This research aims to investigate the relationship between emotional exhaustion and service sabotage behaviour by examining the moderating role of ethical leadership, with a focus on category A travel agents in Egypt. To this end, a moderation model was developed, applied to frontline employees in travel agencies, and validated to examine the moderating effects of prevention- based ethical leadership and promotion-based ethical leadership. The results showed that emotional exhaustion has a positive impact on service sabotage behaviour. The research further found that ethical leadership (promotion- based ethical leadership and prevention-based ethical leadership) is a key tool for reducing service sabotage behaviour. Furthermore, it is shown that promotion-based ethical leadership has a significant moderating impact on reducing the positive relationship between emotional exhaustion and service sabotage behaviour. Emotional exhaustion interacted with promotion-based ethical leadership to reduce service sabotage behaviour, such that service sabotage behaviour is highly reduced when leaders apply high levels of promotion-based ethical leadership when compared to leaders who apply low levels of promotion-based ethical leadership. However, prevention-based ethical leadership has no significant moderation impact.