Conflicting halal attributes at halal restaurants and consumers’ responses: The moderating role of religiosity

Abstract

Halal tourism has gained significant attention in the tourism and hospitality literature, yet the questions on Halalness remained unanswered. This study proposes a conceptual framework that investigates how the conflicting halal attributes—conflicting halalness, conflicting social servicescape, conflicting atmospherics—lead to Muslim tourists’ attitude ambivalence, which further generates psychological discomfort followed by adverse downstream bipolar behavioral responses—choice deferral and revisit intention. Moreover, the present research examines the moderating role of tourists’ religiosity on attitude ambivalence through conflicting halal attributes. Data were gathered from 546 inbound Muslim tourists at various halal restaurants in China. Results reveal that conflicting halal attributes positively affect tourists’ attitude ambivalence that stimulates their psychological discomfort, which, in turn, triggers positive choice deferral and negative revisit intentions. Religiosity partially moderates the associations between conflicting halal attributes and tourists’ attitude ambivalence. The study’s findings extend the literature on Islamic marketing, service management, consumer psychology, halal tourism, and halal restaurants.