Tourism and hospitality businesses face strategic challenges managing destination competitiveness when popular sites experience capacity constraints threatening profitability while alternative destinations remain underutilised. This study investigates how demarketing approaches combined with digital technologies create competitive advantages through visitor redistribution, applying social comparison theory to consumer decision-making. Critically, we position demarketing not merely as a set of marketing communications tactics, but as a demand governance instrument that mediates competing stakeholder interests—balancing destination sustainability, community equity, and smart tourism objectives. The study addresses two under-explored questions: (a) how demarketing functions as a demand management counterpart to carrying capacity frameworks; and (b) how technology mediates—rather than simply enables—the activation of social comparison processes in shaping tourist redistribution behaviour. Multi-focus group interviews with Egypt’s tourism stakeholders—tourists, hospitality managers, and destination officials—besides empirical contextualisation of International Benchmarks and Digital Infrastructure for demarketing examined responses to overcrowding and technology-enabled demarketing effectiveness. Findings reveal upward social comparisons and FOMO mechanisms significantly influence destination choices when integrated with digital demarketing interventions. Technology-driven personalisation successfully shifted preferences toward alternative destinations through targeted messaging emphasising exclusive experiences, with mobile recommendations proving effective when positioned as insider knowledge.
The dynamic pressures induced by earthquake forces on a pair of rigid walls retaining steel strip-reinforced elastic soil over bedrock, are investigated through an analytical/numerical solution procedure under plane strain conditions. The reinforced soil is treated as an elastic continuum consisting of two phases: the elastic soil matrix in plane strain and the horizontally arranged steel strips under axial deformation. Thus, there are three governing equations of motion in terms of displacements: two for the elastic soil matrix and one for the elastic steel strips, coupled through interaction forces. Assuming time harmonic seismic excitation and expanding the displacements in Fourier sine and cosine series with respect to the horizontal coordinate, one can reduce the governing system of partial differential equations of motion to ordinary ones with respect to the vertical coordinate. Solving this system, the seismic pressure on the wall as well as the shear force and bending moment at the wall base are determined analytically. The response to transient earthquake forces is obtained numerically through Fourier synthesis. The employment of the solution to obtain results for the special case of the unreinforced soil and the comparison of those results against existing ones in the literature serve to verify that solution. Parametric studies are then presented to investigate the effects of soil reinforcement on the seismic response of the wall-soil system.
The right to education is fundamental and must be provided to all without restriction. Distance learning methodologies present key learning opportunities for those with limited access to conventional education, such as prison inmates, and come in response to the demand for new solutions in the field of educational activities. The ever-increasing need for new forms of education highlights distance learning in prison schools as a key pillar of the new learning process. Education in prisons as a way of reintegrating offenders is an essential means of changing behavior patterns as well as for acquiring knowledge and developing-improving skills, while aiming at the smooth professional integration of inmates. The present study presents a review of distance education in prisons, as well as qualitative research examining aspects related to distance education in a prison of central Greece, which includes observation as well as interviews with thirty-six inmates. The results of the qualitative research show that Greek language courses are essential for reading, writing and communication with more teaching time for developing-improving the skills of the inmates. Distance education is an essential tool for inmates to acquire the necessary skills for social reintegration and smooth professional integration.
This study examines digital sustainability signals and the psychological mechanisms (authenticity and trust) that relate to consumers' sustainable food purchase intentions. While the attitude-behavior gap remains a persistent challenge in sustainability research, our study focuses on upstream factors that may help explain why intentions vary in strength. Drawing on signaling theory, this research develops and tests a framework that combines positive signals (e.g., influencer credibility) and negative signals (e.g., perceived greenwashing) to investigate the impact on green brand authenticity, brand trust, and purchase intention. Data were gathered from a survey of 324 adult social media users who follow influencers with a focus on sustainability and have recent experience buying eco-labeled food products. Using PLS-SEM, results indicate that influencer credibility has a significant and positive effect on perceptions of green brand authenticity, whereas the influence of greenwashing has a significant and negative effect. Authenticity shows a strong prediction of brand trust, and this in turn predicts green purchase intentions with trust mediating the authenticity-intention relationship to some degree. The results indicate authenticity as a key mechanism by which digital signals affect sustainable consumption. The research provides practical insights for food brands seeking to strengthen the psychological conditions that support sustainable consumption intentions.
The rapid growth of emerging digital technologies is reshaping youth psychological well-being and religious identity in increasingly plural social contexts. This systematic review examines the impact of deepfakes, gaming, the metaverse, virtual reality, and chat applications on youth well-being, with particular attention to religion as both a protective factor and a target of digital harm. A PRISMA 2020-guided systematic review was conducted using Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science. Eligible studies were peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2025, focused on youth aged approximately 10-24 years, and examined emerging digital technologies in relation to psychological well-being, identity development, bullying, or religiosity. Quantitative, qualitative, experimental, and intervention studies were included. Due to methodological heterogeneity, findings were synthesized thematically, and study quality was appraised narratively rather than through meta-analysis. Thematic synthesis revealed that moderate gaming and virtual reality applications can enhance well-being, empathy, and religious literacy, while religiosity is frequently associated with reduced addiction risk. In contrast, chat applications were consistently linked to higher levels of cyberbullying, with religious minorities experiencing two to three times greater exposure to harassment, exclusion, and identity-based attacks, contributing to depression and social isolation. Deepfakes were associated with erosion of trust and identity-related distress, while metaverse environments amplified body image pressures and faith-based harassment. Limitations include the scarcity of longitudinal research explicitly addressing religion-technology interactions. Future studies should adopt cross-cultural, longitudinal designs and evaluate school- and community-based interventions that promote digital literacy, empathy, and protection of religious identity.
