Profitability structure of tourist companies during and after crises

This study investigates the mediating roles of green agile workforce and organizational intelligence in the relationship between organizational learning and green competitive advantage in the tourism-hospitality industry. The study is strategically positioned within the context of SDGs and Saudi Arabia's national priorities for research, development, and innovation under Vision 2030. To investigate these behavioral mechanisms, we employed a quantitative, cross-sectional design, gathering data from 482 frontline and managerial employees operating within Saudi Arabia's travel agencies and international hotels. The structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed a compelling dynamic: organizational learning not only exerts a direct positive effect on green competitive advantage, but it also critically drives green agile workforce and organizational intelligence. The results also indicated that organizational learning has a positive effect on green competitive advantage and green agile workforce, as well as organizational intelligence. Furthermore, we have also discovered that green agile workforce and organizational intelligence are the partial mediators in the association of organizational learning with green competitive advantage. This research extends prior evidence by providing empirical proof that green agile workforce and organizational intelligence operate as key workplace behavioral mechanisms through which organizational learning is translated into green competitive advantage. In doing so, the study reframes sustainability not only as a strategic or technological issue but as a matter of how employees behave, communicate, and coordinate around green objectives inside tourism and hospitality organizations. The results offer a validated framework for tourism enterprises to align their leadership practices, internal communication patterns, and learning structures with Saudi Arabia's economic diversification and sustainability goals, demonstrating how cultivating learning-driven, behaviorally agile workplaces directly contributes to advancing national vision objectives and the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Tourism management has become one of the most important contributors to economic development in many regions around the world. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, tourism has experienced significant growth due to the region’s natural landscapes, historical attractions, cultural diversity, and increasing investment in tourism infrastructure. The purpose of this quantitative research study is to examine the modern dimensions of tourism management and their role in promoting economic progress in the Kurdistan Region. The study investigates how strategic tourism planning, digital tourism marketing, tourism infrastructure, service quality, and government support influence economic development indicators such as employment generation, investment growth, business expansion, and regional income improvement. A quantitative research design was adopted using a structured questionnaire distributed among tourism sector employees, hotel managers, travel agencies, tourism officials, and visitors in the Kurdistan Region. A total of 250 questionnaires were collected and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analysis were employed to examine relationships between tourism management dimensions and economic progress. The findings revealed strong positive relationships between modern tourism management practices and economic progress.

This study examines the strategic mechanisms that drive traditional travel agencies to pivot their business models in response to relentless digital disintermediation. By integrating Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic and Dynamic Capabilities theory, the research evaluates how internal orientations and collaborative processes enable traditional intermediaries to reclaim market relevance as Experience Architects. Using a quantitative research design, data were collected from 200 owners, directors, and senior managers of traditional travel agencies across Indonesia's primary tourism hubs. To ensure statistical rigor, the sample size was validated using G*Power 3.1, confirming its adequacy for detecting medium effect sizes within the complex structural model. The proposed structural model was assessed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (SEM-PLS), supplemented by an Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA) to identify critical strategic priorities. The results demonstrate that while Digital Capability serves as a necessary operational foundation, it is not the primary driver of a strategic transformation. Instead, Value Co-Creation and Strategic Flexibility are found to be the dominant catalysts for a successful Business Model Pivot. Specifically, Value Co-Creation exerts a substantial influence, reinforcing the argument that a successful pivot is a relational achievement rooted in human-tech synergy rather than a purely technological one. Furthermore, the results confirm that a structured Business Model Pivot leads to a significant and sustained Competitive Advantage. This research contributes to the tourism management literature by providing a novel framework that bridges entrepreneurial intent with co-creative execution. It offers a practical roadmap for traditional travel agencies to transition from legacy ticketing brokers to specialized experience architects within a smarter tourism ecosystem.

The effects of information and individual difference factors on online travel agency consumers’ confusion and decision postponement: An integration of information processing theory and stressor-strain-outcome framework

The organization of Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage in Indonesia has both a sacred and strategic role for the religious sovereignty of society, but in practice it still faces problems of travel agency crimes and quota corruption that cause material and psychological losses for prospective pilgrims. This phenomenon indicates the urgency of optimizing national legal instruments through regulatory strengthening that is oriented not only toward punishing perpetrators but also toward holistic and comprehensive legal protection to ensure the fulfillment of citizens’ constitutional rights to perform worship with certainty and safety. This study aims to analyze asset recovery mechanisms in handling crimes related to the organization of Hajj and Umrah and to formulate juridical solutions for victim protection. This study used a normative juridical method with a statutory approach and a conceptual approach. Data were collected through literature study and analyzed descriptively-prescriptively with regard to legal norms, legal principles, and the synchronization of statutory regulations. The results show that the asset recovery mechanism under Law Number 31 of 1999 remains conventional and tends to be oriented toward the recovery of state finances, so it has not been able to provide fast and effective restitution for pilgrims who become victims because of lengthy and complex judicial procedures. This study recommends transforming the doctrine of asset recovery through the application of a non-conviction-based asset forfeiture mechanism and strengthening the role of authorities under Law Number 14 of 2025 so that assets derived from crime can be immediately seized and redistributed fairly to victims. The conclusion of the study emphasizes that strengthening asset recovery mechanisms and victim protection is an important prerequisite for realizing substantive justice in the organization of Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage.

Although product differentiation strategies in the Hajj and Umrah travel industry have received attention in several studies, research that specifically discusses the limited variety of products in affecting the competitiveness of travel agencies at the local level remains limited. This study aims to analyze the product differentiation strategy for Hajj and Umrah services in facing business competition at PT Bimalyndo Hajar Aswad Bukittinggi Branch. This study employed a qualitative approach with a case study design, involving informants consisting of the branch manager, employees, and pilgrims selected through a purposive sampling technique. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation, and were then analyzed using an interactive data analysis technique through the stages of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The findings showed that the company had implemented a differentiation strategy based on service quality, such as assured facilities, worship comfort, the use of local muthawif, and a more meaningful travel experience. However, the limited variety of products became the main factor hindering competitiveness and contributed to the decline in the number of pilgrims. These findings contribute to the development of differentiation theory by emphasizing the importance of integrating service quality and product innovation in the religious services industry. The conclusion of this study emphasizes the importance of developing product variety and strengthening marketing communication strategies to enhance the company’s competitiveness. The implications of this study include theoretical contributions to enriching the sharia marketing literature as well as practical implications for actors in the Hajj and Umrah industry in designing more effective differentiation strategies, while also opening opportunities for further research related to digital marketing strategies and service innovation based on pilgrims’ needs.

Labuan Bajo, designated as a super-priority tourism destination in Indonesia, possesses substantial potential for the development of culture-based tourism and the promotion of local products, particularly Manggarai coffee, which is deeply rooted in local traditions. Despite this potential, coffee-based products and experiences have not yet been systematically integrated into tourism offerings, highlighting the need for structured community service initiatives to strengthen coffee micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). This program was implemented through two main stages: identification and planning. The identification stage involved field observations and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) with coffee MSME actors, local government representatives, travel agents, and community members to map opportunities and challenges in developing coffee-based tourism. The planning stage focused on designing an integrated coffee tourism package, comprising a Coffee Plantation Tour Plan as an educational and cultural tourism experience that introduces visitors to coffee cultivation processes and Manggarai cultural values, as well as a Coffee Souvenir Shopping Plan to position local coffee as a flagship regional product. The results indicate that these planned concepts have the potential to enhance Labuan Bajo’s tourism attractiveness, increase the economic value of local coffee MSMEs, and reinforce local cultural identity. This community service activity has produced an initial design that can serve as a foundation for the development of coffee-based tourism, contributing to inclusive and sustainable local economic growth. Furthermore, future development should advance toward pilot implementation and impact evaluation, supported by strengthened stakeholder partnerships, capacity building, and digital tourism integration to improve market reach and global competitiveness.

AI-driven personalization (AIP) has become a core mechanism of digital commerce platforms, yet its psychological consequences remain theoretically fragmented. Drawing on the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework and Psychological Reactance Theory (PRT), this study proposes a Threat-Substitution Mechanism (TSM) to explain how AIP shapes continuance intention in high-involvement online travel decisions. Using survey data from 488 Generation Y and Z users of Chinese online travel agencies and analyzing the model via PLS-SEM, results show that AIP significantly increases usage intention (UI) and reduces psychological reactance. Psychological reactance partially mediates the relationship between AIP and UI, indicating the presence of underlying psychological friction alongside dominant utilitarian benefits. Furthermore, privacy concerns amplify the negative relationship between AIP and reactance, suggesting that privacy-sensitive users exhibit heightened appraisal sensitivity rather than uniform resistance to personalization. By reconceptualizing the personalization paradox as a context-contingent threat appraisal process, this study advances electronic commerce research beyond parallel dual-effect models and clarifies the boundary conditions under which AIP enhances or constrains user continuance. Practical implications highlight the importance of algorithmic precision and autonomy-supportive design in AI-enabled commerce platforms.

This study examines the increasing role of digital technology in shaping consumer behavior within the online travel industry, particularly the tendency toward impulse buying among users of online travel agents such as tiket.com. The rapid growth of internet usage and e-commerce in Indonesia has transformed how consumers plan and purchase travel services, often leading to spontaneous purchasing decisions influenced by various internal and external factors. This research aims to analyze the influence of personal factors and situational factors on impulse buying behavior, with online trust as a mediating variable. A quantitative descriptive approach with a cross-sectional design was employed, involving 275 respondents who had previously conducted transactions on tiket.com. Data were collected through online questionnaires and analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling with Partial Least Squares (SEM-PLS). The results indicate that impulse buying tendency, credit card usage, situational conditions, motivational activities, product attributes, scarcity, incidental information, and online trust significantly influence impulse buying. However, shopping pleasure and materialism do not show significant effects. Additionally, online trust successfully mediates the relationship between both personal and situational factors and impulse buying. In conclusion, both internal and external factors play crucial roles in shaping impulsive purchasing behavior, with online trust strengthening these relationships in the context of online tourism platforms.

Purpose This study aims to systematically evaluate the contexts, methodological diversity, and research themes in the use of neuroscientific measurements within travel–tourism literature for the period 2013–2025. Accordingly, it analyzes in which research themes, contexts, and methodological clusters the field's methodological transformation (the shift from self-report-based approaches to objective measurements) becomes evident. Design/methodology/approach The systematic review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA reporting guidelines. The literature search was conducted in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus (SC) databases; a pool of records was created by using tourism/travel-focused terms together with keywords representing neuroscientific measurement methods. A total of 104 records (WoS = 62; SC = 42) were identified. After removing duplicate records, 90 records remained. From these records, 57 publications, including articles, reviews, and conference proceedings published in English in the relevant subject area, were included in the title and abstract review phase. Following a review of titles and abstracts, the full texts of 35 publications deemed suitable were examined, and 27 publications were selected in the final systematic review. Due to methodological heterogeneity among the studies, the findings were integrated using a narrative-thematic synthesis approach. Findings The findings indicate that eye-tracking (ET) and electroencephalography (EEG) neuroscience tools are predominantly used in tourism travel research. Specifically, the ET method is used in the context of visual attention in decision-making processes, hotel choice, restaurant preferences, and online travel agencies. Furthermore, advertising and emotion have frequently been researched in the context of consumer behavior and travel experiences. Methodologically, the general trend highlights an increase in multi-measurement designs over the use of a single method and emphasizes the necessity of more robustly aligning measurements with theoretical mechanisms. Originality/value The study consolidates the neuro-tourism and tourism neuromarketing literature for the 2013–2025 period within a systematic framework, integrating methodological clusters, application contexts, and research themes according to a chronological developmental logic. Thus, it provides a methodological map for the objective measurement-based assessment of tourism behavior and develops actionable recommendations for future research.

Email communication plays a central role in professional interaction within the tourism and hospitality industry, where transactional efficiency must be balanced with interpersonal rapport. This study examines the interaction between genre structures and politeness strategies in authentic tourism-related emails. Drawing on Swales’ (1990) Genre Analysis Framework and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory, the study qualitatively analyzes eleven authentic emails exchanged between a Bali-based travel agency, hotel partners, and international clients. The analysis reveals a recurrent sequence of rhetorical moves, namely greeting, purpose statement, elaboration, request or confirmation, and closing, within which politeness strategies are systematically embedded. Positive politeness predominates through expressions of gratitude, inclusive pronouns, and affective tone, reflecting the service-oriented nature of hospitality communication. Negative politeness is employed to mitigate imposition in sensitive requests, while bald-on-record strategies occur in interactions characterized by established professional familiarity. These findings demonstrate that genre structures in tourism emails function not only as organizational frameworks but also as resources for relational work. The study contributes to English for Specific Purposes (ESP) by highlighting the pedagogical value of integrating genre-based instruction with pragmatic awareness to enhance learners’ intercultural and professional email communication competence in tourism and hospitality contexts.

Purpose With the growing shift from static images to dynamic media on online travel agency (OTA) platforms, homepage videos have emerged as a powerful tool for promoting tourism products. Drawing on mental imagery theory, this study examined how OTA homepage interface design, particularly the use of videos (versus static images), influences consumers' travel intentions and their downstream engagement with user reviews on OTA platforms. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 2 controlled experiments with a total of 210 participants, including an eye-tracking study, simulated realistic OTA browsing experiences to explain the effects on travel intentions and user review engagement. Findings The findings revealed that OTA homepage videos significantly increased travel intentions by evoking vivid, immersive mental imagery. Furthermore, video exposure altered review consumption patterns: attention to image-based reviews decreases, while engagement with text-based reviews intensifies. Originality/value This study contributes to the OTA interface design literature by demonstrating the persuasive impact of homepage videos and highlights mental imagery as a mediator between dynamic visual content and decision-making. The findings provide actionable insights for OTA platforms and tourism providers to optimize homepage design, enhance user experience, and drive booking conversions.

Industrial internships are a key component of vocational higher education, particularly in the tourism sector, as they bridge academic learning and workplace practice. However, students often encounter challenges when adapting to professional environments. This study aims to examine the psychological dynamics shaping students’ adaptation to industrial internships. This research adopts a small-scale qualitative interpretive approach based on in-depth structured interviews with 10 travel business students undertaking internships at travel agencies in Yogyakarta and Bali, Indonesia. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify recurring patterns in students’ experiences. The findings reveal two major thematic groups influencing adaptation: facilitators and barriers. Facilitating factors include supportive work environments, positive interpersonal relationships, and clear internship structures, which enhance students’ confidence and sense of belonging. In contrast, barriers such as unclear job instructions, strict organizational cultures, logistical constraints, and language challenges generate stress and hinder adjustment. The adaptation process generally unfolds over one to two months, with an initial phase of role clarification followed by deeper social and cultural integration into the workplace. These findings highlight the importance of organizational and psychological support in internship design. While limited in scale, this study provides insights into how tourism students navigate early professional experiences and underscores the need for structured and supportive internship environments in the tourism industry.

The rapid growth of digital technologies has transformed the tourism industry and increased the need for personalized recommendation systems to enhance user experience and business competitiveness. However, many small- and medium-scale travel agencies still rely on manual reservation processes and social media–based promotions, which limit service efficiency and personalization. This study designs and implements a web-based reservation and tourism recommendation system for Sumovacation Tour using a Content-Based Filtering approach enhanced with feature weighting and cosine similarity. The main novelty of this study lies in the feature weighting mechanism, which assigns different importance levels to package attributes such as activities, travel duration, package type, and budget, improving recommendation relevance compared to standard content-based methods. Data were collected from Google Maps reviews in 2025, resulting in approximately 300 rating and review entries. The recommendation engine computes weighted relevance scores from user preference tags and package metadata to generate personalized recommendations. System functionality was validated using Black Box Testing, where all core workflows successfully passed, while usability evaluation using the USE Questionnaire showed high user acceptance, with usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use each scoring 94.4%, and ease of learning reaching 95.2%. During testing, challenges related to data consistency and user input variation were addressed through input validation. The results show that the proposed system improves recommendation relevance while enhancing operational efficiency by reducing manual booking handling and supporting digital reservation management.

Travel planning has increasingly become complex due to the growing number of destinations, diverse user preferences, seasonal constraints, and the abundance of unstructured travel information. Conventional methods such as travel agencies, guidebooks, and informal recommendations often fail to deliver personalized and adaptive suggestions. To address these limitations, an intelligent hybrid machine learning (ML) framework was developed to provide personalized travel recommendations along with accurate experience rating predictions. The framework utilized a comprehensive dataset comprising user reviews, destination attributes, demographic details, and preference patterns. Data preprocessing was systematically performed, including label encoding (LE) of categorical features, term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) vectorization of textual reviews, and standardization of numerical attributes to ensure model efficiency and consistency. Multiple machine learning algorithms were implemented, including Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Classifier (SVC), and a hybrid model combining Extra Trees (ET) and Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP). The hybrid TREND-Net (Travel Recommendation using Extra Trees and Neural Network) model employs Extra Trees for feature selection (FS), identifying the most influential attributes, followed by a MultiLayer Perceptron classifier for predicting optimal travel destinations and corresponding experience ratings. This integrated approach enhanced both recommendation accuracy and prediction reliability. The performance of the models was evaluated using standard metrics such as accuracy (ACC), precision (PREC), recall (REC), and F1-score (F1), along with confusion matrix (CM) analysis, where the hybrid model demonstrated superior performance. An interactive graphical user interface (GUI) was developed to facilitate user interaction, enabling dataset management, exploratory data analysis (EDA), model training, and real-time personalized recommendations.

Chatbot applications have benefited not only individual users but also corporate users, such as travel trade specialists. This research examined the unique characteristics of chatbot applications and the ongoing adoption of chatbots by travel agencies that provide airline-related services in the Philippines. Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action, this study evaluated respondents' perceptions of how chatbot applications addressed aspects of trust and convenience. This addressed the empirical research gap on the use of trust and ubiquity as correlates of continuous use of chatbot applications, as well as the scope gap by analysing the perceptions of travel trade specialists, which is innovative given that previous studies focused on individual customers as end-users of chatbot applications. Using survey research among travel trade specialists, the study revealed that either chatbot trust or chatbot ubiquity correlates with continuous usage. The study found that travel trade companies are more likely to use chatbots continuously when they have higher levels of trust and perceive chatbots as ubiquitous. Specifically, trust in chatbots strongly influences the intention to use them consistently, as these companies rely on them to manage risks across their business processes. While both trust and ubiquity play significant roles in chatbot adoption, developers should recognize that travel trade companies prioritize trust when embracing technological applications like chatbots.

Escalation of consumer outrage: Unraveling the amplifying conditions driving online vengeance in online travel agencies

The aim of this study is to analyze how co-creation activities influence consumer behavior. The study is framed within the context of post-pandemic tourism recovery in emerging destinations, where traditional travel agencies face increasing challenges derived from digitalization and the growing tendency of tourists to independently plan their trips online. Specifically, it examines how these activities first improve perceived value and customer satisfaction, and how these improvements in turn strengthen customer loyalty, fostering long-term relationships between travel agencies and their customers. By addressing this chain of effects, the study responds to a relevant gap in the literature regarding the mechanisms through which value co-creation contributes to relationship sustainability in traditional tourism intermediaries. Drawing on the results of the conducted survey, based on primary data collected in Ecuador in 2023, the research examines the connection between co-creation, perceived value, customer satisfaction, and loyalty, while also identifying key motivationa l factors that influence co-creation in the tourism sector. The empirical analysis relies on a quantitative research design, using a structured questionnaire administered to 450 national and international tourists and analyzed through structural equation modeling. The findings show that co-creation plays a crucial role in increasing customer loyalty by directly impacting perceived value and satisfaction. The results further reveal that satisfaction acts as the main mediating variable in the relationship between cocreation and loyalty, while trust plays a complementary but less decisive role. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of customer involvement in service design to create personalized experiences. This effect is particularly relevant for a predominantly young and female customer profile, which characterizes the demand of travel agencies in the analyzed context. This study demonstrates that co-creation can give traditional travel agencies a competitive edge by enhancing customer loyalty, enabling personalized services, and fostering long-term relationships. From a theoretical perspective, the research contributes empirical evidence from an underexplored Latin American setting, while from a managerial standpoint it provides actionable insights for strengthening customer relationships in highly volatile, post-pandemic tourism markets. It also emphasizes the need for further research on the operational and economic impact of co-creation in the tourism industry.

The article presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of key trends in the development of the tourism services market and the activities of tourism organizations in the Krasnoyarsk region from 2014 to 2024, with a special focus on the impact of digital transformation processes. Based on a retrospective analysis of official statistical data, the main structural changes have been identified and systematized. These include: a significant increase in the importance of domestic tourism as a driver of market recovery in the post-pandemic period, an increase in the share and role of tour operators in the industry structure, and a radical transformation of the geographical structure of tour package sales after 2020, expressed in an initial sharp shift in demand towards Russian destinations with subsequent partial reversal. Special attention is paid to the influence of digitalization on market dynamics and business models: a steady increase in the share of independent travelers using online booking services is noted, which creates challenges for traditional travel agencies and transforms the value chain. The author also highlights technological trends (personalization, contactless services, VR/AR) beginning to be implemented in the activities of organizations. The conducted com-parative analysis revealed specific regional features of the Krasnoyarsk market recov-ery, which differ from nationwide trends in slower quantitative growth rates amid a more rapid increase in service costs and a more pronounced focus on domestic tourism. It is concluded that the identified structural shifts and the influence of digitalization necessitate the revision and adaptation of traditional methodologies for assessing the effectiveness of tourism organizations. The integration of new indicators reflecting digital maturity, customer-centricity, and the ability to adapt in a highly volatile market environment is required.