This study investigates the issues of artificial intelligence, privacy, and ethics in the context of smart tourism and determines the governance mechanisms needed for adopting AI in smart tourism applications. The methodology employed for this research study was a systematic literature review using the PRISMA framework. A total of 622 Scopus-indexed journal articles published between 2019 and 2026 were screened using predefined eligibility criteria, resulting in 57 included studies. The data were analysed using descriptive analysis and deductive-inductive thematic analysis to determine the major themes and issues regarding the topic of smart tourism. As a result, six themes were determined to be crucial to the governance of AI in smart tourism applications: privacy calculus, data autonomy, and personalisation; trust, transparency, explainability, and disclosure; bias, fairness, and representational integrity; human–AI collaboration and workforce ethics; destination and ecosystem governance; and cybersecurity, safety, resilience, and risk management. The findings of the study indicate that most smart tourism AI research currently focuses on the concerns of tourists, employees, organisations, technology providers, and smart tourism destinations and their management. For smart tourism applications to adopt AI in a responsible manner, concerns regarding privacy, consent, explainability, fairness, human oversight, participation, security, accountability, and redress must be addressed. The findings of this study contribute to the existing knowledge of the ethics of artificial intelligence in smart tourism by proposing an integrated framework for governing artificial intelligence within smart tourism applications over their entire lifecycle. This framework can assist the researchers, tourism organisations, destination managers, and policymakers when deciding on the governance of AI within smart tourism applications.
This study examined the nexus between gastronomy tourism and agritourism from the perspective of paradigm shift for hospitality competitiveness. Data for this study was harvested from Scopus database. The time range for the data is 2015-2025. The harvested data was analysed with bibliometric analysis, while systematic analysis was also conducted for selected literature. Foods and drinks are usually processed outputs of agricultural activities. Hence, gastronomy tourism is etched into agritourism, especially when such gastronomy activities take place on or around farms. The most engaged word revealed by the analysis of this study is agritourism, followed by gastronomy and so on. This implies, that gastronomy tourism carried out for this study largely took place on and around agritourism destinations. Hospitality is sine-qua-non to the survival of tourism businesses. Hence, hospitality businesses around agritourism and gastronomy tourism destinations must endeavour to remaining competitive. The main driver of hospitality competitiveness pointed out by this study is service quality. Hence, gastronomy tourism has the capacity to either drive or complement agritourism, while hospitality competitiveness fosters the growth and development of both agritourism and gastronomy tourism.
This study examines the degree to which local communities exercise meaningful agency in tourism governance and equitable revenue distribution at South Africa heritage sites, drawing on Sudwala Caves (Mpumalanga) as an empirical case. A mixed-methods approach was employed, incorporating focus group discussions, structured questionnaires and polling among 44 residents of the Mankele community. Arnstein’s Ladder of Citizen Participation guided the analysis of community involvement in tourism governance. The findings indicate that local residents derive limited direct economic benefits from tourism and have restricted influence in decision-making processes. Participants also expressed concerns regarding cultural and environmental impacts associated with tourism development. Although support for tourism remained strong, community participation was largely characterised by tokenistic engagement that seldom translated into meaningful influence over governance outcomes. The study concludes that existing governance arrangements inadequately promote community empowerment and equitable benefit-sharing. The findings argue for a reorientation of heritage tourism governance frameworks toward approaches that prioritise redistributive benefit-sharing, cultural reclamation and participatory co-management. By providing empirical evidence from a restitution-linked heritage tourism context, the study contributes to debates on participatory governance, decolonial tourism and heritage management. It further proposes a framework for advancing tourism justice through community self-determination, offering practical insights for policymakers and heritage practitioners.
This study examines how the spatial design of community-based tourism (CBT) accommodation shapes tourist-community connection (TCC), and whether this relationship depends on tourists' prior visitation experience. Data were collected from 300 tourists at CBT accommodation in Vietnam and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, followed by a permutation-based multi-group analysis comparing first-time and repeat visitors. Results show that four spatial design elements, local identity-oriented architecture, shared activity spaces, local cuisine, and use of local materials, all significantly and positively predict TCC, jointly explaining 60,9% of its variance, with local materials the strongest driver and local cuisine the weakest. Prior visitation experience moderates only the effect of shared activity spaces, which is significantly stronger for repeat tourists, while other relationships hold equally across both groups. These findings position accommodation design as a prioritizable instrument for building cultural connection, giving CBT operators and planners an evidence-based basis for design investment. The study contributes a novel, empirically integrated framework linking place identity, host-guest interaction, and experience economy perspectives to accommodation spatial design.
Research issues concerning tourism and local economic development in small towns of South Africa have attracted much active concern. This research interest is boosted by South African policies for local government and tourism which allocate substantial responsibility to local government for tourism. Arguably, the practice of destination management is one of the most significant underpinnings for successful local tourism development albeit it is one of the least well-researched at the level of local governments in South Africa. The study is framed within an international literature and debates on destination development and represents a novel contribution to the limited body of African knowledge relating to the public sector and the challenges of local governments in destination management. The case study is of the Overstrand Local Municipality in Western Cape Province and based upon a quantitative profile of local tourism performance and the findings from 40 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2025 with tourism business stakeholders. The key findings reinforce the importance of the practice of destination management and in particular around both destination marketing and a cluster of issues surrounding an improved business environment.
Social media marketing is increasingly recognized as a strategic tool for tourism and hospitality organizations; however, empirical evidence on the factors that influence its effectiveness in emerging tourism destinations such as Ethiopia remains limited. This study develops and empirically tests an integrated framework that examines how trust, perceived risk, content quality, and hedonic motivation affect perceived social media marketing effectiveness (SMME) within Ethiopian tourism and hospitality organizations. A quantitative explanatory research design was used, drawing on data from 335 knowledgeable organizational informants representing tourism and hospitality organizations across major destinations and institutional settings in Ethiopia. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the measurement model and test the hypothesized direct and indirect relationships. The results show that trust, content quality, and hedonic motivation have significant positive effects on perceived SMME, while perceived risk has a significant negative effect. Hedonic motivation is the strongest predictor, followed by content quality, underscoring the importance of enjoyable, emotionally engaging, authentic, and informative social media content. Mediation analysis shows that content quality enhances perceived SMME through trust, whereas perceived risk diminishes perceived SMME through trust. The proposed model explains 68.4% of the variance in perceived SMME. This study advances technology-acceptance research by shifting the focus from social media adoption to marketing effectiveness and by integrating cognitive, informational, and affective mechanisms within a unified framework.
Weather and climate variability create uncertainty for tourism demand and disrupt tourism operations. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between weather and climate variability and residents’ perceptions of tourism operations in the city of Dar es Salaam and neighbouring communities, including Kisarawe, Mkuranga, Vikindu, Kibaha, and Bagamoyo, in Tanzania. A quantitative research approach was employed using a structured questionnaire to collect data from 497 respondents in the identified communities. Analyses of variance were performed on the data to examine statistically significant differences among demographic variables such as gender, age groups, and community attachment. While a number of statistically significant results are observed in aspects of weather and climate variability, this study's findings reveal a broad consensus among respondents on the impacts of weather and climate variability on tourism within their communities. Based on these findings, significant policy and practical implications are drawn mainly to harness efforts towards climate action. The policy and practical implications derived from this study contribute to the call for urgency from policymakers and other stakeholders to address the climate crisis.
Previous scholarship rarely bundled visitor composition—trip purpose, origin, and overnight status—into a single structural story explaining why arrival volumes and economic receipts diverge. In this paper, we aim to fill that gap with a careful multi-dataset panel analysis spanning more than 200 countries over 14 years. What we document is a clear decoupling between arrivals and receipt value. Business visitors are a smaller slice, only about 10% of pre-pandemic overnight arrivals, but they still bring a receipt premium of 3.1 percentage points for each extra ten-percentage-point increase in their share. At the same time, destinations in the top quartile of pre-crisis per-visitor spending absorb shocks that are about 41 percentage points shallower than those of low-expenditure, high-volume destinations. Overall, these findings push back against the arrivals-maximization paradigm, and they position visitor composition management as a measurable macroeconomic resilience lever
The present study investigates the linkages among the dimensions of service quality, perceived value, trust, electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), and revisit intention in the hospitality sector. The study is based on relationship marketing and consumer behavior perspectives and explores the mediating effect of e-WOM on customers' perceptions of behavioral loyalty outcomes. The data were gathered from 384 respondents using a structured questionnaire and then analyzed by Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that service quality, perceived value, and trust are significant factors affecting e-WOM, and e-WOM has a strong positive effect on revisit intention. Perceived value was the most important antecedent of e-WOM. An interesting result was that trust had a significant negative influence on e-WOM, which means that customer trust is not a sufficient factor to drive customers' active online communication behavior. The results also have practical implications for hospitality managers who wish to improve the matters of customer retention by enhancing their hospitality services, creating value for them, and keeping them engaged online.
This study evaluated the effectiveness of Tiger Brands Foundation in-school breakfast programme in primary schools in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, and assessed learners’ nutritional status over time using anthropometric measures. A longitudinal study was conducted across three phases - March, June, and November 2024. Anthropometric indicators, including Body Mass Index (BMI), height, weight, and Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC), were used to monitor trends in growth and nutritional status. Observational checklists were also used to assess learners’ general health and well-being. Improvements were observed in weight, height, and BMI across all three phases for both male and female participants, with more pronounced gains among females. Mean height increased from 1.45m to 1.48m (males) and 1.43m to 1.51 (females). However, the MUAC did not increase during this period in either gender. Observational checklists indicated that learners were generally healthy and active. The findings suggest that the in-school breakfast programme contributes positively to learners’ growth and overall well-being. While improvements in some anthropometric measures were evident, continued monitoring is essential. Therefore, strengthening in-school nutrition initiatives can play a significant role in reducing stunting and promoting optimal child development. Uniquely, this study provides longitudinal, school-level evidence on learners’ nutritional status in Mpumalanga.
ABSTRACT Digitalisation is reshaping industries globally by improving efficiency, expanding reach and creating more personalised experiences. Yet Ghana’s events industry has not fully embraced these changes. This study uses a systematic literature review to examine opportunities and emerging digital trends in the sector. The PRISMA protocol and the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology were used to analyse studies published between 2014 and 2025 from databases including Google Scholar, Crossref, OpenAlex, and PubMed. The results indicate that digitalisation enhances marketing, operational efficiency, and innovation through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and hybrid event formats. Digitalisation also supports sustainability efforts and the empowerment of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). At the same time, the industry faces challenges related to trust, ethical concerns, and the influence of social media on stakeholder relationships. This study synthesises dispersed literature on digitalisation in Ghana's events industry, thereby filling a notable gap in the literature and shedding light on the socio-technical factors that influence digital transformation in emerging event markets across Africa. Overall, the review advocates a strategic and inclusive approach to digitalisation that maximises its potential to drive innovation and enhance resilience within the events industry.
South Africa has grappled with persistent loadshedding over the past decade, peaking in 2023 when the country experienced a record of 332 days of power outages. This has adversely affected the country, causing stifling across sectors, particularly the hospitality sector due to its heavy dependence on electricity for product storage and food preparation. Among these affected sectors are Kota fast-food businesses, which, like many other businesses, frequently suffer interruptions due to loadshedding. A Kota is a popular South African street food consisting of a hollowed-out loaf of white bread filled with fried chips, cheese, egg, Russian sausage, and various condiments, offering an affordable, customisable, and convenient meal, particularly in townships. This study employed a qualitative approach to explore the entrepreneurial journeys and lived experiences of ten Black women entrepreneurs residing in Soweto, South Africa. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to capture contextualised data, providing rich insights into the participants’ life stories and motivations for engaging in entrepreneurship. Despite being a vital source of livelihood, Kota businesses experience significant losses as loadshedding disrupts production and reduces revenue. Furthermore, women entrepreneurs face multiple vulnerabilities such as domestic chores, gender-based violence, burglary and robbery in their businesses and homes. The findings highlight the degree to which loadshedding, combined with the intersecting identities of Black women, affects their well-being and livelihood, widening the existing power and gender inequalities.
The use of user-generated content (UGC) and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) as information sources for tourists when selecting their travel destinations is an important phenomenon; however, the literature on this topic is scarce and not integrated. This study provides an overview of 20 years of research and brings it together into a single antecedents–decisions–outcomes (ADO) framework, as well as a roadmap for future research with a special focus on emerging and African destinations. The bibliometric review was conducted using a framework-based synthesis methodology. 451 journal articles were downloaded from Scopus using the SPAR-4-SLR protocol; performance metrics were calculated in Biblioshiny, and co-word and thematic analyses were used to illustrate the conceptual structure. The growth in publications has occurred in three stages: emergence, take-off and acceleration, and is geographically focused on China, US and countries from Asia-Pacific and lack of representation from countries in Africa. The synthesis illustrates the field's antecedents, processes, products, and the underlying theory base, which is primarily planned behaviour, technology acceptance, and elaboration likelihood reasoning. The integrative model and research agenda provides a template for Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs) to manage digital consumer voice based on evidence.
Grounded in Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory, this study investigates how workplace well-being climate enhances employee readiness for sustainable health tourism through the mediating role of eustress and the moderating role of personal health orientation. The study was conducted among employees working in Egyptian spa and wellness resorts who are directly involved in delivering health and well-being services. Data were collected from 260 employees and analyzed using PLS-SEM with WarpPLS 8.0. The findings indicate that workplace well-being climate significantly promotes employee readiness for sustainable health tourism and positively influences eustress. Eustress, in turn, enhances employee readiness and partially mediates the relationship between workplace well-being climate and readiness. In addition, personal health orientation strengthens the positive effect of workplace well-being climate on eustress, indicating that employees with stronger health orientation derive greater motivational benefits from a supportive work environment. By integrating organizational and personal resources within the JD-R framework, this study extends the literature on sustainable health tourism and employee readiness. The findings also provide practical insights for spa and wellness organizations seeking to foster sustainable transformation through well-being-focused workplace practices.
The ageing population is driving demand for tourism services that are reliable, emotionally reassuring, personalised and innovative. This study examines the impact of Integrated Leadership Behaviour (ILB) on tourist satisfaction of elderly tourists thru service quality and service innovation, and if there are differences in relationships between China and Thailand. Integrated Leadership Behaviour is a higher-order construct integrating servant and transformational leadership based on Social Exchange Theory and Service-Dominant Logic. 498 elderly tourists aged between 60 and 79 years old were surveyed and data were analysed using structural equation modelling and multi-group analysis. The results indicate that Integrated Leadership Behaviour has a positive impact on service quality, service innovation and elderly tourist satisfaction. Leadership behaviour affects satisfaction thru both service quality and service innovation, which mediate the relationship. Also, cross-national differences were observed: the leadership-service quality path was more prominent in Thailand whereas innovation orientated paths were more pronounced in China. This study adds to the literature of tourism leadership in the following ways: (i) reveals leadership as an upstream organisational antecedent to elderly tourist satisfaction and (ii) identifies dual service mechanisms with varying effects across cultural contexts.
Small, Micro, and Medium-sized Tourism Enterprises (SMMTEs) are widely recognised as catalysts for inclusive economic growth, employment creation, and rural development. However, their sustainability remains fragile in rural South African municipalities, including Greater Letaba Local Municipality (GLM), Limpopo Province. Guided by Finance Gap Theory and Resource Dependence Theory, this study examined the internal and external challenges affecting SMMTEs in the municipality. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed: quantitative data were collected through a structured survey of 100 purposively selected SMMTEs, followed by qualitative insights from 10 semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal persistent internal and external constraints, with respondents identifying finance as a significant survival challenge. Limited funding information, insufficient collateral and high loan costs restricted access to finance, while financial and skills limitations constrained digital-technology adoption. Although financial vulnerability occurred across enterprise-maturity categories, the primary chi-square test found no statistically significant association between enterprise maturity and perceived financial constraint. By examining the interrelationship between internal capabilities and external resource conditions in a rural municipality, the study provides an integrated explanation of SMMTE sustainability that may not be fully understood when financial, technological and market constraints are considered separately. The findings support coordinated capacity-building, accessible financing, digital support and collaborative local tourism networks in GLM and comparable rural municipalities.
Amid climate change pressures and rapid digital transformation, green tourism has become an important pathway for promoting sustainable tourism development. This study investigates the factors influencing young people’s green tourism intentions in the Mekong Delta, with particular attention to the role of digital communication. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study extends the traditional framework by incorporating digital communication as an additional explanatory factor. Survey data were collected from 250 young respondents and analyzed using reliability testing, exploratory factor analysis, and regression analysis. The findings show that subjective norms, digital communication, environmental concern, perceived behavioral control, and attitude toward green tourism all positively influence green tourism intention. Among these factors, subjective norms and digital communication emerge as particularly important drivers, highlighting the role of social influence and online communication in shaping young travelers’ sustainable tourism choices. The study contributes to the green tourism literature by extending TPB in a digitalized tourism context and provides practical implications for tourism businesses and policymakers seeking to promote green tourism among young people in the Mekong Delta.
The integration of Green Human Resource Management plays a critical role in advancing the sustainability of micro, small, and medium enterprises. This study investigates the strategic influence of Green Human Resource Management on sustainable performance among micro, small, and medium enterprises in the coastal community of Tanjung Balai, Indonesia. It further examines the mediating role of Green Innovation and the contribution of Green Leadership in addressing resource constraints and environmental challenges faced by coastal enterprises. Data were collected from 280 coastal micro, small, and medium enterprises through a hybrid survey approach and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The findings indicate that Green Human Resource Management significantly enhances both Green Innovation and Green Leadership, while Green Leadership further promotes Green Innovation. Green Innovation emerges as the primary mechanism through which Green Human Resource Management contributes to sustainable performance, suggesting that innovation capability, rather than managerial practices alone, is the principal driver of sustainability in coastal micro, small, and medium enterprises. These findings underscore the importance of policies that strengthen Green Human Resource Management, promote locally embedded Green Innovation, and foster adaptive Green Leadership to improve the long-term environmental, social, and economic sustainability of coastal micro, small, and medium enterprises.
This study aims to investigate the influence of servant leadership and organizational justice on job performance through organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and work engagement, while examining the moderating role of environmental hostility using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model. The research method uses a cross-sectional quantitative approach by collecting data from 100 active Pokdarwis members in Java, Indonesia, via purposive sampling, and analyzing the data through Partial Least Squares - Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with an emphasis on effect size. The results reveal that both servant leadership and organizational justice positively affect OCB, work engagement, and job performance, with OCB and work engagement demonstrating substantively significant effects on performance, while environmental hostility exhibits a promising moderating role. Implications of this study suggest that CBET leaders should implement servant leadership practices and maintain organizational justice to enhance member engagement and performance. Ultimately, this research offers unique value by extending the SOR model to voluntary, contractual employees in community-based ecotourism and examining environmental hostility at the individual level.
Tourism is growing globally, and tourist destinations need to keep evolving. The South African tourism sector shows a similar trend. The objective of this study was to investigate whether small-town tourism could potentially be advanced through route tourism development. This study utilized case study research design and adopted a qualitative research approach and is grounded in the philosophical perspective of interpretivism. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data, and thematic analysis was applied. Seven small towns situated in the Free State province served as case study, and data was collected from 15 participants. The findings suggest that there is a need to develop a small-town tourism heritage route and recommend that a framework for route tourism development developed by Proos be utilized as a basis for the development. The framework stresses the importance of social interaction, and involvement of key stakeholders. A small-town tourism heritage route could bring much-needed visitors to a region, thus revitalizing small towns and presenting economic and social benefits. The participants stressed the importance of functioning infrastructure, and dedicated marketing initiatives. This research has numerous practical implications, and the findings could serve as guidelines for other regions considering small-town advancement through route development.
