Re-Establishing Jordan’s Brand Trust in the Tourism Sector Using Experiential Marketing: A Post-Gaza Conflict Scenario

METHODOLOGY

This research employed an explanatory mixed-methods design to examine how experiential marketing strategies can restore Jordan’s brand trust in the tourism industry following the Gaza war. The design combined a sequential alignment of quantitative and qualitative methods, which enabled both statistical analysis and richer contextual understanding. A mixed-method approach considering explanatory design was chosen to offer both quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding the relationships between the various dimensions of experiential marketing, the perceived safety, and the brand trust, and to offer qualitative information about the stakeholder perspectives to gain a deeper insight into the mechanism of restoring the brand trust in the post-conflict tourism settings.

In the quantitative stage, a focused questionnaire survey (Appendix A) was distributed to 700 participants, including domestic and foreign visitors, recent visitors to Jordan within the last 12 months, and service providers in the tourism sector. 420 responses (60%) were collected and, after imputation for missing values, 395 valid replies were left for analysis. In the case of the survey, it targeted the domestic and foreign tourists who had visited Jordan in the last 12 months by applying a purposive sampling approach. This guaranteed that the participants were experienced providers of tourism services in the post-Gaza conflict era. The purposive sampling method enabled the researchers to concentrate on respondents who were the most relevant to the research objectives and still provide diversity in terms of age, nationality, and purpose of travel. The 395 respondents were selected to develop a sufficient statistical power of the PLS-SEM analysis, given the complexity of the model, as it included five dimensions of experiential marketing and a mediating variable. The minimum sample size of 146 participants was suggested by applying G*Power 3.1 to linear multiple regression (a = 0.05, power = 0.95, 6 predictors). The sample received is larger than this, which helps to assume strong estimation of the path coefficients, reliability, and validity, and depiction of domestic and foreign tourists after the Gaza conflict.

The survey employed a five-point Likert scale to assess perceptions of experiential marketing dimensions and how these affected brand trust and loyalty. Quantitative data were analysed using SmartPLS, which facilitated the examination of the measurement and structural models via Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) for testing assumed relationships. The demographic profile of respondents is presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographic respondents for questionnaire survey.

A number of steps were implemented to limit possible biases within this research. Common method bias (CMB) was managed using the Harman single-factor test. Harman’s single-factor test ascertained that there was no one factor that explained the majority of variance since the first variance generated was lower than 50% and therefore CMB was not an issue. In order to minimise selection bias, the sample was taken from various subgroups of the tourism industry, both domestic and foreign tourists, and various service providers to ensure representativeness. Non-response bias was assessed by testing for differences between early and late responders by independent t-tests. It has been indicated that all variables, such as act positively (p-value > 0.05), brand trust (p-value > 0.05), feel positively (p-value > 0.05), perceived safety (p-value > 0.05), sense positively (p-value > 0.05), and think positively   (p-value >0.05). Hence, it indicated that there is no response bias issue for this research.

Qualitative phase supplemented the quantitative results via semi-structured interviews of the most important stakeholders using an interview questionnaire (Appendix B), i.e., tourism officials, marketing experts, and hospitality managers. 15 persons were approached, and 12 participated in interviews. The thematic saturation of the qualitative sample of 12 semi-structured interviews was established, which is a saturation of the qualitative sample, when no new information was obtained, but rather information was redundant. Tourism officials, marketing professionals, and service providers were chosen in terms of their availability and direct role in regaining brand trust. This was an adequate sample size that offered deep, contextually sensitive information to supplement quantitative results, which brought in-depth and believability to the interpretation of the effects of experiential marketing in post-Gaza Jordanian tourism. In the case of the interviews, convenience sampling was utilised to sample the tourism stakeholders, such as service providers, marketing professionals, and officials. Participants were selected on the basis of accessibility and availability that enables them to collect data in time and provide rich and context-specific insights that minimise potential biases posed by -also. This convenience-based approach was used to guarantee a practical interaction with the key informants who could describe organisational practices and issues in regaining brand trust to supplement quantitative results. Demographic profiles of the respondents are presented in Table 2. The qualitative data were inspected through thematic analysis in accordance with (Braun & Clarke’s, 2006) six-step process, familiarisation, coding, theme generation, reviewing, defining, and reporting, to extract crucial patterns and stories concerning experiential marketing and restoring brand trust.

Table 2. Demographic respondents for interviews.

Ethical aspects were taken into account when carrying out the data collection. All of the participants were inducted using informed consent before data was collected, with the respondents being fully aware of the purpose of the study. Voluntary participation and the right to withdraw at any point were also provided to all the participants. Anonymity and confidentiality were guaranteed, and no personal data was taken; approval from the research review committee of the institute was also obtained. Data was safely recorded, stored, and used only for this research purpose in reference to the general data protection rules.

RESULTS

Measurement Model Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA)

Table 3 below shows the measurement model using CFA, which involves assessing the validity and reliability of the instrument using factor loadings (FL), Cronbach’s alpha (CA), Composite Reliability (CR), and Average Variance Extracted (AVE). FL indicates the validity of the instruments, where (Hair et al., 2020) indicate that the value must be higher than 0.6. Table 1 shows that all items have FL values above 0.6, hence indicating that no variables are to be dropped. (Brown & Moore, 2012) indicated that CA and CR must be greater than 0.7 to indicate reliability. All variables below have a value higher than 0.7, and hence they are reliable. (Hair et al., 2020) reflect that AVE values must be higher than 0.5 to reflect convergent validity. AVE values for all variables are higher than 0.5, showing that convergent validity is ensured.

Table 3. Measurement model using CFA.

Table 4 shows the discriminant validity of the variables, indicating that the items of one variable are distinctly unrelated to other variables. (Hair et al., 2020) recommend the HTMT ratio to be below 0.85 to ensure discriminant validity. Consequently, Table 2 indicates that the values of HTMT for all the constructs are below the threshold of 0.85, which indicates that all constructs of the study are separated and different from each other, with no conceptual overlapping.

Table 4. Discriminant validity.

Path Analysis

Table 5 below shows the path analysis indicating the testing of the hypotheses of the study. It shows that in the case of acting positively, the path to brand trust was marginally significant       (β = 0.094, p = 0.057), which shows a feeble but evocative effect at the 90% confidence level.  Feel positively is also significantly and positively related to brand trust (β = 0.085, p = 0.021). Sense positively has an insignificant impact on the brand trust (β = -0.016, p = 0.710). While thinking positively has a statistically insignificant impact on the brand trust (β = 0.025,  p = 0.622). Perceived safety has a positive and significant impact on the brand trust (β = 0.748, p = 0.000). Furthermore, the specific indirect effect shows that perceived safety has a negative and significant mediating impact on the relationship between sense positively and brand trust (β = -0.119, p = 0.029). It shows the partial mediation since both direct and indirect effect has a significant impact. Furthermore, perceived safety has a significant mediating impact on the relationship between thinking positively and brand trust (B 0.226, p = 0.000). It shows the full mediation since direct and indirect impacts have different impacts. Furthermore, perceived safety has a significant mediating impact on the relationship between acting positively and brand trust (β = 0.302, p = 0.002). It shows partial mediation since the direct and indirect impact has a significant impact. Furthermore, perceived safety shows a marginally significant mediating impact in the path between feeling positively and brand trust (β = 0.099, p = 0.058), which signifies an uncertain mediation at the 90% confidence level. It reflects partial mediation since both direct and indirect impact has an insignificant impact. Therefore, the results indicate acceptance of H2, H3, H4, H5a, H5b, H5c, and H5d.

Table 5. Path analysis.

Note: * indicates significance at 10%, ** indicates significance at 5%, *** indicates significance at 1%.

Model Explanatory Power

Table 6 shows the model’s explanatory power. It shows that brand trust has an R-squared of 0.696, showing that 69.6% of the variance in brand trust can be explained through experiential marketing and perceived safety. Furthermore, perceived safety has an R-square of 0.253, showing that 25.3% of the variance in perceived safety is explained through experiential marketing factors.

Table 6. Model explanatory power.

Qualitative Analysis

Using Braun and Clarke’s approach, the results of thematic analysis have been tabulated in Table 7, comprising three core themes.

Theme 1: Experiential Positivity as the Foundation for Brand Trust

This theme was established through ongoing patterns that were found in responses regarding how tourists build perceptions and regain confidence in Jordan following the Gaza conflict. Through ongoing references during the coding process, regular references appeared around good feelings, behaviours, and thoughts such as hospitality, optimism, and proactive behaviour, which all influenced visitors’ trust in Jordan’s tourism brand. Stakeholders consistently connected these experiential factors to credibility and emotional reassurance, marking convergence with the quantitative variables feel positively, act positively, and think positively.

Brand trust was noted by tourism officials and hospitality managers not to be established by promotions but by the aggregate emotional and behavioural experiences encountered by tourists. Respondent 3, a hotel administrator, said,

“Tourists retain the memory of how we made them feel above all else — that’s what restores confidence.”

Likewise, a marketing official (Respondent 8) said,

“Our campaigns have to emphasize optimism and resilience, to shift the way people think about Jordan.”

The responses show that experiential positivity leads to brand trust as it exhibits how emotional and behavioural engagement is a mechanism that minimises uncertainty and perceived risk in a post-conflict setting. It aligns with (Alazaizeh et al., 2024), who also unveiled that the proactive service behaviours and optimism serve as psychological anchors, and the fear of regional instability. This further elucidates the quantitative results as it is clear that, not only do the impacts of “Feel positively” and “Act positively” correlate with the trust, but take place through cognitive and behavioural pathways, which sheds light on the mechanism by which experiential marketing dimensions restore the confidence of tourists and provide the perception that there is stability in the tourism sector of Jordan. For instance, Respondent 6 noted,

“Actions need to match our optimism — guests pick up on when our service is reflecting our words.”

This evidence supports the notion that affect and behaviour consistency increases credibility, aligning with the quantitative findings of meaningful relationships between acting positively and feeling positively and brand trust. Overall, the theme highlights that experiential positivity, which is achieved by extended warm hospitality, optimistic communication, and persistent service, is the emotive bedrock on which Jordan’s tourism brand can restore and maintain trust in the post-conflict period.

Theme 2: Perceived Safety as the Core Mediator in Rebuilding Trust

This theme was established by the repeated focus by participants on tourists’ perceptions of safety and security as the central factor linking marketing strategies to trust in Jordan’s tourism brand. In the thematic coding, “safety,” “reassurance,” and “confidence” repeatedly emerged from interviews, implying that perceived safety not only drives travel choice but also facilitates how experiential marketing strategies build up into brand trust. Respondents characterised perceived safety as a psychological and emotional condition, influenced by communication, behaviour, and authenticity of experience as opposed to mere factual safety statistics.

A number of tourism authorities and marketing professionals emphasised the necessity of re-establishing safety perceptions through emotional reassurance as well as tangible safety measures. Respondent 10, a senior tourism officer, said,

“Safety isn’t merely avoiding risk — it’s tourists feeling confident enough to roam freely.”

 Likewise, Respondent 5, a marketing expert, noted,

“Films of tourists patronizing local markets or hiking trails depict actual safety more effectively than any report.”

These responses emphasize that perceived safety functions as a central mediator, which makes the process of how the dimensions of experiential marketing are converted into brand trust. The qualitative data indicate that safety is not only the lack of risk but is mentally and emotionally formed as a result of personal experience and observable signs of the tourists, which expands the quantitative result of high mediation. The effect of the emotional and mental activity is also reinforced by perceived safety, which, as per Akamavi et al. (2023), transforms positive emotions and action behaviour into long-term trust. It is a mental bridge, where optimism and involvement are projected as a consistent hope of the destination. This explanatory account explains why the concepts of Feel positively, think positively, and Act positively have a direct and indirect effect on brand trust, and that the safety concept enhances the effects. The qualitative findings give the quantitative results depth by determining the underlying processes that explain the relationship between experiential marketing and perceived safety, in that these processes will be used to rebuild confidence and implement the post-conflict tourism recovery strategy of Jordan.

Theme 3: Authentic Collaboration and Cultural Integrity as Emerging Drivers

This theme emerged as a result of indicating factors that impact brand trust, indicating that authenticity and collaborative involvement are essential for rebuilding and maintaining Jordan’s brand trust in the post-conflict era. Throughout the coding process, repeated mentions were made of “demonstrating the true Jordan,” “collaboration,” and “genuine representation.” These repeated concepts spoke to stakeholders’ perception that authentic cultural representation and cooperation throughout the tourism value chain, government institutions, private sector operators, and local communities are necessary to rebuild trust and visitor confidence.

Table 7. Thematic tables.

Repeatedly, participants highlighted that the tourists are looking for real, transparent experiences, not ones that are produced and overly commercialised. Respondent 2, a marketing professional, described,

“Authenticity reassures visitors — when what they see online matches what they experience, trust grows.”

Similarly, a hotel manager (Respondent 9) responded,

“The aroma of spices, the native cuisine, and plain chats with Jordanians make authentic connections.”

The reply shows that genuine cooperation and cultural wholeness serve as emerging forces of brand trust by guaranteeing consistency between the anticipations and actual encounters of tourists. The qualitative evidence demonstrates that cultural authenticity reinforces emotional and confirms cognitive appraisals, which offer a mechanism for converting the dimensions of experience marketing into trust. This further expounds quantitative results, showing how the relationship between Relate positively and other dimensions works to illustrate that social and cultural connectedness enhances confidence in the destination. Authentic cultural experiences address this gap between perception and reality, thereby intensifying the impacts of emotional, cognitive, and behavioural involvement on brand trust, which points to a context-specific channel of revitalising the Jordan tourism image and strengthening the credibility and robustness of the post-conflict brand.

Respondent 12, a tourism representative, stated,

“No one sector can reconstruct Jordan’s image by itself — it’s a collective effort by ministries, marketers, and local companies.”

This account shows that unification in strategy and communication can elevate brand consistency and decrease contradictory messages that could otherwise erode trust. In summary, authenticity and cooperation come forward as the essential, interdependent drivers in the reconstruction of Jordan’s tourism brand. Experiential positivity and perceived safety represent the psychological essence of trust, but these new qualitative dimensions assert that sustainable trust relies on honest cultural representation and shared responsibility among all actors in the tourism industry.

DISCUSSION

The primary results of this study reveal that experiential marketing dimensions, namely, act positively and feel positively, are key drivers in restoring brand trust in Jordan’s tourism industry after the Gaza conflict. These results support the theoretical framework based on Signalling Theory and the Trust-Commitment Theory. As per (Alazaizeh et al., 2024; and Jain et al., 2025), trustworthy signals serve to decrease uncertainty in risk situations, while the Trust-Commitment Theory by (Morgan & Hunt, 1994) underlines that trust is the cornerstone of long-lasting relationships between consumers and brands. The crucial function of affective (feel positively) and behavioural (act positively) experiences is consistent with (Chen & Wu, 2022; and Suprayogi et al., 2023), who established that emotional connection and active customer interaction substantially build trust and loyalty. Also, the result that perceived safety mediates the effect of experiential marketing on trust is consistent with (Wu et al., 2023; and Awais-E-Yazdan et al., 2025), who emphasise perceived safety as the decisive factor of tourists’ trust and destination image, particularly in recovery situations.

The research contributes to the theory by enhancing Signalling Theory to a post-conflict tourism environment in terms of showing that experiential signals can be effective based on the perceptions of contextual risk and not a supposed general applicability. Having balanced the surprising insignificance of sensory and cognitive dimensions with the powerful influence of emotional and behavioural engagement and perceived safety, the results explain that signals of trust act in a hierarchical manner in the conditions of instability. Quantitative findings form structural connections, whereas qualitative findings characterise how tourists sift through signals cognitively for safety and emotional reassurance. In practice, it means that destination managers ought to emphasise the observable safety behaviours, successful service experience, which have an emotive touch, and participatory experiences, rather than aesthetic or informational messages, in isolation, as argued by (Arabeyyat & Aldweik, 2024; and Bader et al., 2024). Contextually, Jordan’s closeness to the conflict in the region redefines the way the signals are received, and it is necessary to adapt to the marketing methods. Taken together, the combined results provide a consistent structure of post-conflict tourism recovery and the restoration of brand trust.

The results are also in contradiction to the expectation, showing that both the senses and thinking have a statistically insignificant influence in the context of brand trust in post-conflict tourism in Jordan. Although previous research, (Lasputra et al., 2023; Xu et al., 2022), has indicated that sensory and cognitive cognitions are the most appropriate stimuli in forming initial perceptions of a destination, the current findings indicate that these stimuli do not suffice to restore trust in the situation of increased geopolitical anxiety. The given surprising result refines the Signalling Theory because it shows that sensory and informational signals become less helpful in post-conflict tourism unless supported with emotional reassurance and observable behaviour involvement. The weak or ambiguous nature of sensory appeal and cognitive stimulation may act as weak signals in situations when perceived safety is weak, which explains why they have a limited effect. Combining the two insights of the qualitative approach enlightens that trustworthiness is less perceived by the tourists based on the aesthetics or the rational message, but rather through the emotionally charged and action experience that prominently displays stability. These innovations that signalling theory implies place the effectiveness of signals in post-conflict environments and emphasise the conditional character of experiential signals in restoring trust.

Thematic analysis also brought forth factors that were beyond the quantitative measures. Experiential positivity, symbolic safety cues, and hospitality that is community-driven were some themes that were identified as vital qualitative findings. These aspects resonate with (Pine & Gilmore’s, 1999) Experience Economy, which states that live and emotionally stimulating experiences can redefine how people perceive a brand and make them loyal. For example, tourists’ reports of warm local interactions and visible safety practices illustrate how safety is made a psychological and experience-based construct, congruent with Signalling Theory.

The quantitative results indicated that perception of positivity has a significant influence of brand trust with acting positively being the other influential factor with perceived safety as the mediating variable. These variables were put through qualitative findings that have not only proved to be true but have also pointed towards a number of additional variables such as cultural integrity, cross-sector collaboration, and brand coherence that are discussed in Fig. (2). Cultural integrity, cross-sector collaboration, and brand coherence are the newly born variables that are closely supported by Trust-Commitment Theory and Signalling Theory. Cultural integrity serves as a trust indicator, which signifies authenticity and trustworthiness to the local values, which reduces uncertainty and increases destination credibility. Cross-sector collaboration is a relational process in Trust-Commitment Theory which develops the shared responsibility and consistent service provision which consolidates the confidence of tourists. According to Signalling Theory, brand consistency ensures that the overall system of the marketing communications, experiences, and stakeholder behaviour comes together to convey confidence and reliability (Xu et al., 2022). These factors combined together expand the theoretical model through reconnecting the experiential marketing with the general trust recovery.

Quantitative combined with qualitative results are enhanced via triangulation to ensure the joint impact of experiential marketing on brand trust. The quantitative data confirmed that emotional and behavioural episodes are the strongest predictors of trust, and the qualitative data showed the reasons why, as tourists perceive empathy, authenticity, and security as the signs of credibility. This is aligned with (Fatoki & Fatoki, 2021) who emphasize the role of brand trust being founded upon functional dependability in addition to affective bonding. The perceived safety mediation also enhances the trust recovery framework that states that the restoration of confidence after crisis must be done under both rational assurance and affective engagement (Awais-E-Yazdan et al., 2025).

Besides, the results add to Signalling Theory as they indicate that not every signal of experience is universal. Quantitative results show that sensory and cognitive dimensions do not give statistically significant findings on brand trust, and emotional and behavioural dimensions are highly predictive of the trust mediated by perceived safety. Qualitative findings also explain this trend in that tourists view qualitative cues as a source of psychological reassurance, evident behaviour, and not always aesthetics and information. Similarly, Trust-Commitment Theory is reduced to indicate that post-exogenous shock trust-building is not only a sequential process, but also a conditional process in which perceived safety precedes relational commitment. The integration of the results implies that confidence in post-conflict tourism is built upon the signals of an emotional nature as well as behaviourally manifested that reformulate the meaning of safety as a need rather than an outcome of the experience.

These findings are important implications in the Jordanian case. The tourism recovery in Jordan depends on regaining the reputation of the country as a safe and friendly destination. Signals of trustworthiness and emotional warmth can be created with the use of experiential marketing, such as resilience storytelling, true local experience, and observable safety communication. By incorporating sensorial involvement, emotional and behavioural participation, Jordan will be able to regain brand confidence and rebrand the world image as a safe, multicultural, and trustworthy destination during the post-Gaza conflict era. According to the described aspects, we introduce a revised framework (Fig. 2) that will indicate the results of the current research.