Search results

This study aims to present the push-pull motives of Islamic tourism and how these provide the basis for promoting and developing Islamic tourism practices in Ghana’s tourism industry. As Islamic tourism is considered as a niche market with new needs and wants globally, this study makes the effort to identify the prospects of this form of tourism in a non-Islamic developing nation.

The study has used a convenience sampling approach in gathering data from 337 Muslim tourists, adopting existing scale instruments of push-pull motives, satisfaction, word-of-mouth of tourists and Islamic practices. The structural equation modelling was used to establish relationships and effects of the studied variables.

The results revealed the significant effects of push-pull motives of Ghanaian Muslim tourists on satisfaction as well as the significant influence of tourist satisfaction on word-of-mouth. In addition, the significant moderating effects of Islamic practices on the relationships between push-pull motives and tourist satisfaction were established.

The conclusion and recommendations of this study might not be consistent with factors that motivate Muslims tourists in other countries.

The results of the study validate the viability of Islamic tourism practices and possible spread of positive word-of-mouth among potential Muslim tourists for future Islamic tourism market in Ghana.

This paper provides the first insight into push-pull motives of Muslim tourists’ choice of Islamic destination in non-Islamic developing country context. The insight will be valuable to tourism authorities, industry, academics, businesses, managers and practitioners, as the results will enhance product and service delivery to Muslim tourists when they are on vacation.

This paper aims at investigating how tourist experience elicits satisfaction and contributes to loyalty and willingness to pay more for a museum destination. The study also investigates the significant moderating role of visiting frequency on the relationship between satisfaction and willingness to pay more.

The research was conducted with 385 tourists who visited the National Museum in Ghana and answered questions relating to experience, satisfaction, loyalty, and willingness to pay more. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships and effects of the adapted constructs.

The results revealed the significant effects of tourist experience on satisfaction, as well as the significant effects of satisfaction on loyalty and willingness to pay more. In addition, a significant moderating effect of visiting frequency was reported on the relationship between satisfaction and tourist willingness to pay more.

The research is destination-specific. The application of the findings to other museums would demand a bigger sample size for generalisation to be made.

Managers should develop strategies that promote museum tourist travelling experience, satisfaction, desire and choice, and thereby attract more tourists to museum sites.

The research contributes to the growing literature on museum tourist experience as an important variable in promoting tourist satisfaction, loyalty, and tourist willingness to pay more.

Paragliding festivals have become significant events in the global tourism space, attracting tourists to local and international destinations. The purpose of this study was to assess environmental attitudes and rate the performance of the paragliding festival of the Kwahu traditional area in Ghana, from the perspectives of four stakeholder groups.

This study was grounded on the salient stakeholder theory. A quantitative cross-sectional study, with a convenience sampling approach, collected 372 useable questionnaires from four major stakeholders/participants (i.e. Kwahu residents, Kwahu returnees, non-Kwahu Ghanaian tourists and foreigners). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the data.

The findings of the Games-Howell post-hoc test show no significant differences among the four stakeholder groups in the festival performance assessment. However, there is a significant statistical difference between the Kwahu residents and foreign tourists regarding environmental attitudes towards the paragliding festival.

Visitors' perceptions and experiences of the environmental performance could inform the planning and execution of festive events that have a direct impact on the natural environment. Policymakers at the community levels must enact environmental protocols that uphold the value propositions of the stakeholders and that of the community at large.

The study expands the application of the salience stakeholder model within festival tourism by highlighting under-represented stakeholder voices in a single study on paragliding festivals in a developing country context.

The migration-tourism discourse has gained attention in global tourism and mobility among scholars because of the vast contributions of migrant visitors to various sectors of the host country's economy, including the tourism and hospitality industry. However, few studies appear to have been undertaken on the subject matter, particularly within the developing country tourism context. The purpose of this research was to assess and understand migrant visitors' sense of safety among five different nationalities (United Kingdom, USA, Germany, China and India) and their perceptions on trustworthiness of tourism information.

Anchored on the national cultural dimension of Hofstede model, this study sampled 306 migrant visitors, with the use of one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Games–Howell post-hoc test to examine mean differences of nationalities, with regard to trust of tourism information and sense of safety. Finally, the multiple regression analysis was conducted to establish the significant effects of national culture characteristics and trustworthiness of tourism information on sense of safety of migrant visitors.

The study finds that there were no significant differences in the sense of safety by the five nationalities. However, national culture characteristics (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) and trustworthiness of tourism information were significant predictors of sense of safety of migrant visitors.

This research adopted only two cultural dimensions of the Hofstede's model, so future studies within the migration-tourism literature should consider adopting other cultural dimensions of the model.

The research provides, first, insight into sense of safety, trustworthiness of tourism information and national culture characteristics which are relevant for destination marketers, the ministry of tourism and local tourism officials to promote safety tourism.

The study expands the application of the cultural dimension of Hofstede model within the migration-tourism literature and establishes that national cultural characteristics and trustworthiness of tourism information are significant predictors of sense of safety of migrant visitors.

The literature has acknowledged the importance of diaspora studies because of the influx of funds into the local economy, including the tourism and hospitality sector. However, little empirical research appears to be known about the subject matter, principally within the developing country perspective. This study aims to respond to research calls by investigating the impact of diasporic cultural heritage, family heritage on travel preference of West African Indian migrant visitors to their homeland.

This research is guided by the theory of acculturation. A quantitative data were gathered from a sample of 312 diasporas, and the regression analysis was used to analyze the data.

The study finds that cultural heritage and family heritage have positive and significant impact on travel preference of migrant visitors to their homeland. Further analysis of the independent sample t-test reveals a significant difference between Indian Ghanaians and Ghanaian Indians in their thought of cultural heritage. However, no significant differences were found in the Indian Ghanaian and Ghanaian Indian’s family heritage and travel preference to their homeland.

This study is destination-specific of Indian migrant visitors. The application of the study’s outcome to other diaspora would demand a larger sample size for generalization to be made. The study offers compelling insights on cultural heritage, family heritage and travel preference to marketing a diaspora tourism site.

The study expands the application of the theory of acculturation within the diaspora literature and establishes that integration and separation strategies of the theory explain the positive interests of the migrant visitors’ traveling preference to their homeland.

This study aims to examine the antecedents of halal brand equity on destination brand equity (DBE) within the tourism sector. Although much has been done on halal tourism, the issue of halal and brand equity has received little attention in a non-Islamic state context.

Using the brand equity theory, 312 Muslim tourists were conveniently drawn from the Larabanga tourism site with the use of structural equation modelling technique to analyse the data.

The study revealed that halal brand awareness and halal value have positive and significant impact on DBE. Also, halal perceived brand quality and halal image had a negative but significant impact on DBE.

This research is on a country-specific halal brand equity tourism destination, which means that the findings cannot be generalized to other geographical areas.

The study provides an insight into halal tourism and destination equity, which is important for marketers, the ministry of tourism and local tourism officials to support halal tourism in a non-Islamic country.

This paper fills a gap by presenting the first comprehensive overview of halal brand equity research that enhances ongoing discussions in the hospitality and tourism field in a non-Islamic context and proposes priorities for future research.

The purpose of this study is to explore the tourism policy commitment of the government of Uzbekistan to bring back the tourists and sustain the tourism and hospitality sector during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study employed qualitative documentary research methodology using the thematic analysis with the support of the Nvivo 12 to analyze Google news articles published in the English language. The results demonstrated that the government of Uzbekistan employed a variety of policies and measures geared towards tourists and businesses during the pandemic. Mainly, the government showed confidence and trust in its policies by providing financial compensation to tourists if they get the Covid-19 infection, improved sanitary conditions and travel restrictions to prevent the spread of the virus. In terms of businesses, the government was dedicated to restoring and mitigating the adverse outcomes of Covid-19 in the tourism and hospitality sector by providing subsidies and certification that the company is following the sanitary protocols. The findings of this study illustrate that the government of Uzbekistan should continue feeding the media with the information related to strategies implemented towards reviving the tourism and hospitality sector, which will build the confidence of the tourists and businesses during the pandemic period.