The role of mindfulness in tourism: Tourism businesses\u27 perceptions of mindfulness in Dubai, UAE

Mindfulness is the ability of an individual to actively process information surrounding them with the aim of using that information to draw distinctive or novel conclusions. By facilitating mindfulness, businesses can benefit from having a stronger competitive advantage, increased loyalty, and provide a more meaningful experience to their customers. Mindfulness is a state of awareness that can be encouraged in individuals regardless of their mental state or demographic characteristics; almost a universal tool to enhance individuals\u27 memories and well-being. Mindfulness literature relating to tourism is brief and often has considered individual sites from a quantitative perspective. In efforts to reduce this gap, a qualitative study was conducted, interviewing tourism business managers throughout Dubai to obtain their insights. The emerging themes facilitated the generation of a model providing an alternative perspective to Moscardo\u27s (1996) model by placing the impetus of creating mindfulness on the individual and the provision of personal interactions. The model additionally stressed the importance of stimulating mindful tourists, in order to allow businesses to benefit from a combination of hard, financial, benefits and soft, experiential, benefits. Such insights can provide tourism-related businesses with a competitive advantage which will not only improve the businesses\u27 financials, but also improve customers\u27 perceptions, memories, and interest in the business