How Sport-Based Wellness Program Quality Shapes Co-Created Guest Experience, Loyalty Intentions, and Self-Reported Physical Activity Orientation in Saudi Arabian Hotels

This empirical study positions hotel-based sport wellness programs as structured physical activity offerings embedded in co-created guest experiences in luxury hotels in Saudi Arabia. It examines how the quality of wellness sports programs relates to guests’ satisfaction with the program, loyalty intentions toward the hotel, and self-reported physical activity orientation and intention. The construct is operationalized as guests’ perceived increase in activity during the stay and their stated intention to maintain or increase activity afterward. The study also tests the mediating roles of perceived health benefits and enjoyment, as well as the moderating role of staff health communication. Drawing on service quality and expectancy disconfirmation perspectives, together with health belief and motor learning insights, a cross-sectional survey was conducted with 412 guests who had participated in structured sport-based wellness sessions during their stay in Saudi Arabian luxury hotels. Data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS SEM). Wellness sport program quality was positively associated with perceived health benefits, enjoyment, and program satisfaction, and both perceived health benefits and enjoyment partially mediated the quality satisfaction relationship, indicating parallel cognitive and affective pathways in the guest experience. Program satisfaction, in turn, was positively associated with guests’ loyalty intentions and their self-reported orientation toward maintaining healthier physical activity routines after their stay, while staff health communication significantly strengthened the association between program quality and perceived health benefits. These results contribute to wellness tourism and hospitality research by integrating sport pedagogy and health communication into an experience-centric framework and by clarifying how hotel-based sport wellness offerings can support satisfaction, loyalty, and self-reported physical activity orientation in an emerging tourism destination. Practical implications are offered for hotel managers seeking to design human-centered, health-oriented wellness services aligned with Vision 2030 and global physical activity promotion agendas, recognizing that the findings represent perception-based associations that are a promising foundation for future longitudinal and behavioral research.