The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 forced governments to continue with distance learning. Due to the absence of a formal digital learning management system (DLMS), public universities in many countries adopted social network sites (SNSs), e.g., Facebook and WhatsApp, and/or digital communication platforms, e.g., Microsoft (MS) Teams and Zoom for teaching and learning. This research investigates students’ learning experiences and responses to course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams as a sole distance learning platform during COVID-19. An online, pre-tested, questionnaire was used, directed at bachelor students in public institutions in Egypt, offering tourism and hotel programs, who received their courses using both SNSs and MS Teams. The results showed that the usage of both SNSs and MS Teams helped students to access information and learning resources, have good impact on their knowledge construction and critical refection, and report overall positive learning experience. The results of paired-samples t-test showed statistically significant differences between students’ experiences of course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams. However, students recorded limited support by their educators and peers and low participation in course activities that adopted MS Teams. They also reported poor assessment and feedback with course/s that incorporated SNSs. Hence, several implications for scholars, policymakers, and educators were presented for achieving better learning experience and to cope with the pandemic or similar crises, especially in universities with poor infrastructure, including unavailability of DLMS.

Digital-free tourism (DFT) has recently attracted tourism service providers’ attention for its benefits in terms of enhancing tourists’ experiences and well-being at destinations. DFT refers to tourists who are likely to voluntarily avoid digital devices and the Internet on holiday, or travel to destinations without network signals. DFT has advantages for tourists in increasing well-being, mental health, and social networking during their journeys. DFT also has a benefit for tourism marketers in that they can consider it as a new tourism approach. However, there is a lack of studies into tourists’ locus of control (LOC) while experiencing DFT holidays. LOC refers to how individuals assign the responsibility of event outcomes—whether they assign it to themselves (internal LOC) or they say it is beyond their control (external LOC). Therefore, the current study contributes to investigating tourists’ LOC impacts while experiencing DFT holidays. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with millennial tourists who have experienced DFT holidays. The study findings reveal that millennial tourists with an internal LOC (vs. external) are more likely to perceive the DFT advantages (vs. obstacles) during and after the DFT holidays. However, millennial tourists with external LOC incrementally change their attitudes and perceive the DFT holiday benefits through their self-efficacy enhancement. The findings propose managerial strategies for developing effective DFT holidays for millennial tourists regarding their LOC.

Recently, with increasing customer awareness about environmental issues, guests staying in hotels and potential consumers are more and more concerned about environmentally sustainable practices and their associated consequences. From the hotel industry perspective, empirical studies conducted on the association between customer citizenship behavior (CCB) and environmentally sustainable practices (ESPs) with the existence of green satisfaction (GS) are scarce. Consequently, the primary aim of the current study is to investigate the impact of ESPs on GS and CCB in a sample of five-star eco-friendly hotels in Egypt, as well as exploring the potential mediative role of GS in the relationship between CCB and ESPs. Additionally, we attempt to empirically determine to what extent GS directly impacts CCB. The study suggests a conceptual model for testing four hypothesized relationships between ESPs, GS, and CCB. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping was employed for testing our hypotheses. The findings of the study confirmed the significant positive impacts of ESPs on GS and CCB. Further, GS significantly and positively affects CCB. Moreover, GS partially mediates the relationship between CCB and ESPs. Given the study findings, some practical implications for improving GS and boosting CCBs in the green/eco-friendly hotel industry context are suggested.