WHAT LEADS GUESTS TO SATISFACTION AND LOYALTY IN UAE FIVE-STAR HOTELS? AHP ANALYSIS TO SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS

Just like brands of multinational companies there can be different dimensions of brands of tourism destinations too. Certain individuals travel for experiencing and discovering the challenges in the world, while others travel due to their desire to be seen as a person who has visited some very well-known sophisticated tourist destinations. Whereas there is a third group that likes travelling because of their love for nature and a fourth group who would travel to see the historical destinations. The present research is looking into human perspectives of different values assigned to different tourism destinations using the human value perspective of Schwartz and Boehnke (2004) human values model. The article develops a model for understanding consumer selection of different tourism destinations which could be used by the tourism practitioners and governments in preparing strategies for promoting a specific set of destinations to the right market. The Pearson correlation results show significant positive and negative correlations between human values and destination selection.

This study explores the residents’ perceptions of economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of a mega-event (World Expo 2020) to be held in Dubai, as well as their level of inclination to participate in the event. The event organizers announced a requirement of thirty thousand volunteers to assist them in successfully organizing the mega event. Such events could prove to be landmarks in destination brand building and may lead to an increase in the number of tourists. The purpose of the study is to gauge the level of understanding about the event impacts within the resident population and their willingness to get involved in event organization. Priory studies of perceptions about the economic, cultural and environmental impacts of a mega-event, are well-nigh non-existent, especially for World Expositions. This study explores residents’ perception to get a fair idea of how they get involved in a mega event that will surely have profound impacts on the destination. Drawing on stakeholder theory and triple bottom line (TBL) model, the study uses primary data collected from more than two hundred fifty residents of the region, through a structured questionnaire. The data analysis follows a descriptive design supported by SEM and path analysis. Major findings indicate favorable and promising responses from the residents, and brings forth the scope to improve the level of involvement of the residents to make the event a success.

This study is an attempt to capture the impact on, and sentiments of hotels induced by, COVID-19 pandemic in the Emirate of Sharjah, the third largest emirate of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and also propose plausible strategies to recover from the on-going crisis. The study used critical realism meta-theory as ontological and epistemological assumptions and triangulation in mixed method research design. The data were collected from the General Managers of different categories of hotels operating in the emirate through a questionnaire survey for quantitative analysis and in-depth interviews for interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study finds that managers of 3- and 4-star hotels feel they are more severely affected, have more negative sentiments on the performance of hotels, and will take longer time to recover from the crisis as compared to 5-star and deluxe hotels. This study suggests that building financial capability, brand support and customer base are the promising strategies for the hotels to overcome from such a crisis. Exclusivity of the study lies in the application of pragmatism in its methodology. The findings are valuable for hotels, government and other stakeholders of the hospitality sector to overcome from the crisis.