Announcing the Final Examination of Majid Alshaibi for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
Saudi Arabia is progressing with Vision 2030, an ambitious blueprint for economic variation, global connection, and improved quality of life. The Hajj pilgrimage is addressed by the Doyof Al Rahman Program (DARP), one of the vision's programs aiming to enhance the Hajj experience. The Hajj pilgrimage is one of the world's largest annual massive gatherings and it has already received increased attention from researchers combining elements of pilgrimage and tourism. This dissertation aims to explore Hajj service quality and pilgrims` satisfaction. To attain this objective, a narrative and systematic literature review was conducted to develop a framework with standardized dimensions for Hajj with the consideration of Vision's 2030 DARP program objectives. The conducted literature review considered 157 sources following the PRISMA review protocol in the analysis. A Delphi study distributed among fifteen experts processed the literature review findings to confirm the research instrument dimensions' priority, applicability, and clarity. The proposed dimensions were Hospitality, Guidance, Transportation, Hajj Facilities, Safety and security, and Healthcare. Those dimensions are dedicated to exploring Hajj Service Quality (HSQ) performance and its impact on the Hajj's overall satisfaction and willingness to extend visits to heritage sites. The dissertation connected a confirmatory mixed research method in the Delphi study and data collection phases. The research survey contained 83 items distributed through the Qualtrics platform and yielded 149 valid responses from 17 U.S. states. After the data preparation, a Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analytical approach was deployed. First, the measurement model inspected the reliability and validity of the model constructs. Second is the structural model that tested the study hypothesis with path analysis a regression-based technique. The findings showed a significant impact from all the applied HSQ dimensions on Hajj overall satisfaction and a significant impact from Hajj facilities on the willingness to extend the visit to heritage sites.
Committee in Charge:
Ahmad Elshennawy, Chair, IEMS
Luis Rabelo, UCF IEMS
Gene Lee, UCF IEMS
Ibrahim Zeini, UCF IEMS
Haitham Bahaitham, Dean at University of Jeddah