How Muslim-Friendly Tourism Attributes Shape Visit Intention in Nature-Based Destination: The Roles of Destination Image and Religiosity

Fostering Muslim-Friendly Tourism in Minority Destinations: Insights from North Sulawesi, Indonesia

This research aims to analyze the community’s response to the development of halal tourist destinations in the Muslim-minority region of North Sulawesi Province and to identify appropriate strategies for developing halal tourism, based on internal and external conditions in this region. This study employed a quantitative, explanatory research design to examine Muslim consumers’ intentions to choose Muslim-friendly tourist destinations in North Sulawesi Indonesia, a Muslim-minority. This study uses the Partial Least Squares (PLS) equation model to analyze people’s preferences for halal tourism in North Sulawesi Province. The independent variables are attitudes, subjective norms, behavioral control, and religiosity. Meanwhile, the dependent variable is the intention to choose a halal tourist destination. This research reveals that attitude, subjective norms, and religiosity positively and significantly affect travel intentions, whereas subjective norms have a negative effect. Furthermore, effective strategies for developing Muslim-friendly tourism include adjusting marketing and product development, implementing larger, more effective marketing campaigns, improving access to information and amenities, and developing religious infrastructure in tourist areas. This study contributes to the literature on halal tourism by extending the understanding of Muslim travel intentions in a Muslim-minority context and demonstrating the significant roles of attitudes, subjective norms, and religiosity. The findings imply that halal tourism development in North Sulawesi should adopt context-sensitive strategies that integrate targeted marketing, improved information and tourism amenities, and strengthened religious infrastructure.

Understanding tourist decision-making in muslim-friendly tourism: A conceptual framework of user-generated content, expectations, and religiosity

This study builds an integrated conceptual model to explain the process by which UGC affected tourists in deciding to travel to Muslim-friendly destinations through psychological and behavioral mechanisms. The era of digital tourism and social media has emerged, as tourists often turn to other users for visits they rely primarily on reviews, experiences, recommendations, photos and travel stories in your decision making about how to travel. Base on Social Cognitive Theory, this study proposes that UGC is a vital environment provocation to form tourists cognitive appraisals, readiness and conducts towards Muslim-friendly destinations. Since tourists expect about the destination quality, safety/halaal facilities and their overall travel experience based on information received from social media (UGC), therefore; it is proposed that tourist expectation mediates the relationship of UGC and visit decisions. Second, this study builds religiosity as a moderating variable for the effect of tourist expectations on visit decisions. Tourists with higher Islamic religious values are more likely to evaluate travel-related information and travel decisions based on the compatibility of destinations with Islamic principles. A conceptual research design was adopted in this study and six research propositions were developed that illustrate the direct, indirect, mediator, and moderator relationships between UGC, tourist expectations, religiosity, and the visit decision. The proposed model enriches the current understanding of Muslim-friendly tourism literature by integrating psychological perspective and behavioral aspect in a single holistic framework. While previous research has largely explored these relationships individually, this study uniquely investigates the intermediary role of Muslim tourists expectations, and the regulatory role of religiosity in explaining UGC tourist decision to travel to Muslim-friendly destinations. The findings will be able to offer theoretical insights that can be grounded for future studies related to tourism, and practical implications for destination managers by providing them the mechanisms to form appropriate digital marketing strategies utilising social media content and also taking in consideration of religious value approaches concerning enhancing tourists intention and decisions on visiting Muslim-friendly destinations.

Halal Tourism as a Medium for Social Learning: The Role of Halal Certification and Muslim-Friendly Attributes in Strengthening Destination Image, Cultural Literacy, and Tourists' Visit Intention

Purpose of the study: This study aims to explore how halal certification and Muslim-friendly attributes shape destination image and influence tourists' visit intention in Surakarta, while examining how halal tourism contributes to social learning, cultural education, and the strengthening of local identity through tourism experiences. Methodology: This study employed a qualitative case study approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document analysis involving tourism managers, government representatives, tourism business operators, and tourists. Data were analyzed using the interactive model of Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña with NVivo 12 software and validated through source triangulation, method triangulation, and member checking. Main Findings: The findings reveal that halal certification enhances tourists' trust by reducing uncertainty regarding tourism products and services, while Muslim-friendly attributes improve travel experiences and strengthen destination image. Beyond influencing visit intention, halal tourism also promotes social learning by increasing visitors' understanding of local cultural values, religious practices, and community traditions. The interaction between tourists and local communities contributes to cultural preservation, intercultural understanding, and the reinforcement of local identity within the tourism environment. Novelty/Originality of this study: This study extends halal tourism research by integrating Signaling Theory, Social Learning Theory, and Heritage Education to explain halal tourism as both a destination development strategy and a medium for social education. It demonstrates that halal certification and Muslim-friendly attributes not only enhance destination image and visit intention but also foster cultural literacy, strengthen local identity, encourage intercultural interaction, and support community-based learning in cultural tourism destinations.

Experience marketing through authenticity and escapism: Drivers of revisit intention in Sumatra’s natural heritage tourism

This study aims to analyze the influence of destination attributes, escapism, and authenticity on place attachment and memorable tourism experience, and to examine the mediating role of place attachment on revisit intention. This study was conducted on tourists visiting leading destinations in Sumatra Province, such as the Toba Caldera Geopark and the Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra. Data were collected through a survey of 300 respondents chosen by purposive sampling and analyzed using a quantitative approach with partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) through SmartPLS 3.0. The results show that destination attributes, escapism, and authenticity have a positive and significant effect on place attachment and memorable tourism experience. In addition, place attachment is proven to mediate the relationship between these three variables and revisit intention. These findings confirm that tourists’ emotional attachment to a destination plays a significant role in driving revisit intention. Theoretically, this study broadens the understanding of the relationship between tourist psychological factors and post-tourism behavior in the context of nature and cultural tourism in Indonesia. Practically, the results of this study provide implications for destination managers to strengthen the elements of authenticity, experience quality, and emotional value of destinations to build sustainable tourism.

THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAMIC BRAND IMAGE AND SERVICE QUALITY ON TOURIST LOYALTY IN MUSLIM-FRIENDLY TOURISM DESTINATIONS: A STUDY OF THE AL-JABBAR GRAND MOSQUE TOURISM AREA, BANDUNG

The perceived cultural distance of Kazakhstan and the impact of destination image on travel intention

This study aims to examine the effects of perceived cultural distance (CD) among potential tourists considering a visit to Kazakhstan on destination image (cognitive and affective dimensions) and travel intention (TI), while also exploring how tourism stakeholders perceive the destination's functional characteristics and cultural differences to contextualize the quantitative findings through a convergent mixed-methods approach. In this study, a convergent mixed-methods approach, based on data triangulation, was adopted to enhance the reliability of the findings and address the subject holistically from both supply and demand perspectives. Accordingly, quantitative data collected through surveys of potential tourists (308 respondents) were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling, while qualitative data obtained from interviews with industry stakeholders (20 respondents) were subjected to content analysis. The cognitive image has a strong and significant effect on TI. Furthermore, perceptions of the destination's functional characteristics indirectly influence TI through the cognitive image. Kazakhstan's untouched nature and nomadic culture stand out as the most important tourist attractions. The biggest obstacles are inadequate infrastructure, language differences and low international recognition. Stakeholders emphasize that cultural differences can be transformed into value-added assets through experience-focused projects such as digital marketing and ethno-villages. In Kazakhstan's tourism strategies, focusing on data-driven promotional activities (to strengthen tourists' cognitive image) and improving service quality are seen as critical steps to boost TI. It addresses infrastructure gaps, overcomes language barriers and markets cultural assets, such as through experiential projects like ethno-villages, on digital platforms. This study adopts a mixed-methods approach to examine Kazakhstan's tourism potential through the perceptions of prospective tourists (external perspective) and local tourism stakeholders (internal perspective); it comprehensively explores the relationships among CD, image dimensions and TI.