Building Loyalty
Factors Constraining Loyalty of Cultural Travelers to Havana, Cuba
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yen E. Lam Gonzalez, Javier De León Ledesma
Cuba is experiencing an accelerated tourism growth, especially since 2014, which saw the beginning of the new controversial diplomatic relations with the United States, after a half century of pacific enmity. In this new scenery, Havana has become one of the most visited city in the Caribbean Region, receiving more than a half of the annual tourism arrivals of the country. Cuba´s tourism strategy is not taking advantage of this new scenery, although the archipelago´s need to move away from its image as a traditional sun and beach destination, which justify academic attention. This research aims to analyse constraining factors for tourism loyalty to Havana destination. In this attempt, we conducted 1500 face-to-face surveys to travelers from six nationalities (main outbound tourism markets) in Havana airport in 2015, during their so call cultural trip. We differentiated three sampling groups of cultural travelers: repeaters not willing to return (BCL), tourists visiting Havana for the first time with positive intentions to repurchase the destination (CCL), and repeaters with positive intentions (MCL). Cluster analysis and Logit regression models served to define a profile for each group of loyal cultural tourists, and analyse the diverse factors affecting their cultural experience and attitudes towards the destination. The results are useful for destination managers for a better understanding of the areas that require special attention in terms of tourism policy, in the attempt to promote a more sustainable development of Havana as a cultural destination.
The Influence of Time and Post-visit Emotional Stimuli on Visitor Loyalty
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maksim Godovykh, Asli D.A. Tasci
Past research shows satisfaction and loyalty as the main outcomes of visitor experience. However, both satisfaction and loyalty may be dependent on time. The temporal nature of satisfaction and loyalty may be captured with longitudinal studies tracking satisfaction and loyalty not only after the experience but also at different times before the decision for the next visit. Alternatively, comparison studies measuring satisfaction and loyalty of different visitors with different duration of time since the previous visit may also provide a glimpse into the changing nature of these concepts. In addition, loyalty may depend on exposure to different emotional stimuli after the visit. Evidence suggests that emotional components are the most important factors of visitor experience (Palmer, 2010); hence, exposure to positive emotional stimuli could influence post-visit experience and loyalty. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of time on visitor satisfaction and loyalty, as well as to analyze the influence of post-visit emotional stimuli on visitors’ behavioral intentions. A scenario-based experiment was conducted online with respondents who visited Orlando during the last twelve months. The results show that time after the visit has negative effects on visitor satisfaction and loyalty, suggesting the temporal nature of both concepts. Findings also show that post-visit emotional stimuli could positively influence visitors’ behavioral intentions, which means that it is possible to influence customer loyalty afterwards.
Islands Destination´s Life Cycles: A Tool for Marketing Strategies Design
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Arminda Almeida Santana, Sergio Moreno Gil
The term “island tourism” has been used to identify a specific and differentiated form of tourism. Different islands around the globe compete and cooperate in a global market, so their cycles are interconnected. This paper analyses the relationship between the different islands and archipelagos and their connected cycles. In particular, the study explains the likelihood to visit one island depending on the previous visits to other islands and the motivations to travel and the digital information sources (TripAdvisor, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). The research includes in its analysis some of the main tourist islands and archipelagos in the world, combining European short-haul, medium-haul and long-haul destinations, in different stages of their life-cycle. The study uses data from 6,964 tourists from the main European markets and provides interesting recommendations for island destination management organisations about how they can effectively design their marketing activities and how to cooperate and compete with other islands depending of their life cycles.
