Hotel Choice of Muslim Consumers: Assessing the Unobserved Heterogeneity Among Gender

Abstract

This paper aims to offer gendered insights on Malaysian Muslim tourist views of hotel choices. This study was designed to look at possible gender disparities in the perceived relevance of hotel attributes in developing emotional bonds with the hotel, that was enhanced by the brand credibility. The signaling theory were utilised to evaluate the relationships among the constructs. To validate the research model and hypotheses, the study used a partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique, and 474 Malaysian tourists were recruited to test the assumptions. The empirical results reveal that gender does not moderates the relationship between hotel attributes, brand credibility and brand attachment. Therefore, indicating that there were no differences observed between female and male Muslim tourists in their decision-making style. However, both male and female exhibited disparities in terms of strength on each construct. The findings of this study further provide a valuable implications and reference in terms of theoretical and practical perspective in the tourism destinations context, especially in Malaysia.