Gastronomy experiences are becoming a fundamental factor that influences the making of a decision regarding choosing a travel destination, as well as being a crucial factor in shaping tourists’ satisfaction regarding their overall travel experience. The aim of the study is to identify and explain the simultaneous impact of the key factors that influence a gastronomic experience and their impact on tourists’ satisfaction with a trip and the destination’s brand. These issues were addressed within the context of Ukraine, as this is an overlooked area of academic research, and an online survey was conducted, targeting domestic and international tourists. Structural equation modeling was used to assess and reveal the proposed hypotheses in the model. The study contributed to the theoretical understanding of the key factors that increases the occurrence of a memorable gastronomic experience and the relationship between the experience of food and its role in the satisfaction of and the perceived brand of a destination. Moreover, the finding showed that past experience and prior knowledge have a positive influence on the gastronomy experience, while tourists’ prior knowledge effects the perceived quality of a destination’s cuisine, as well as the food activities in the destination. Linkages in the model were empirically supported by statistical analyses. Nonetheless, the various level of the tourists’ involvement with gastronomy might be used as an input to examine and improve the memorable gastronomic experience on-site. The research simultaneously highlighted the importance of gastronomy to tourist destinations for positioning on international and domestic markets. The paper not only provides theoretical but also practical implications. The hospitality and tourism businesses benefit from acknowledging the importance of local food and the local food market. The findings of this study are also deemed to assist destination marketers who observe that tourists have become more demanding in search of unique experiences offered by destinations.

Every day, companies are exposed to various risks arising from their environment, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the most affected. This study emphasizes innovation and resilience as the starting points to understand how SMEs are influenced by external factors which are independent of the managers’ will. To date, we have seen several extreme factors that have conditioned businesses and entrepreneurs of these types of companies, such as the financial crisis of 2008. However, last year, in 2020, we saw the beginning of a worldwide pandemic: COVID-19. Thus, this research seeks to understand the extent to which this pandemic influenced the resilience and innovation of SMEs in the tourism area. Thus, eight hypotheses were raised based on four independent variables: access to finance, risk taking, working conditions, and personal network. The study of these variables was developed from an online questionnaire and in-depth interviews. After analyzing the results, it is possible to infer that the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in consequences never observed in previous crises, to such an extent that the study showed that: (1) a company’s network positively influences its resilience; (2) risk taking influences innovation and resilience of these SMEs.

Nowadays a lot of companies use social media influencers as a marketing strategy. They are a tool for any emerging company that wants to increase consumer numbers of a specific target audience, effective for several generations. This research focuses on examining brand equity and consumers’ attitude and purchase intentions depending on credibility, measured as the expertise, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of social media influencers. To study these variables, a study hypothesis was made using the PSL-SEM model based on a measured questionnaire. The obtained results suggest that both credibility of social media influencers and brand equity have a positive impact on consumers’ purchase intentions and they are positively interrelated. These results also make it possible to infer that although the independent variable, trustworthiness, does not directly influence brand equity, it has indirect impact through other variables.

Delivering a positive tourism experience is an expanding concern of destinations because of the growth of the tourism industry. The emergence of creative tourism has led to a continued necessity for local destination management organizations to pursue innovative and versatile strategies. This study aims to evaluate the organizational capabilities of local destination management organizations to promote a creative tourism context and develop related activities. The conceptual model was tested using a mixed-methods approach, combining a focus group with local destination management organizations with a quantitative study using multivariate statistical analysis through structural equational modeling. The findings showed that local destination management organizations ought to prioritize organizational culture by coordinating learning and effective knowledge training to strengthen marketing communication capabilities while focusing on potentiating their resources to develop the destination by implementing a local creative tourism destination, thereby generating value for a greater creative tourism local destination where tourists play an active role.

Employee engagement is becoming an increasingly essential factor in organizational competitiveness. Although employee engagement is an extensively researched topic, the roles of new ways of working and physical environment factors are still under exploited. As such, this study examines the relationship between physical environment factors, the dimensions that integrate new ways of working, and employee engagement. Survey data with 126 respondents are analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings indicate a positive significant relationship between the physical environment factors and work engagement. Furthermore, this relation is mediated by four facets regarding new ways of working. The results also indicate that, for the group where facilities were not modified, the new ways of working are a stronger predictor of work engagement when compared with the group where facilities were modified. These findings extend existing knowledge on the antecedents of employee engagement, namely physical environment factors and new ways of working. Another important contribution is related to the mediating role of several facets of new ways of working in the relationship between physical environmental factors and employee engagement.