfaction have been evidenced. For fostering a tourist's loyalty towards a destination, gastronomic satisfaction alone is not enough; other elements inherent to the destination itself are necessary for full loyalty, whether attitudinal or behavioural.

Correctly identifying tourist motivations can help managers of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) to develop tailored marketing and communication campaigns that boost return visits to the destination or recommendations to family and friends. DMOs need to be aware that DMOs cannot overlook elements such as safety, hospitality or destination cleanliness at the expense of gastronomic satisfaction.

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.

Following an experiential marketing approach, this study addresses whether customer destination-based experiences (CDBE) affect tourists’ loyalty and emotions and if positive and negative emotions mediate this relationship. Hence, this study aims to verify the role positive and negative emotions play in the link between CDBE and tourists’ loyalty in a safe and joyful tourism destination in Europe.

A conceptual model was tested using data collected from tourists visiting the Algarve region, a mature seaside tourism destination in southern Portugal. The relationships implicit in the model were tested through the partial least squares structural equation modelling method.

The findings highlight that positive and negative tourist’s emotional responses mediate the relationship between CDBE and loyalty. Moreover, tourists’ experience and loyalty are influenced by their positive and negative emotions. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

Leveraged on extant research gaps, this study contributes to deepening the existing tourism literature by discussing whether CDBE affect tourists’ loyalty and emotions and whether these positive and negative emotions mediate that relationship in the context of a highly appraised touristic destination in Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hard and soft measures of service quality and visitors' satisfaction, which ultimately contribute to visitor loyalty to the destination, specifically in the context of the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) in Sibu, Sarawak (Malaysia).

The study uses a quantitative research approach with 427 valid responses from domestic and international tourists of BCF and employs the cognitive-affective-conative theory to examine how the festival impacts visitor loyalty.

The findings indicate that both hard and soft measures significantly contribute to the service quality and visitor satisfaction at the BCF. Additionally, service quality and visitor satisfaction were found to positively influence destination loyalty, while the relationship between legibility and visitor satisfaction was not significant.

The findings encourage the ministry and event organisers to adopt a destination event strategy that positions Sibu as an attractive event destination capable of attracting domestic and international tourists.

The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge on event tourism and destination loyalty by applying the cognitive-affective-conative theory. This study marks the first of its kind, analysing both the tangible (hard) and intangible (soft) measures of service quality and their impact on visitor satisfaction, ultimately influencing visitor loyalty to the destination, particularly in the context of the BCF in Sibu, Sarawak.

This study aims to look into and evaluate a sustainability-based destination loyalty model that takes into account how people perceive the urban destination in alignment with represented concept of sustainable tourism.

Using a convenience sampling technique, 414 questionnaires were sent out to nonresident tourists (outside Bandung city) in Indonesia using online survey platforms and analyzed with the structural equation model method.

Socioeconomic image, cultural image and environmental image all have a beneficial effect on tourists’ satisfaction levels. Furthermore, tourist satisfaction has a direct impact on destination loyalty. When it comes to tourists’ loyalty to a particular destination, only the degree to which they were satisfied moderated the influence of socioeconomic, cultural and environmental images.

The research sample exclusively comprised tourists hailing from Indonesia, a developing nation. Subsequent studies may evaluate tourists from various nations to obtain a more precise comprehension of the tourist population.

Authorities and destination organizations should periodically examine tourists to get a feel for how they feel about a destination’s sustainability, so they can adjust policies as needed to keep tourism there viable over the long term.

This study aims to fill a significant gap in the existing literature by examining the impact of sustainable practices and initiatives on tourists’ satisfaction to an urban destination. The examination of the relationship between efforts to promote sustainability and destination loyalty can offer valuable insights for destination managers and policymakers who aim to improve long-term tourist relationships.