The impact of User-Generated Content and religiosity on tourist expectations and visit decisions in Muslim-friendly tourism

The rapid growth of Muslim-friendly tourism has intensified competition among halal destinations, making effective digital communication and trust-building mechanisms increasingly important. User-Generated Content (UGC) and religiosity are considered important factors influencing Muslim tourists’ decision-making processes; however, empirical evidence on their combined effects remains limited. This study aims to examine the influence of UGC on travel decisions to Muslim-friendly tourism destinations, with tourists’ expectations as a mediating variable and religiosity as a moderating vari-able. This study employed a quantitative approach, utilizing primary data collected in between June and August 2025 through structured questionnaires administered to 400 Muslim tourists visiting Muslim-friendly destinations in East Java, Indonesia. The data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares–Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test direct, mediation, and moderation relationships. The results indicate that UGC has a positive and significant influence on tourists’ expectations and visit decisions. Tourist expectations also showed a significant positive influence on visit decisions and acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between UGC and visit decisions, con-firming its central role in shaping travel behavior. Conversely, religiosity was found not to strengthen the relationship between tourist expectations and visit decisions, sug-gesting that highly religious tourists rely less on experiential expectations when making travel choices. These findings imply that halal destination managers should pri-oritize credible and emotionally engaging UGC strategies while considering varying levels of tourist religiosity. This study provides new empirical evidence by highlighting the moderating role of religiosity in Muslim-friendly tourism decision-making.