Co-Creating Tourist Experiences to Enhance Customer Loyalty and Travel Satisfaction

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for cooperation between tourists and travel professionals in creating a memorable visitor experience. The objectives of the study are twofold: first, to explain the concept of tourist experience co-creation and, second, to explore the relationships among tourist experience co-creation, customer satisfaction, overall travel satisfaction and customer loyalty towards travel professionals. Methodology -The study uses constructs from past literature. A survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 422 Croatian residents who had travelled at least once in the year prior to the study. The hypotheses were empirically tested and validated by partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Findings -Participation in the co-creation process of an experience, together with travel professionals, positively affects customer satisfaction. Further, customer satisfaction with cocreation has a positive effect on overall travel satisfaction and customer loyalty to travel professionals. There is also evidence that overall travel satisfaction positively affects customer loyalty to service provider. Contribution -This study contributes to the knowledge of tourist experience co-creation within the theory of service-dominant logic and customer behaviour. The scientific contribution is found in testing the influence of tourist experience co-creation on tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The applicable contribution emphasises the necessity to include tourists as an active, involved and participating part in the process of providing services. Their involvement in this process will positively affect their satisfaction and loyalty.

The Effect of Value Co-Creation on Behavioural Intention and Satisfaction with Tourism Resources in Lagos State, Nigeria

“…A higher percentage of the visitors were first-time visitors to these sites, which is in line with Ma et al (2018), who reported a majority of the respondents of Dinghushan National Nature Reserve as first-time visitors. These visitors travel primarily for pleasure/ holiday with their family members, friends and spouses, as supported by Lončarić et al (2017) in his findings that visitors mostly travelled with a partner, friends or family members. This has a tendency to promote strong family bonds, thereby reducing the rate of divorce and family chaos, as visitors do not like to travel alone.…”

“…This has a tendency to promote strong family bonds, thereby reducing the rate of divorce and family chaos, as visitors do not like to travel alone. A majority of the visitors also organized their travel independently, as supported by Lončarić et al (2017)…”

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“…According to co-creation theory and s-d logic, a tourist is an active participant rather than a passive recipient. Therefore, both service providers and tourists have to collaborate in order to provide experience value for the tourists (Lončarić, Perišić Prodan, & Dlačić, 2017). As argued by Mathis (2013, p. 11), the tourist experience of co-creation includes the following: (1) the collaboration between the service provider and the tourist; (2) the co-production of new and improved products/services; (3) a shift away from a goods-dominant logic towards a service-dominant logic; (4) adaptability, personalisation, and uniqueness.…”

Relationships between experiential risk, experiential benefits, experiential evaluation, experiential co-creation, experiential relationship quality, and future experiential intentions to travel with pets

“…Co-creation of the tourist experience has mainly been explored from a theoretical perspective. Grissemann and Stokburger-Sauer (2012) and Lončarić et al (2017) point out that empirical evidence of co-creation research in tourism remains scarce and a number of research questions are still unanswered.…”