Vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel) and branding destinations for COVID-19 safety have emerged as the cornerstones to fully rebound global tourism. Numerous destination brands are now stimulating tourism demand through realigned travel incentives specifically for fully vaccinated travelers. However, there is growing fear and incidents of travel shaming across destinations, especially due to the recent outbreaks of the highly contagious COVID-19 ‘delta and omicron’ variants. Addressing this critical research gap, the present study makes pioneering efforts to empirically examine the effects of COVID-19 branded destination safety (CBDS) on vaxication intentions, under the moderating influence of travel shaming and travel incentives. Drawing on study data from 560 fully-vaccinated residents from Hawaii, United States and structural equation modeling (SEM) with Mplus, the evidence suggests that the positive impact of CBDS on vaxication intention can be further strengthened by travel incentives, or weakened when travel shaming picks up more momentum. Besides the validation of newly developed scales, the study offers strategic insights based on dominant theories (e.g., theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory) to interpret the changing tourism demand, and to transform the emerging challenges into opportunities through and beyond the pandemic.

PurposeFailures in both followership and leadership become inevitable as mega construction projects are directed and controlled by toxic leaders. Consequently, team member's desire for knowledge hoarding silence is triggered and goal alignment between the leader and team members suddenly fades away to realize success in mega projects. Considering the growing importance of these rarely examined constructs and fragmented literature on toxic leadership (TL), team silence and mega project success (PS) in the global construction industry, the present study aimed to examine the effects of TL and project team member's silence (PTMS) on the success of mega construction projects. Moreover, the mediating influence of PTMS to link TL and mega construction PS has also been explored.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on survey data of 326 project professionals directly associated with mega construction projects worth US$62bn under the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the conceptual model was tested with covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) using Mplus program. Scales were adapted from previous research to measure TL (with its five-dimensions including abusive supervision, authoritarian leadership, self-promotion, narcissism and unpredictability), PS (with its three-dimensions including project management success, project ownership success and project investment success) and project team members' silence. Reflective–formative second order assessments were specifically applied to measure the multi-dimensional nature of TL and PS, respectively.FindingsMplus estimations revealed that TL negatively influences PS, besides forcing a culture of silence among project team members. Interestingly, the relationship between TL and PS is also negatively mediated by the PTMS.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study's findings are derived from data of project professionals (N = 326) to examine success in megaprojects under the CPEC. Hence, these findings may be re-validated through future studies on similar megaprojects (e.g. China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) worth US$8tn) that may also be predicated by TL tendencies, silent cultures and high-stakes involved to seize PS.Practical implicationsPolicymakers, construction practitioners and other key stakeholders (e.g. departmental heads/supervisors) can take advantage of this new evidence to better interpret the success paradox in mega projects, and to reduce the spread and long-term damage of TL on team members and eventually create opportunities for PS.Originality/valueThe present study's novelty is manifested within this first empirical evidence on TL that breeds team silence in underperforming mega projects. Notably, present study offers alarming evidence on mega projects that can be easily derailed from success, as they continue to suffer from team silence and TL.

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The rebirth of global tourism with a massive rebound is anticipated due to an emerging touristic behavior coined as vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel). Despite the ongoing fatigue triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers’ fear of missing out (FOMO), and destination crisis marketing (DCM) can further accelerate travelers’ momentum towards vaxication. To address this critical knowledge gap in COVID-19 tourism, the present study aimed to examine the effect of pandemic fatigue on vaxication intention for the greatest of all trips (GOAT) under the moderating influence of travel FOMO and destination crisis marketing. Drawing on data of international expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (N = 356) and using covariance-based structural equation modeling with Mplus, the findings provide new evidence supporting a positive impact of international expat’s pandemic fatigue on vaxication intention for GOAT. Interestingly, this relationship is significantly reinforced by the international expat’s travel FOMO as well as tourism destinations switching gears from ‘managing crisis’ to ‘marketing crisis’. Based on prominent theories (i.e., theory of planned behavior, cognitive load theory, and protection motivation theory) and newly developed scales (i.e., travel FOMO and destination crisis marketing), the study implications are directed towards an outpacing trajectory of global tourism return prompted by pandemic fatigue, travel FOMO, destination crisis marketing, and vaxication intention for the greatest of all trips.

The purpose of this study is to explore how various dimensions of leadership style are being used to measure organizational effectiveness. Job satisfaction is one of the essential indicators used to measure organizational effectiveness. Literature suggests that the manager’s transformational leadership style highly influences the employees’ job satisfaction. This study focuses on identifying the role of a transformational leader in developing job satisfaction in employees of the banking industry, using the organizations’ learning culture as the moderating variable. For this purpose, a total of 180 respondents were surveyed from UAE’s banking sector. In this study descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis were employed for the data analyses. The results confirmed that the five dimensions of transformational leaders and overall transformational leadership style significantly affect the employee’s job satisfaction, whereas the moderating effect of the organizational learning culture on any of the said relationships was found insignificant. This study used self-reported data based on a cross-sectional survey in the banking sector only. The research emphasizes the implication of the leaders’ personal traits to be a significant determinant of an employee’s satisfaction. In addition, managers in the banking sector in UAE realized that organization learning culture (OLC) has not had any significant impact on employees’ job satisfaction. As there is not sufficient literature on the moderating role of organizational learning culture, this study is a valuable contribution to the existing body of knowledge.