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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of travel motivation, Muslim-friendly amenities and lifestyle, cognitive and affective destination image and quality of service on Kuwaiti travelers’ intentions to visit Islamic tourism destinations.

A self-administered questionnaire consisting of multiple-item scales was developed. A convenience sample of 224 Kuwaitis was surveyed. The hierarchical regression analysis tested whether and how much the influencing factors predicted a significant amount of the variance in travel. The analysis was controlled for the effects of demographic variables.

Travel motivation and cognitive and affective image had the largest significant effects on the Kuwaiti travelers’ intention to visit Islamic destinations. Contrary to expectations, the findings suggested that Muslim-friendly amenities and quality of service did not affect Kuwaitis’ travel decisions.

This study provides a starting point for future empirical research into Islamic tourism in the Middle East. It provides an understanding of the importance of travel motivation and destination image in attracting Kuwaiti travelers to Islamic destinations.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current state, understanding and opinions of benchmarking in the Egyptian hotel sector in order to establish its perceived benefits, obstacles, and possible improvements.

By way of a three part structured self‐administrated questionnaire, a representative sample of 128 two, three, four and five star hotels (giving a response rate of 29 percent) in Sharm El‐Sheikh, Cairo, Alexandria and Luxor were examined. Descriptive statistics were drawn from general hotel data, in addition to data pertaining to the understanding of benchmarking and the impressions or experiences of its barriers and future use.

A generally positive attitude towards benchmarking predominated, with the majority of participants understanding benchmarking to be a quality enhancement tool that can bring about better service. Most perceived it to be a useful and inexpensive strategy to connect to other businesses. Furthermore, senior management staff were seen to play a crucial role in quality improvement. However, barriers to its wider or continuing use exist, with 25 percent of participants unwilling or unsure to consider its usage in the future. Limitations of benchmarking included too much data collection and the unwillingness of potential benchmarking partners in sharing data.

Identifying specific obstacles to effective benchmarking must be undertaken so that they may be practically overcome. In addition conducting multiple case studies to compare benchmarking practices around the Arab world, or in conjunction with the US and UK, would be of great value to the industry.

There is an absence of empirical research into benchmarking applications in the hospitality industry, especially in North Africa and the Middle East. The present study addresses the lack of data regarding benchmarking within the context of the Egyptian hotel sector.

The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory work which investigated the negative effects of television commercials on children in the Middle East.

The extant literature on issues relating to the effects of television advertising on children was critically reviewed. Data were collected by conducting a series of 15 projective techniques and a series of semi‐structured interviews with a sample of 12 parents and six psychology and marketing experts from the Middle East.

The results indicate that negative impacts of advertising lead to major social and behavioral problems in children such as physical and verbal violence, materialism and other “values issues” identified by parents, and health problems such as low nutrition and obesity. The results also indicate that although many forms of advertisement affect children negatively, the effects of television commercials are particularly noticeable.

The study provides a list of practical recommendations for marketers and policymakers to help mitigate the negative effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East.

This research is one of very few studies to consider the effects of television advertising on children in the Middle East.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between perceptions of organisational justice, perceived competence of supervisor and perceived supervisory support (PSS) in hotel employees in Egypt.

Employees who worked in chain hotels in two cities completed questionnaires on each dimension. Principal component analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were used to evaluate relationships among the dimensions to test the hypothesis that PSS mediates the relationship between perceived organisational justice and perceived competence of supervisor.

Measures of organisational justice, perceived competence of supervisor and PSS were all positively related to one another. PSS partially mediated the relationship between organisational justice and perceived competence of supervisor.

Results indicate that employees who perceive their managers to be supportive and their organisations to be fair and just also believe that their supervisors are more competent. However, these results are only a cross-sectional snapshot, and future studies could examine how employee attitudes change over time and what factors contribute most to establishing perceptions of managerial competence and trust in the organisation.

The findings suggest that organisations should develop policies that allow managers to foster supportive and transparent relationships with employees to establish confidence between employee and both manager and organisation.

This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the mediating effects of PSS on organisational justice and perceived competence of supervisor in Egypt and in the hospitality industry.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

A persistent grumble of “baby boomers” is that younger generations, including those who are now students, are more materialistic they used to be. There us perhaps a grain of truth in this, although to be excessively censorious might be unfair; we now live in a more materialistic world and the “baby boomers”, as students, had better state support than today's undergraduates. It was perhaps easier to take a non‐materialist stance in those days.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.

Among various metal oxide nano particles, MgO NPs and ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in particular are gaining increasing attention due to their multifunctional characteristics, low cost and compatibility with textile materials. Each type of nanoparticle excels over others in certain properties. As such, it is often crucial to carry out comparative studies of NPs to identify the one showing higher efficiency/output for particular applications of textile products.

In the investigation reported in this paper, ZnO NPs and MgO NPs were synthesised via sol-gel technique and characterised. For comparative analysis, the synthesised NPs were evaluated for multiple properties using standard procedures before and after being applied on cotton fabrics by a dip-pad-dry-cure method.

XRD and FTIR analyses confirmed the successful synthesis of ZnO and MgO NPs. Homogeneous formation of desired NPs and their dense and uniform deposition on the cotton fibre surface were observed using SEM. ZnO NPs and MgO NPs coatings on cotton were observed to significantly enhance self-cleaning/stain removal properties achieving Grade 5 and Grade 4 categories, respectively. In terms of ultraviolet (UV) protection, ZnO or MgO NP coated fabrics showed UPF values of greater than 50, i.e. excellent in blocking UV rays. MgO NPs exhibited 20% cleaning efficiency in treating reactive dye wastewater against ZnO NPs which were 4% efficient in the same treatment, so MgO was more suitable for such type of treatments at low cost. Both NPs were able to impart multifunctionality to cotton fabrics as per requirement of the end products. However, ZnO NPs were better for stain removal from the fabrics while MgO NPs were appropriate for UV blocking.

It was therefore clear that multifunctional textile products could be developed by employing a single type of cost effective and efficient nano particles.

Egypt has set plans to transform into a green economy which requires major reforms in the waste sector as one of the most vital sectors crucial for this transformation. This study aims at inspecting the current status of the Egyptian waste sector to highlight the major policy reforms needed. Furthermore, it assesses the economic viability of establishing waste-to-energy (WtE) projects under the current regulations that govern the sector.

The study employed an inductive analytical approach to scrutinize the institutional and regulatory framework of the waste and WtE sectors. Furthermore, a novel techno-economic analysis was conducted to assess the profitability of a WtE plant that employs moving grate incineration technology.

The analysis of the waste sector revealed its deteriorating state and the dire need for immediate restructuring through more stringent regulations to establish an integrated waste management system (IWMS) that incorporates WtE technologies as well as a number of corrective actions that would help enhance the sector. Additionally, the techno-economic analysis revealed the need to amend the current WtE regulation to comprise a gate fee as an indispensable revenue stream for WtE projects.

This study is one of a few studies that uses a new technique of analysis to explore the potential role that WtE projects can play in Egypt as a part of an IWMS that aims at transforming the waste sector into a resource sector while providing a renewable and sustainable source of energy.

The purpose of this paper is to provide construction companies with an analytic model, namely a four‐level analytic network process (ANP) model, to assist them in prioritising and thereby selecting marketing activities which offer maximum return on investment, for which they should primarily allocate their limited resources.

The research methodology of this study mainly involves: reviewing the literature on marketing and construction marketing in order to identify the marketing activity selection criteria and their constituent sub‐criteria; determining the marketing activity alternatives in which construction companies may consider to invest; constructing an analytic model, namely a four‐level ANP model – to assist them in selecting the most viable marketing activities for which they should primarily allocate their limited resources; and conducting two case studies, one in a bidding contractor and the other in a developer, in order to illustrate how the model works.

This paper illustrates how to empirically prioritise marketing activities by using a four‐level marketing activity selection model. Two case studies are also demonstrated in order to illustrate how the model works. The case studies indicate that the rankings of the marketing activities for these companies are rather different due to the type of the construction company (i.e. bidding contractors or building developers) and its client profile (i.e. public or private owners). The findings of the case studies concurred with the expected direction in these companies.

This model is of benefit to construction companies and researchers. The proposed ANP model offers an efficient, convenient and simple tool that allows construction companies to select the marketing activities for which they should primarily allocate their limited resources. It also allows researchers to see the potential use of ANP in the marketing activity selection problem.