International audienceThe tourism offering is usually described as an amalgam of touristic products and services available on one site and is considered in the literature as a combination of consumption experiences that involve both private and public actors. The tourism experience is thus characterized by many interactions with the physical and human environment valued by tourists and leading to satisfaction. From a management viewpoint, the main challenge is to understand the satisfactory and dissatisfactory elements of the tourism experience in order to design and deliver a memorable one likely to result in positive post-consumption reactions. Using the critical incident technique, the authors collected 216 incidents in order to reveal the salient factors on which tourists forge their evaluations and base their satisfaction. This research sought to investigate the major driving factors determining tourist satisfaction and dissatisfaction, taking into account all elements related to a touristic stay and partially neglected to date in the tourism literature. A typology of elements contributing to satisfaction with the tourism experience is proposed. The results indicate that a broader, holistic view of tourism experience is needed. They also suggest that marketers should focus on elements leading to satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Moreover, besides the traditional classification categories based on service attributes and the type of providers, the results highlight human factors as a new important category of elements influencing satisfaction. Implications for tourism destination managers and services managers are then discussed

Résumé L’objectif de cet article est de montrer comment les interactions avec les clients initialement inconnus mais présents lors de l’expérience de service, que nous appelons ‘co-clients’, influencent la satisfaction immédiate du consommateur envers le service délivré. Cette recherche exploratoire s’appuie sur une étude qualitative croisant plusieurs méthodes, menée sur deux services: un voyage en train et un cours de fitness. Elle identifie six rôles joués par les co-clients sur la satisfaction et quatre mécanismes d’influence sous-jacents. Les autres clients informent sur le service à venir, posent les règles sociales, sont un standard de comparaison, distraient, perturbent et aident à participer. L’influence de ces rôles sur la satisfaction se manifeste par la modification des attentes et de la performance perçue, directement ou via la participation, et à travers le sentiment d’équité. Elle est par ailleurs modérée par des variables situationnelles.

The objective of this article is to show how co-clients – clients interacting with the customer during the service experience but unknown before it– impact customer satisfaction with service delivery. This exploratory research is based on a mix of qualitative methods in the context of rail transport and fitness classes. It identifies six roles that have an impact on satisfaction and four mechanisms by which these roles influence satisfaction. Co-clients give information about the forthcoming service, set the standards for social rules, provide a standard for comparison, distract, perturb and help to participate. Through these roles, other customers impact satisfaction by modifying customer expectations and perceived service performance, as well as perceived service equity. The authors propose situational variables that moderate this relationship.

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National audienceDestination brand image and its impact on post-visit tourists behaviorsDrawing on brand image theory in the particular context of the tourism destination, this study investigates the relationship between destination brand image and tourist behavior, in terms of attachment, intention of revisit and intention of recommendation. A first qualitative study has been achieved to establish the destination’s brand image. Using a sample of 149 tourists visiting Reunion Island, and the structural modeling technique, the results reveal that destination image have positive effects on tourist behavior.La recherche étudie l’influence de l’image de marque de la destination sur les comportements post-visite des touristes à travers l’attachement à la destination, l’intention de revisite et l’intention de recommandation. Une étude empirique a été menée auprès de touristes français ayant séjourné sur l’île de La Réunion. Sur la base d’une phase qualitative préalable, l’image de marque a été mesurée de manière quantitative auprès de 149 touristes en fin de séjour. Les résultats obtenus par la méthode des modèles d’équations structurelles montrent les liens positifs entre image de marque et comportements touristiques