Unpacking the pathways from digital leadership to competitive advantage: mediating insights from digital skills and strategy in tourism and hospitality

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of digital leadership on competitive advantage in Saudi Arabia's tourism and hospitality sector, examining the mediating roles of digital skills and digital strategy. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative research design was adopted using a structured questionnaire distributed to 648 managers and supervisors working in travel agencies. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings Findings confirm that digital leadership significantly influences competitive advantage both directly and indirectly through digital skills and strategy. These mediators were found to play partial roles, strengthening the leadership-advantage link. Practical implications The results offer actionable guidance for tourism and hospitality managers on how to strengthen competitiveness through effective digital leadership, workforce upskilling and alignment between digital strategy and business goals. Social implications The study highlights the societal value of digital transformation by fostering innovation-driven employment, improving customer experience and advancing digital inclusion across Saudi Arabia's growing tourism ecosystem. Originality/value The study contributes by extending the resource-based view (RBV) to digital transformation contexts and integrating it with the dynamic capabilities theory (DCT) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how digital leadership functions both as a strategic resource and as an adaptive capability. This dual-theoretical perspective offers a novel explanation of how digital leadership, digital skills and digital strategy interact to generate competitive advantage within the tourism and hospitality sector – an area that remains underexplored in emerging economies such as Saudi Arabia. The study also advances empirical knowledge by testing these relationships in a national context undergoing rapid digital transformation, thereby filling a notable gap in tourism and hospitality research.