This study investigates the impact of green talent management on green performance, focusing on the mediating roles of green organizational culture and green organizational citizenship behavior. Data were collected from employees of Saudi Arabia’s travel agencies, and 1276 valid responses were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that green talent management positively influences green performance, green organizational culture, and green organizational citizenship behavior. Additionally, the study demonstrates that green organizational culture and citizenship behavior positively affect green performance and mediate the relationship between green talent management and green performance. This research addresses a gap in the literature on tourism and hospitality, human resources management, and organizational behavior by empirically examining these relationships within Saudi Arabia travel agencies. This study also provides managerial implications for tourism and hospitality businesses, along with limitations and suggestions for future research.

Purpose: The study seeks to explore the intricate dynamics among customer relationship management (CRM) practices, guest satisfaction and loyalty in the hospitality context. Additionally, it aims to examine the moderating influence of guest engagement on the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and loyalty.Design/methodology/approach: An integrated theoretical framework is developed by incorporating CRM practices and guest engagement into the satisfaction-loyalty framework. Two research instruments were adapted from the literature to assess the perspectives of customers and employees in the hotel industry in Kashmir. The customer survey measured guest satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement, while the employee survey focused on CRM practices, including key customer focus and CRM organization. Data was collected using a pen-and-paper survey with convenience sampling across 10 qualifying hotels, each classified as 3-star or above. A total of 270 matched responses from guests and employees were obtained and analyzed using descriptive analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM), and moderation analysis with SPSS and AMOS software. The study utilized a rigorous data matching process to ensure reliability, with guest-employee pairs verified and cross-checked with hotel records.Findings: The results indicate CRM practices play a pivotal role in shaping guest satisfaction and loyalty. Notably, personalization and a targeted customer approach emerged as the most influential factors in enhancing tourist satisfaction. Similarly, prospecting, personalization, and effective knowledge management significantly contributed to visitor loyalty. The establishment of robust relationships is underscored through collaborative active guest engagement. Furthermore, the study highlights the nuanced relationship between satisfaction and loyalty moderated by guest engagement. High levels of guest engagement amplify the positive impact of satisfaction on loyalty, while lower engagement levels attenuate this effect. Moreover, the moderating influence of guest engagement on the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and CRM practices and guest loyalty was notably strong at elevated guest engagement levels and relatively weaker at lower engagement levels.Research limitations/implications: While the study findings encourage organizations to prioritize customer relationship development, hospitality entities must emphasize the adoption of CRM philosophy and robust guest engagement measures. Actively involving guests in co-creating services can yield incremental benefits in terms of attracting, retaining, and effectively serving guests.Originality/value: This study introduces novel dimensions to the existing CRM framework within the hospitality context, specifically exploring the impact of hotel-specific elements (personalization and prospecting) on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Furthermore, it innovatively investigates the moderating role of guest engagement in the satisfaction-loyalty relationship, expanding its scope to include the relationships between CRM practices and guest satisfaction and guest loyalty.

This study explored how AI affects the sustainability of competitive advantage in the tourism and hospitality sector, with a particular focus on the mediating roles of digital culture and digital skills in the lens of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected via a structured questionnaire distributed to a purposive sample of 488 managers and supervisors working in five-star hotels, travel agencies, and DMCs across Saudi Arabia. The findings revealed that AI has a significant direct effect on sustainable competitive advantage and also exerts strong positive effects on both digital culture and digital skills. In turn, both of these internal enablers significantly contribute to sustaining a competitive advantage. Mediation analysis further showed that both digital culture and digital skills partially mediate the relationship between AI and sustainable competitiveness. The study addresses a notable gap in tourism research by providing localized evidence from a market undergoing rapid transformation under Vision 2030, and, taken together, extends TAM to an organizational lens by demonstrating AI’s role in shaping culture and skills that underpin a durable advantage while pointing to actionable priorities—targeting high-value AI use cases, conducting capability audits, institutionalizing continuous learning through visible leadership and role-based upskilling, and embedding culture- and skills-oriented KPIs within AI governance.

This study aims to investigate the role of cognitive processing – driven by hedonism, emotional experiences and nostalgia – in enhancing destination evangelism and revisit intentions among virtual reality (VR) tourists. By addressing gaps in existing literature on VR tourism, it aims to provide insights into how cognitive engagement influences visitation and advocacy for destinations. The research comprises two studies. Study 1 employs a within-subjects pre-post quasi-experimental design with 197 participants who completed the same survey measure before and after viewing a VR video of the Taj Mahal. Study 2 utilizes a mixed-methods approach, which included surveying 377 participants at popular hotels in Kashmir followed by conducting unstructured interviews with 24 respondents to gather qualitative insights. Data analysis includes paired-sample t-tests, structural equation modelling (SEM) and narrative content analysis. Results of Study 1 reveal a significant change in both destination evangelism and revisit intentions following VR exposure, indicating VR exposure has a significant impact on creating destination evangelism and revisit intentions. Results of Study 2 indicate that nostalgia, hedonism and emotional experience influence cognitive processing, which in turn leads to destination evangelism and revisit intention. Further, results indicate that tourist engagement moderates the effect of cognitive processing on destination evangelism and revisit intention in a way that the positive effect of cognitive processing on both destination evangelism and revisit intention intensifies at higher levels of tourist engagement. Qualitative insights derived from interviews validate that VR experiences evoke strong emotional connections that foster advocacy and loyalty towards destinations. These findings suggest that destination marketers should leverage VR technology to enhance tourists’ emotional engagement and evoke nostalgia, thereby cultivating stronger relationships with tourists. The study highlights the importance of cognitive processing in developing effective marketing strategies that encourage destination evangelism and repeat visitation. This research fills a critical gap in the literature by examining the cognitive and emotional factors that drive tourist behaviour in VR contexts, specifically focusing on how these factors influence loyalty and advocacy. It contributes to the emerging discourse on metaverse tourism management, offering actionable insights for optimizing virtual destination experiences.

Purpose: The primary objective of this paper is to determine the factors that affect the entrepreneurship propensity of students undergoing compulsory entrepreneurship education courses at various universities.Design/methodology/approach: A research instrument was developed and implemented on a sample of 380 students who were offered compulsory entrepreneurship education courses at six major universities in the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. The study employed multiple cross-sectional designs with a simple random sampling technique to gather data. The collected data was subjected to descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling using SMART-PLS (Version 4).Findings: The findings reveal that conceptualization, opportunity identification and implementation are the three antecedents of entrepreneurship propensity. The results indicate that the conceptualization factor is one of the most important predictors of entrepreneurship propensity, followed by opportunity identification, whereas implementation through education has the weakest influence on students' entrepreneurship propensity.Practical implications: This research provides important insights to universities for designing and developing entrepreneurship courses that can foster the start-up culture. The results will be helpful for policymakers to devise various programs to boost entrepreneurship.Originality/value: The study integrated the theories of planned behavior and human capital to evaluate the effectiveness of entrepreneurship courses at the university level. The three factors, namely, conceptual factors, actualization factors and implementation factors of entrepreneurship propensity are under-researched.