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This study aims to explore non-Muslim tourists’ general halal food preferences, motivations for tasting halal food during their recent trips, positive and negative emotions and memorable dimensions associated with their recent halal food experiences after returning from holiday.

Data were collected using the authors’ personal networks and Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) using a questionnaire. An email containing a link to the questionnaire was sent to the authors’ personal networks and posted on MTurk in January 2021.

Of the 311 non-Muslim respondents, more than half considered themselves as food neophiliacs and considered halal food experiences as imperative whilst travelling. However, tasting halal food was not a major travel motivation. Novelty and taste were the two main motivations for tasting halal food whilst at a tourism destination. Emotions elicited by halal food experiences focussed on “joy” and “love”. The proposed conceptual framework for memorable halal food experiences comprises several dimensions: taste, spending time with family and friends, novelty, quality and safety, hospitality, ambience (setting/servicescape) and experiencing others’ culture through food.

This is one of the first studies to explore non-Muslim tourists’ motives, emotions and memorable dimensions of halal food experiences.

This study aims to quantify and analyse the dynamics of land use and land cover (LULC) changes over three decades in the rapidly urbanizing city of Abha, Saudi Arabia, and to assess urban growth using Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA).

Using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification in Google Earth Engine, changes in land use in Abha between 1990 and 2020 are accurately assessed. This method leverages cloud computing to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of big data analysis. Additionally, MSPA was employed in Google Colab to analyse urban growth patterns.

The study demonstrates significant expansion of urban areas in Abha, growing from 62.46 km² in 1990 to 271.45 km² in 2020, while aquatic habitats decreased from 1.36 km² to 0.52 km². MSPA revealed a notable increase in urban core areas from 41.66 km² in 2001 to 194.97 km² in 2021, showcasing the nuanced dynamics of urban sprawl and densification.

The novelty of this study lies in its integrated approach, combining LULC and MSPA analyses within a cloud computing framework to capture the dynamics of city and environment. The insights from this study are poised to influence policy and planning decisions, particularly in fostering sustainable urban environments that accommodate growth while preserving natural habitats. This approach is crucial for devising strategies that can adapt to and mitigate the environmental impacts of urban expansion.