are satisfied tourists loyal tourists? a case study in algarve, portugal

Are Satisfied Tourists Loyal Tourists?

A Case Study in Algarve, Portugal

Sandra Teixeira & Pedro CravoSandra Teixeira & Pedro Cravo

IASK Advances in Tourism Research 2008IASK Advances in Tourism Research 2008Aveiro, May 27Aveiro, May 27thth 2008 2008

Summary What relationship may exist between the satisfaction

about the tourist experience and the loyalty to a destination?

The main objective of this paper is to show that loyalty can indeed be obtained by higher degrees of tourists’ satisfactions with their (tourist) experiences. Consumer Behaviour Quality of Service and Satisfaction Satisfaction and Loyalty Processes

Case Study - Arade

Consumer Behaviour Consumer behaviour is fairly recent as a scientific

discipline. Although the first books were written only in the 1960s, its origin dates back to the XIX century.

Studying consumer behaviour has become more popular with the Marketing theory.

Some of the aspects that are identified by Mowen and Minor as having an influence on consumer behaviour are:

Information processing; Motivation;

Personality; The decision process;

Satisfaction; Loyalty;

Situational influences.

Consumer Behaviour Ryan argues that “the attitudes, expectations and

perceptions of the holidaymaker are significant variables in setting goals, influencing behaviour and determining final satisfaction”.

Studying the behaviour of tourists and their attitudes requires several different aspects to be taken in consideration, namely:

1. The perception of the activity’s importance in terms of self-development, self-enhancement, ego fulfilment, the social role it plays;

2. To think about tourism not only in terms of tourist’s needs, but also of theirs future profits.

Consumer Behaviour3. The tourist-side variables, such as the skills. There are those

who defend that the challenge imposed by external conditions and the ability to cope with them contribute to the tourist experience and to its satisfaction.

4. The presence of other individuals (or groups) or, on the contrary, the importance of their absence.

5. Other variables related to consumers’ attitude, behaviour and motivations are identified by Ryan as:

the nature of the involvement; sense of flow;

the risk role; mindlessness;

the stress role; needs analysis.

boredom and frustration;

Consumer Behaviour

All of these are important to understand the complexity of consumer behaviour.

but…

How can organizations handle it?

Consumer Behaviour and Management A constant challenge to managers is the search for an

adequate competitive strategy, and this ultimately leads the company to obtain a competitive advantage.

In a growingly competitive and global society, the survival of companies and tourism destinations is ever more dependent on the way these can handle the needs and desires of consumers.

Consumer Behaviour and Management The satisfaction of these needs and desires is seen as a

goal for success.

Several studies have shown that the consumers’ satisfaction, by itself, isn’t enough to guarantee success.

Thus has emerged the need for clients’ loyalty.

Loyalty is regarded as something that’s determinant to create and maintain the competitiveness of companies and tourist destinations.

Consumer Behaviour and Management According to Oppermann, travel experience satisfaction

contributes to destination loyalty, which is revealed by the intention to revisit or recommend the destination to others.

Several studies have showed there is a relation between clients’ loyalty and their satisfaction.

In order to understand the interrelations that can be established between satisfaction and loyalty many authors have approached the subjects of consumer behaviour, quality of services, satisfaction and loyalty.

Quality and Satisfaction

Quality may be seen as a competitive advantage when it becomes superior to that offered by the competitors.

Quality is related to the individual experiences, to the manner in which these are lived through and to the level of realization of the expected results.

Satisfaction is a concept that is intimately related with the perception and expectations of consumers. Clients’ satisfaction with a service’s quality is defined by comparing the delivered service perception and the desired service expectations.

Satisfaction and Loyalty Processes

Tourist’s satisfaction is extremely important for the success of any destination marketing strategy, as it influences its choice, the products and services consumption and the decision to return.

Satisfaction is seen as a parameter to evaluate the performance of any given destination, product or service.


Oliver states that consumers build expectation before purchasing a product, comparing, afterwards, the performance obtained with those expectations.

In case the performance is better than expectations, there is a positive disconfirmation (the consumer is satisfied and will be predisposed to repeat the purchase in the future).

If the performance is worst than the expectation, there is a negative disconfirmation (the consumer unsatisfied and with the intention to search for alternative products in the future).


On a contrary direction, Tse and Wilton state that satisfaction is independent of consumers’ expectations, depending solely on the product’s performance itself.

Considering six different approaches to satisfaction and loyalty, Oliver concludes that none of them explains completely the link between the two, so it can be said that this relationship is much more complex and hard to portray than most of the studies have considered.


Gallarza and Saura also present several different methodologies to evaluate value perception, concluding that we can talk about the existence of a quality–value–satisfaction–loyalty chain.

In this sequence, perceived value depends upon quality and it can lead to satisfaction which, in term, will culminate in a loyalty attitude.

The Arade Destination Case

Objectives and Methodology

We intend to understand if, in the case of Arade’s municipalities, there is an evident connection between tourists’ satisfaction with their vacation on this destination and their loyalty, measured by the intention to return or to recommend this destination to others.

The information was collected using a questionnaire applied to tourist that visited Silves, Lagoa, Monchique and Portimão (Arade’s municipalities) in 2004.

Hypotheses The analysis conducted wanted to verify the following

hypotheses:H1 – Consumer satisfaction is different with each of the

destination’s attributes;

H2 – Loyalty degree (measured by the intention to return) changes in function of the satisfaction degree;

H3 – Loyalty degree (measured by the intention to recommend) changes in function of the satisfaction degree;

H4 – Higher degrees of satisfaction raise the probability of loyalty.

Respondents’ ProfileVariable % Variable %

Gender:MaleFemale

47.352.7

Residents in Portugal:NorthCentreLisbon and Tagus ValleyAlentejoAlgarve

29.915.645.47.81.3

Age Groups:0 to 1415 to 2425 to 4445 to 6465 and +

3.018.250.428.00.4

Residents Abroad:AustriaBelgiumFinlandFranceGermanyHungaryIrelandItalyNetherlandsNorwaySpainSwedenUnited KingdomUnited States

0.62.50.62.53.70.66.81.93.70.61.21.9

72.80.6

Marital Status:SingleMarriedDivorced

28.865.85.4

Education Level:PrimarySecondaryUniversity

5.839.854.4

Location of Residence:In PortugalAbroad

32.267.8

Trying to understand if tourists’ satisfaction changes with each of the destination’s attribute (H1), we analysed the results from the questions about the degree of satisfaction with each of the attributes considered. A summary of these is present in the chart.

3,25 3,50 3,75 4,00 4,25

Grau de Satisfação Acessibilidades

Grau de Satisfação Alojamento

Grau de Satisfação Animação

Grau de Satisfação Arquitectura Popular

Grau de Satisfação Autenticidade

Grau de Satisfação Centros Históricos

Grau de Satisfação Circuitos Pedonais

Grau de Satisfação com a experiência turística

Grau de Satisfação Competência e Cortesia

Grau de Satisfação Eventos Culutrais

Grau de Satisfação Gastronomia

Grau de Satisfação Hospitalidade

Grau de Satisfação Informação Turística

Grau de Satisfação Infra-estruturas Desportivas

Grau de Satisfação Jardins e Espaços Verdes

Grau de Satisfação Limpeza

Grau de Satisfação Locais de Lazer

Grau de Satisfação Meios de Transporte

Grau de Satisfação Monumentos

Grau de Satisfação Paisagem

Grau de Satisfação Parques de Estacionamento

Grau de Satisfação Planeamento Urbanístico

Grau de Satisfação Praias

Grau de Satisfação Restauração

Grau de Satisfação Segurança Pública

Grau de Satisfação Sinalização

Grau de Satisfação Sistema de Abastecimento de Águas

Grau de Satisfação Sistema de Recolha de Lixo

Grau de Satisfação Termas

Grau de Satisfação Trânsito

Grau de Satisfação Zonas Comerciais

Hypotheses Analysis – H1


To confirm the independence of the different attributes, we applied the Kruskal Wallis test that, for 29 degrees of freedom, gave us a Chi-Square value of 565.695, which corresponds to a significance of 0.000 at the 0.05 level.

Thus, the first hypothesis can not be rejected. The attributes are independent, so we can conclude that consumers’ satisfaction is different with each of the destination’s attributes.

Hypotheses Analysis – H2 Verifying if the loyalty degree

(measured by the intention to return) changes in function of the satisfaction degree, we tried to cross-analyse the degree of satisfaction with the intention to repeat the purchase.

As we can confirm by the Chi-Square tests’ results, the second hypothesis can’t be rejected. The intention to return to this destination changes in function of the satisfaction degree.

Repetition intention

TotalYes Maybe No

Degree of satisfaction

Not satisfied 9 16 4 29

Satisfied 54 75 11 140

Completely satisfied 52 18 1 71

Total 115 109 16 240

ValueDegrees of

freedomAsymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Pearson’s Chi-Square 28.181(a) 4 0.000

Likelihood Ratio 29.205 4 0.000

Linear-by-Linear Association

23.525 1 0.000

N of Valid Cases240

(a) 2 cells (22.2%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 1.93.

Hypotheses Analysis – H3 As for the third

hypothesis, this time we tried to cross-analyse the degree of satisfaction with the intention to recommend the destination to others.

Like previously, we can confirm by the Chi-Square tests’ results that the third hypothesis can’t also be rejected. The intention to recommend this destination changes in function of the satisfaction degree.

ValueDegrees of

freedomAsymp. Sig.

(2-sided)

Pearson’s Chi-Square 36.906(a) 2 0.000

Likelihood Ratio 29.003 2 0.000

Linear-by-Linear Association

35.409 1 0.000

N of Valid Cases241

(a) 1 cells (16.7%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is 0.72.

Recommend intention

TotalYes Maybe No


Not satisfied

9 16 4 29


Total 175 60 6 241


As for the fourth hypothesis, higher degrees of satisfaction raise the probability of loyalty, an overview of the previous results seems to confirm it.

Even so, considering that the repetition and recommending intentions can be considered ordinal variables (yes=1; maybe=2; no=3), we decided to calculate Spearman correlation coefficient in order to confirm the previous observation.

Hypotheses Analysis – H4Repetition intention

TotalYes Maybe No


Completely unsatisfied 4 5 1 10

Unsatisfied 2 2 1 5

Neither sat. nor unsat. 3 9 2 14



Total 115 109 16 240

In the repetition intention, Spearman Correlation coefficient presents a negative value (-0.323) with a significance of 0.000, which means that one of the variables value drops as the other increases.

Knowing that the repetition intention value is bigger for the non-intention to return (3=no), this means that the repetition intention raises with the degree of satisfaction.

ValueAsymp. Std.

Error(a) Approx. T(b)

Approx. Sig.

Interval by IntervalPearson’s R

-0.242 0.064 -3.848 0.000(c)

Ordinal by OrdinalSpearman Correlation

-0.323 0.059 -5.257 0.000(c)

N of Valid Cases 240

(a) Not assuming the null hypothesis.(b) Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis.(c) Based on normal approximation.

Hypotheses Analysis – H4Recommend intention

TotalYes Maybe No


Completely unsatisfied 7 2 1 10

Unsatisfied 1 3 1 5

Neither sat. nor unsat. 1 11 2 14



Total 175 60 6 241

As for the recommend intention, Spearman Correlation coefficient presents a negative value (-0.403) with a significance of 0.000.

Therefore, we can also confirm that the intention to recommend raises with the degree of satisfaction, which together with the previous test, confirms this last hypothesis.

ValueAsymp. Std.

Error(a) Approx. T(b)

Approx. Sig.

Interval by IntervalPearson’s R

-0.346 0.069 -5.702 0.000(c)

Ordinal by OrdinalSpearman Correlation

-0.403 0.050 -6.810 0.000(c)

N of Valid Cases 241

(a) Not assuming the null hypothesis.(b) Using the asymptotic standard error assuming the null hypothesis.(c) Based on normal approximation.

Conclusions

Today’s society has changed the way companies, as well as tourist destinations, handle the needs and desires of consumers/tourists.

Many authors have approached the questions of motivation, quality of tourist experiences and satisfaction.

Only more recently has emerged the concern with consumers’ loyalty.

Loyalty is quite complex and hard to explain.

Conclusions

This complexity is present on the study about the Arade destination.

The fact that each attribute was evaluated differently by the same types of tourists reveals that destinations must continue to strive for tourist experience’s quality and tourists’ satisfaction, otherwise they can never aspire to their loyalty.

Even attributes least connected with tourist activities can have an influence on the final opinion that tourist form about the destination (limiting satisfaction and, consequently, the possibility of loyalty).

Sandra [email protected]

Muito obrigado!

Muchas gracias!

Grazie molto!

Kiitos!

Paldies!

Tusen takk!

Takk fyrir!

Thank you very much!

Merci beaucoup!

Dankeschön!

Dank u well!

Hvala lepa!

Děkuji!

Ω!

Pedro [email protected]

are satisfied tourists loyal tourists? a case study in algarve, portugal

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