Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Travel Management

How AI-Driven Hyper-Personalization Shapes Tourist Loyalty: The Mediating Roles of Tourist Engagement and Memorable Tourism Experiences

Marceilla Suryana — 2026-06-20

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly integrated into tourism services, enabling organizations to deliver highly personalized and adaptive experiences throughout the tourist journey. Despite growing interest in AI applications in tourism, limited research has examined how AI-driven hyper-personalization contributes to tourist loyalty through experiential and evaluative mechanisms. This study investigates the relationships among AI-driven hyper-personalization, tourist engagement, memorable tourism experiences, tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty. Drawing upon the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) framework, a conceptual model comprising five constructs and nine hypotheses was developed and tested. A quantitative research approach was employed, using a cross-sectional survey of 380 tourists who had used AI-enabled tourism services within the previous 12 months. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that AI-driven hyper-personalization positively influences tourist engagement, memorable tourism experiences, and tourist satisfaction. Tourist engagement significantly enhances memorable tourism experiences and satisfaction, and memorable experiences positively affect both satisfaction and loyalty. Tourist satisfaction also demonstrates a significant positive effect on tourist loyalty. However, the direct relationship between AI-driven hyper-personalization and tourist loyalty was not supported. The results indicate that AI-enabled personalization contributes to loyalty primarily through experiential and psychological mechanisms rather than through direct effects alone. The study extends the tourism marketing literature by positioning AI-driven hyper-personalization as a key antecedent of tourist engagement and memorable tourism experiences. Furthermore, the findings provide empirical support for the applicability of the SOR framework within AI-enabled tourism environments. Practical implications suggest that tourism organizations should focus on leveraging AI technologies to create meaningful, memorable, and satisfying experiences rather than emphasizing technological sophistication alone.

Digitalization and Hospitality Employee Turnover Intentions: A Sequential Structural Model of Technostress and Psychological Contract Breach

I Dewa Gede Sayang Adi Yadnya — 2026-06-28

Purpose – Driven by competitive pressures, the global hospitality industry is undergoing an aggressive digital transformation. While management frequently praises this digital pivot for optimizing organizational performance, the human capital driving frontline service delivery remains under considerable psychological strain. Grounded in the complementary Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and Conservation of Resources (COR) theories, this study investigates the psychological mechanisms linking digitalization to workforce withdrawal in high-touch hospitality environments. Specifically, the study develops and tests a sequential structural framework explaining how digital job demands and AI disruption threats influence turnover intentions through Technostress, psychological contract breach, surface acting, and job burnout.

Methodology – A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted among 385 full-time frontline hospitality employees working in international chain hotels and premium fine-dining establishments across major tourism destinations in Indonesia. Respondents were selected using purposive sampling and reported regular exposure to advanced digital systems and automated workflows. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).

Findings – The results support all ten hypothesized direct relationships. Digital Job Demands significantly increase Technostress, whereas AI Disruption Threat significantly increases Psychological Contract Breach and Surface Acting. Technostress further contributes to Psychological Contract Breach and Job Burnout. In turn, Psychological Contract Breach and Surface Acting significantly intensify Job Burnout, while Psychological Contract Breach, Surface Acting, and Job Burnout positively influence Turnover Intentions. The findings identify Psychological Contract Breach as a critical relational mechanism and Job Burnout as a key explanatory factor linking technology-related pressures to employee withdrawal intentions.

Originality/value – This study extends existing Technostress and turnover literature by integrating cognitive (Psychological Contract Breach) and emotional (Surface Acting) mechanisms within a unified sequential structural framework. By combining JD-R and COR perspectives, the study provides a more comprehensive explanation of how digital transformation influences employee retention and offers practical insights for hospitality organizations seeking to balance technological innovation with workforce sustainability.

A Creative Tourism Strategy Based on Local Culture to Create a Memorable Tourism Experience in the Margacinta Tourism Village

Riza Saepul Millah — 2026-08-06

Purpose-This study aims to analyse how creative tourism activities in Margacinta Tourism Village, Pangandaran Regency, contribute to the quality of the tourist experience through the integration of cultural heritage, creative economy, and participatory tourism practices.

Methodology -A descriptive qualitative approach was employed using observations, in-depth interviews, and document analysis. Data were collected from key tourism stakeholders, including village tourism managers, MSMEs, cultural arts groups, and tourists. The analysis focused on understanding how participatory creative tourism activities shaped tourists' experiences and supported local community development.

Findings-The findings indicate that creative tourism activities—including Badud Cultural Arts performances, Ecoprint Dahon Batik workshops, direct honey-harvesting experiences, Liwet Jolem culinary experiences, and interactive storytelling sessions—significantly enhanced the quality of the tourist experience by encouraging active participation rather than passive consumption. Cultural immersion through traditional performances strengthened perceptions of authenticity, while hands-on workshops enabled the co-creation of memorable tourism experiences. These activities increased tourist satisfaction, reinforced the destination's cultural identity, and generated economic opportunities for local communities through community-based creative tourism packages.

Research Limitations/Implications-As a qualitative case study conducted in a single tourism village, the findings are context-specific and may not be directly generalisable to other destinations. Future studies could employ comparative or mixed-method approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of creative tourism across different rural tourism destinations.

Practical Implications-The study provides practical insights for destination managers, local governments, and community organisations in designing participatory tourism products that integrate cultural heritage, local creative industries, and community empowerment to enhance destination competitiveness and sustainability.

Originality - This study contributes to the creative tourism literature by demonstrating how the integration of cultural arts, local economic activities, and participatory experiences can simultaneously improve tourist experience quality, strengthen destination identity, and support sustainable community-based tourism development in rural destinations.

Environmental and Safety Information Needs for Smart Tourism Development in Pahawang Island, Indonesia

Syafitri Natasya Burhani — 2026-08-26

Small-island tourism is closely influenced by environmental conditions, making accessible and timely information important for tourism safety and destination management. Pahawang Island has significant marine tourism potential, but environmental and safety information is not always available in an accessible, timely, and integrated form. This study aims to identify the availability and accessibility of environmental and safety information for tourists and tourism stakeholders and to examine its importance for tourism management and smart tourism development. A qualitative approach was employed using qualitative content analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 tourists and 3 tourism stakeholders —Head of the Destination Development Division, Tourism Office of Pesawaran Regency; Head of Pahawang Village; Chairperson of the Tourism Awareness Group (Pokdarwis)—, supported by non-participant observation and secondary data. The findings show that tourists primarily require information on weather, waves, currents, tides, water quality, safe tourism locations, and safety procedures. Although information is available through tour guides, social media, and other channels, its accessibility, timeliness, and integration remain limited. Tourists also showed interest in digital and real-time information to complement existing tourism information practices. The findings indicate that environmental and safety information supports tourist decision-making, tourism safety, and destination management. This study contributes a planning-oriented perspective to smart tourism by emphasizing the identification of information needs before technological implementation. The findings provide a basis for improving tourism information management in Pahawang Island and considering appropriate digital technologies for future development.

Building Tourism from Within: Mobilizing the Lens of Social Innovation on Pasaran Island

Isye Susana Nurhasanah — 2026-08-26

The identification of tourism attractions and supporting tourism-related infrastructure in small urban islands is often preceded by an unawareness of the existing social and institutional capacity. This study scrutinizes existing livelihoods practices, community networks, environmental initiatives and the governance on Pasaran Island, a small Indonesian island with high tourism potential. A qualitative research approach used with 13 semi-structured interviews, non-participant observation and analysis of relevant government and institutional documents. Mobilizing the lens of social innovation, findings were interpreted from community-based tourism and destination governance perspectives. Livelihoods in the fisheries and fish processing sectors possess the knowledge, skills and business structures that can support future visitor-oriented activities. Existing community-based producer groups and SEA MAMA—a women initiative group, recycling community have shown emerging capacities for collective actions and environmental stewardship. Formal planning mechanisms and government facilitation provide further institutional entry points, despite limiting community influence over decision-making. These capacities are subject to weak access to capital, underused facilities, fragmented environmental management, dependence on local champions, and the absence of integrated tourism governance. The study argues that Pasaran Island is best understood as a pre-destination community in which livelihood assets and institutions form tourism-enabling social capacity but have not yet developed into destination-level institutionalization.

Push and Pull Factors Motivating Backpacker Tourists to Travel to the City of Bandung

Rinjani Septiani Putri — 2026-09-01

Bandung City is one of Indonesia's leading urban tourism destinations and continues to attract a growing number of domestic tourists, including an increasing segment of backpacker tourists whose travel motivations differ from those of conventional, package-based tourists. This study aims to describe the internal (push) and external (pull) factors that motivate backpacker tourists to visit Bandung City and to compare descriptively which group of factors obtains a higher average score in this sample. A cross-sectional descriptive quantitative design was used, with data collected through a closed-ended questionnaire distributed to 114 backpacker tourists selected through purposive sampling and analyzed using a scoring technique with continuum-line categorization. Push factors, calculated as the unweighted mean of eight dimension-level percentages, fell into the high-to-very-high category with a mean score of 84%; Self Evaluation was the highest-scoring dimension (88%), followed by Escape (87%) and Regression (86%). Pull factors obtained a marginally higher unweighted mean of 86% across nine dimensions, with Environment scoring highest (89%), followed by Safety and Atmosphere (87% each), while Cleanliness recorded the lowest score among all eighteen dimensions (79%). A paired-samples t-test on respondent-level composite scores confirmed that this difference is statistically significant, t(113) = 3.38, p = .001, though the effect size is small (Cohen's d = 0.32), indicating that pull factors scored marginally but consistently higher than push factors within respondents rather than substantially outweighing them. Both push and pull factors nonetheless play a complementary role in shaping backpacker travel motivation, with implications for how destination managers in Bandung City might prioritize environmental comfort, public safety, and cleanliness for this segment.

Tourists' Perceptions of Udjo Ecoland Through the 4A Destination Framework

Selvi Ramadanti — 2026-09-02

Udjo Ecoland is a tourism destination that combines cultural, educational, and nature-based experiences under the same management as Saung Angklung Udjo. This study aims to analyze tourists' perceptions of Udjo Ecoland Based on the four tourism destination components (4A): Attraction, Accessibility, Amenities, and Ancillary. A descriptive quantitative approach was employed, using a non-probability, purposive sampling technique to select 100 tourists who had visited Udjo Ecoland. Semi-structured interviews with one Site Manager and two tourists were used as supplementary contextual evidence. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, specifically mean and standard deviation, for each 4A dimension. The findings show that all four destination components were positively evaluated, ranging from Agree to Strongly Agree. Attraction recorded the highest mean score (4.26, Strongly Agree), followed by Ancillary (4.18, Strongly Agree), Amenities (3.94, Agree), and Accessibility (3.59, Agree). The findings indicate that Attraction is the strongest-rated component, while Accessibility is the main area for improvement. The interviews provide contextual explanations of destination strengths and operational challenges without establishing causal relationships with visitor fluctuations.