Sustainable development in halal tourism industry: The role of innovation and environmental concern

. Halal tourism has increased and become a key tourism industry following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although this industry suffered greatly during the pandemic, it has made a promising return after the outbreak ended. Understanding how to sustain the tourism business in this recovering industry is critical. This study attempts to build a model of a sustainable strategy for the halal tourism industry from the tourist’s perspective, i.e., the tourists’ experience and their pleasure with the visit, by emp loying innovation and environmental concern as the determinants. Data from 442 inbound tourists visiting various Indonesian tourism destinations were used in this study. Using Partial Least Squares modelling, this study discovers that innovation and environmental concern are significant determinants of tourist experiences in tourism destinations, with innovation having a higher influence. Subsequently, tourist satisfaction is highly influenced by the attraction and halal products and services. Thus, this analysis implies that destination innovation and tourist concern for the environment are critical variables for the sustainable development of halal tourism.


Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic left a massive shock for halal tourism, which accommodates Islamic values in products and services for Muslim tourists [1].Amid its steady global growth, the particular sector experienced shrinkage for 90% of its usual performance due to the pandemic [2].Yet, as the outbreak has already ceased, an encouraging recovery in halal tourism is occurring, with a predicted total recovery of 160 million arrivals by 2024 [2].During the restoration stage of the halal tourism market, it is critical to discern how to make the destination sustainable accordingly.
A success key to attaining sustainability in the tourism industry is to create tourist satisfaction, which many studies have explored [3][4].Most studies have posited that tourism managers should establish competence in providing an appealing tourist experience.Although people's behaviour has been readjusted after the pandemic [5], current recommendations given by past studies regarding tourist experience mainly fit with prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.The recommendations have been already less relevant to managing the everyday challenges of tourism sustainability in the post-COVID-19 era.Therefore, it is imperative to investigate more ways to encourage sustainability in tourism for a quality tourist experience, meeting tourist's needs at the present and in the future [4,6].
Driven by this research gap, this study proposes environmental concern and innovation to play significant roles in the sustainable development strategy as they promote the experience of tourists and their satisfaction with a destination.Hence, this study attempts to disclose the influence of innovation and environmental concerns on tourist experience and satisfaction post-pandemic.This study examines Indonesia's inbound Muslim tourists since the country ranks at the top worldwide for halal destinations in 2022 and 2023 [2].Accordingly, Indonesia is likely promising to attract Muslim tourists, and developing a sustainable strategy for halal tourism in this country is reasonable.

Satisfaction-based sustainable model in halal tourism
Tourist satisfaction is when a tourist judges how well a destination meets their expectations before arrival [7].According to this concept, when tourism products or services surpass visitors' expectations, there is a greater chance to reach tourist satisfaction.Recent studies on tourist satisfaction affirmed that future tourist behaviour is considerably influenced by tourist satisfaction.Thus, this factor is essential for growing the halal tourism sector sustainably [3][4].Numerous drivers have been identified as determinants of tourist satisfaction during their visits.Among them, the authors propose visit experience, innovation, and environmental concern to be the significant elements for tourist satisfaction.
Tourist engagement in tourism events results in a tourist experience, a tourist reaction to a tourism stimulus [8].This experience, which includes participation in the attraction and emotional as well as cognitive responses, can affect how a visitor behaves in the future [9].Past studies [10][11] contended that tourists' reactions to a travel destination and its available attractions are social and psychological.Therefore, tourist experiences should be viewed as subjective, with numerous symbolic components influencing tourists' feelings and future behaviour [12].
Tourists are driven by various factors when they decide to travel to a particular destination.Fulfilling their hedonic needs by seeking pleasure from the experience is one of the primary determinants [13][14].It becomes unquestionably crucial when tourists attempt to experience tourist attractions at the destination to meet their hedonic needs.Nonetheless, Muslim tourists with religious needs on their consumption often require more than just a hedonic experience; they expect specific needs for halal products and services to achieve satisfaction [15][16][17].
The practical application of concepts that yield the creation of new products, services, or improvements in the delivery of products or services is referred to as innovation [18].According to Wu and Cheng [19], innovation is a strategy for creating something novel to enhance visitors' experiences at the destination.Innovation within the tourism industry is also tied to a destination; it involves proposing fresh concepts for enhancements and innovations pertaining not only to tourism products or services but also to a destination's process and organizational system [20].Recent studies discovered that innovation influences tourists' experience [21][22] and the relationship between loyalty and experience quality [11], [23].As customers in halal tourism destinations, Muslim tourists will encounter both halal products/services and attractions open to innovative improvements.
Environmental concern is a view, posture, and degree of care about the environment that stems from concerns about climate change and poor environmental quality [24][25][26].An increase in environmental concern expressed by tourists, residents, and governments prompts the tourism industry to take innovative (product, service, process, or others) action [18].
Empirical research revealed that tourists' care for the environment positively impacts their destination visit and, consecutively, their future behaviour toward the destination [27][28][29].Halal tourism is associated with the Islamic view of a Muslim as a servant of nature who should live in peace with the environment and all other species [2].Muslim tourists should embrace ethical and sustainable travel habits according to their religious beliefs and teachings [2].As a result, it is envisaged that their environmental concern will impact their experience with the attraction and halal products/services they consume in the destination.
The model of satisfaction-based sustainability in halal tourism, as shown in Figure 1, is the result of this discussion.

Methods
Given the study's goal, this study employed a quantitative method, with data obtained from a survey.Purposive sampling was used since this study focused on Muslim tourists visiting Indonesia (inbound Muslim tourists).It concentrated on three major tourist destinations: Batam, Bali, and Jogjakarta regions.From June to July 2023, research assistants handed the questionnaire to tourists in those tourism destinations before they left the attractions.442 out of 511 respondents provided useful responses.
The variables utilized in this observation have been the subject of numerous past studies.Therefore, the construct measurement from prior relevant studies was adopted (see Table 1).The variables were graded on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being "strongly disagree/very poor" and 5 being "strongly agree/very good".A well-understood questionnaire is essential for this study; thus, 20 inbound Muslim tourists did a pre-test on the questionnaire.
Following the recommendation of Hair et al [30], this study employed a partial least square modelling to evaluate the suggested model since it aspires to verify the model sustainability in the tourism sector based on tourist experience and satisfaction.The application of the data analysis method was also motivated by the fact that the data in this study was not regularly distributed.

Measurement model
The findings (Table 2) depict that the variables utilized in this study have met the standards for validity and reliability [30].Each indicator possesses a loading factor value over 0.6 and is statistically significant at p<0.01.Following that, the average variance extracted (AVE) is more effective than 0.5, and Cronbach's Alpha is greater than 0.7 for all variables.Finally, referring to the recommendation of Henseler et al [31], the discriminant validity was tested using the Heterotrait-Monotrait approach.All values are less than 0.9, indicating that the constructs are valid.

Structural model
The purpose of the structural model test is to evaluate the suggested hypotheses and the proposed model's fitness.To assess the significance of the indicators and the model's fitness, this study used 5,000 bootstrapping iterations.The path coefficient yields a goodness of fit value of 0.583 [32].Following that, the R² value of 62.7% indicates that the degree of explanation power of destination loyalty determinants is substantial [33].Q² is another tool used to evaluate the appropriateness of extraneous variable prediction power; all values are positive [33].
The effect of environmental concern (β = 0.003) on satisfaction is insignificant, as seen in Table 3.However, it substantially impacts both attraction (β = 0.362) and halal experience (β = 0.390).Subsequently, there is a notable effect of attraction experience (β = 0.623) and halal experience (β = 0.223) on satisfaction.Likewise, innovation has a noteworthy impact on the attractiveness experience (β = 0.459) and halal experience (β = 0.339).The results of assessing the link between variables emphasize the importance of both tourist experiences with attractions and the availability of halal products and services on tourist satisfaction with the visit.This study, then, underlines the significance of innovation and environmental concern in improving tourists' experience when visiting a destination.

Discussion and implications
This study provides significant insights into how visitors' experiences with tourist attractions and halal goods/services affect their satisfaction level.Given that both experience and satisfaction are essential factors in driving tourists to revisit and recommend a tourism destination, this study suggests that providing excellent experiences in the destination (both the attraction and halal products and services) and making Muslim tourists satisfied are essential for developing the business sustainability of a tourism destination and its business players.This study reveals two crucial variables in offering an outstanding tourist experience: environmental concern and innovation.This study emphasizes the significance of environmental concern in enhancing tourists' experiences with attractions and halal products/services in the destination, despite having no direct impact on tourist satisfaction.The considerable effect of environmental concern on the tourist experience, especially toward products and services, is consistent with other research [26,28], indicating that environmental concern is a crucial issue for tourist travel in the postpandemic.This study implies that showing Muslim tourists that the destination is committed to preserving the environment is critical.It also means that tourism destination managers should focus on reinventing their products and services by offering a unique experience and quality halal products and services that align with sustainable environmental practices for Muslim tourists.The management should specifically strive to include environmentally friendly methods in their business operations.Eco-friendly business practices, such as employing environmentally friendly products and services and implementing recycling policies, must be standard procedures at the destination.
Subsequently, this study presents a distinctive finding concerning innovation in tourism destinations.The considerable effect of innovations on attraction experience and experience with halal products and services demonstrates the relevance of innovation in the contemporary post-pandemic.Previous research [34][35][36] discovered that the influence of innovation on tourist experiences is consistent.The importance of innovation in the tourist experience with attractions and halal products and services implies that post-pandemic halal tourism must focus on innovation.It is advised that both destination managers and tourism industry actors continue to innovate their tourist products and services.Also, they are recommended to allocate their resources, both financial and non-financial, to adopt smart tourism technology since the current developments highlight the importance of that particular kind of technology.It will facilitate tourist experiences and create new innovative and unique attractions as well as halal products/services in the destination.It is highly encouraged, for

Conclusion, limitation, and future research
Based on the evaluation of the proposed model, this study suggests that environmental concern and innovation are essential to the development of the sustainability of the halal tourism industry.Although it makes a substantial contribution, this study has certain drawbacks.Data from Indonesian inbound tourists visiting various tourism hotspots were used in this study.This specialized data effectively limits the generalizability of the conclusions.Conducting the study across multiple tourist locations will likely address the general finding of tourists' expectations and experiences, which vary throughout cultures and geographical areas.This study could be further enhanced by looking at the sustainable tourism sector by investigating Muslim tourists traveling abroad.In addition to innovation and environmental concerns, tourists' experience and satisfaction are also influenced by how they view smart tourism technologies, trust, and the destinations' reputation [37][38].Future research will benefit if those factors can be incorporated into the extended suitability of halal tourism.

Table 1 .
Results of validity and reliability.

Table 2 .
Results of testing the relationships.
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