Digital marketing strategies are vital for enhancing customer engagement, promoting brands, and ensuring sustainability. This study explores the influence of digital marketing on customer engagement and brand promotion within the dynamic tourism and hospitality industry while addressing a significant gap in incorporating employee position as a moderating variable. A quantitative research method was employed to collect data from 350 hotel employees in Tehran 4- and 5-star hotels. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted to explore the moderator role. Key findings indicate that digital marketing strategies enhance customer engagement and positively influence brand promotion. Additionally, the moderating effect of employee position takes into account the differences among employees regarding service expectations and perceptions. Specifically, it highlights how the skills of managerial positions are better utilized when implementing digital strategies. This study supplements theoretical frameworks and practical applications and improves the strategic use of digital marketing in tourism and hospitality. The case study provides new insights for policymakers and hoteliers in the tourism and hotel industry.

The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges and deficits faced by people with disabilities and the implications for the development of accessible tourism in the case of North Cyprus. Although this destination market represents a significant portion of tourism in the Mediterranean, it is still poorly understood. In this study, 250 questionnaires were distributed to people with disabilities. Linear regressions, ANOVA, and t-tests were used for data analysis. The results show that despite the destination’s great potential in terms of attractions and recreational facilities, there are measurable deficits in accessible tourism. If tourism operators want to take advantage of the rising tide of accessible tourism to attract more tourists and have a competitive advantage in this growing niche market, they should improve infrastructure facilities to meet the needs of disabled tourists. In particular, this includes providing information for disabled tourists, improving the existing inadequate access to various venues, equipping transportation modes and refreshment facilities for the disabled population, and ensuring adequate access to public places. Last but not least, a cultural orientation approach that educates residents to respect and accept the rights of the disabled population must be adopted. This study provides insights into the needs of people with disabilities and formulates guidelines for adapting and developing this market for destinations that depend on tourism.

Social media platforms have transformed communication, engagement, and consumer interaction, significantly influencing sustainable consumption behaviour. With the vast array of social networking and media options available, marketing professionals actively leverage these platforms to shape consumer preferences and purchasing decisions. This study investigates the impact of social media platforms on the sustainable consumption decisions of young people. Adopting a quantitative research methodology, the study employed judgemental sampling to select participants. Data were gathered from 450 respondents via an online questionnaire, and the proposed relationships were assessed using structural equation modelling (SEM) with SmartPLS version 4 to provide a thorough statistical evaluation. Research findings indicate that social media marketing has a substantial impact on sustainable purchase intentions, content quality, and behavioural engagement. Furthermore, the quality of content and levels of behavioural engagement significantly affect sustainable purchase intentions. However, the findings suggest that the social media platforms used for information retrieval do not significantly influence intentions to make sustainable purchases. This study contributes to marketing research by developing a model that examines how social media platforms influence young people’s intentions to purchase sustainably, as well as the impact of social media marketing, engagement, and content quality on these intentions.

This research addresses the challenges faced by people with mobility impairments within accessible tourism, focusing on the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology to improve their inclusion. The study uses a phenomenological approach and utilizes in-depth interviews and content analysis to identify patterns and insights. The research identifies constraints within the tripartite model of leisure and categorizes them as constructed environment-related, resource-related, attitudinal/behavioral-related, and psychological state constraints. Key findings highlight that travel motivations are about relaxation, and gaining new experiences, while challenges primarily relate to transportation, accommodation and architectural barriers. The safety aspect is primarily associated with traveling in company. Furthermore, the study sheds light on the perceived benefits of VR technologies in promoting greater participation in tourism activities for people with mobility impairments. However, participants assert that VR cannot fully replace actual tourism experiences as it cannot provide the multi-sensory richness of physical travel. The importance of this research lies in exploring VR experiences from the perspective of people with mobility impairments, particularly in relation to the destinations they visit, a dimension that has been overlooked in previous literature. This summary provides a brief overview of the key findings and conclusions, highlighting the potential of VR in accessible tourism while recognizing the inherent differences between virtual and physical travel experiences.

Purpose: This paper concludes the special issue “Reimagining Nature-Based Tourism: Innovations, Experiences and Sustainability in Tourism Destinations” by synthesising the 11 contributions through a thematic synthesis approach and outlining an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a thematic synthesis approach. The eleven articles included in this special issue were coded against the issue's guiding research question and three derived sub-questions, and grouped into six cross-cutting themes. The contributions span qualitative interview-based case studies, analysis of visitor-generated online content and bibliometric analysis. Findings: The synthesis shows that nature-based tourism destinations convert natural resources into sustainable visitor value only when aesthetic appeal is matched by interpretive depth and infrastructural investment; that human intermediaries, community enterprises and certification bodies jointly, and sometimes unevenly, mediate conservation outcomes; and that digital methods and artificial intelligence are reshaping both how sustainability discourse is understood and how destinations might be managed, while introducing new risks of standardisation and dehumanisation. Originality/value: This original concluding article brings together eleven geographically and methodologically diverse studies through a structured, research-question-driven synthesis, translating individual contributions into a shared reference framework and research agenda for nature-based tourism scholarship and destination practice.

Purpose: This paper introduces the themed issue and examines a question that tourism research has rarely asked directly: what happens when the drive to make destinations greener meets the obligation to make them open to everyone, and what role technology plays in that meeting. It reads the eight contributions together to show where accessibility, sustainability and technology support each other and where they pull apart. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is structured as a guest-editorial viewpoint. It synthesizes the eight articles in the issue, which together draw on systematic and bibliometric reviews, institutional documents, stakeholder interviews, on-site accessibility evaluations and interviews with disabled visitors, more than 600,000 accommodation listings and over 1,300 online visitor reviews, and situates them within the wider literature on accessible, sustainable and smart tourism. Findings: Four observations run through the issue. First, accessibility and sustainability are usually studied, governed and marketed as separate agendas and the assumption that they align naturally is seldom tested. Second, technology works in both directions: it can remove barriers, but the same digital tools can quietly create new ones. Third, much exclusion is informational rather than physical, and is therefore cheaper to address than is often assumed, although at historical sites physical barriers remain decisive for many disabled visitors. Fourth, integrating the two goals depends less on technology itself than on governance, procurement and how projects are specified from the start. Originality/value: The issue moves the discussion from treating inclusion and sustainability as parallel commitments to treating their interaction as an object of study in its own right. The introduction proposes a research agenda and practical priorities for destination managers, platforms, hospitality operators, heritage site managers and policymakers.