Emotional experience on behavioral intention for halal tourism

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine halal certification for halal culinary, destination brand and emotional experiences on customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a quantitative survey approach to 400 respondents consisting of Muslim foreign and domestic tourists who had visited Lombok in the past three years. The sampling technique is by purposive sampling. The analysis technique used in this study is structural equation modeling-partial least square (SEM-PLS). Findings: The findings showed that halal certification has no effect on customer satisfaction but on influenced behavioral intention, destination brand of Lombok had no effect on customer satisfaction; customer satisfaction influenced behavioral intention and emotional experiences affected customer satisfaction and behavioral intention. Research limitations/implications: This study collects data from respondents both domestic and foreign tourists simultaneously. However, the data acquisition of respondents and foreign tourists is not balanced. Thus, this study analyzes tourists in general, not distinguished between foreign and domestic tourists. Practical implications: The government and tourism organizers in Lombok need to provide socialization for domestic and foreign tourists on the need to choose halal-certified food and drinks to ensure halal and hygiene. In addition, so that the destination image of Lombok can provide a beautiful experience that becomes a moment of the truth, then the local government should improve its service strategy holistically. Social implications: Destination image needs to be improved. This requires holistic tourism quality services so that the social community knows that Indonesia has a halal tourism destination that exists as tourists come from the airport to the hotel and enjoy food in restaurants and tourist attractions that are Muslim friendly. Originality/value: This paper contributes to filling the void in the literature related to tourism management that is linked to tourism in the aftermath of natural disasters, where empirical studies on halal tourism are on the rise. Therefore, respondents in the study were specific, that is, those who had traveled. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of a kind that includes behavioral intention in tourist destinations after natural disasters in the Indonesian context.