Multilingual Service Encounters, Destination Image, and Revisit Intentions in Saudi Tourism: A Conceptual Model

Abstract

Tourists form destination images not only from landmarks, promotional campaigns, and online reviews, but also from ordinary communicative encounters. A confusing booking message, an accurately translated safety instruction, a patient hotel conversation, or a poorly explained transport disruption can each become evidence through which a visitor judges an entire destination. This article develops a conceptual model linking multilingual service encounters to destination image and revisit intentions in Saudi tourism. English is treated as an important lingua franca, but not as a universal solution. The model focuses on the consistency with which information, tone, promises, and problem-solving practices are carried across Arabic, English, and other visitor languages at physical and digital touchpoints. It proposes that multilingual service quality influences cognitive destination image through perceived accessibility, reliability, and organisational competence, while it influences affective image through welcome, reassurance, and interpersonal respect. Tourist satisfaction mediates the movement from encounter evaluations to revisit intentions, and service recovery becomes especially influential when failures expose gaps between translated promises and operational action. The model further identifies moderators including trip purpose, prior destination familiarity, linguistic distance, encounter criticality, digital dependence, and the availability of human assistance. Eight propositions and a mixed-method research design are offered for future testing across hotels, attractions, airports, transport services, restaurants, events, and digital platforms. The article argues that multilingual communication should be managed as destination infrastructure rather than as a collection of isolated translations. Saudi tourism organisations can strengthen loyalty when visitors encounter coherent information, intelligible English, culturally respectful interaction, and dependable follow-through across the journey.