The Influence of Travelers' Satisfaction with Destination

Tertiary Services on Loyalty

Author
Teeroovengadum, Viraiyan, Seetanah, Boopen, Nunkoo, Robin

Published
2018

Journal Title
Tourism Analysis

Version
Published

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3727/108354218X15391984820549

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Tourism Analysis, Vol. 23, pp. 567–570 1083-5423/18 $60.00 + .00
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3727/108354218X15391984820549
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RESEARCH NOTE
THE INFLUENCE OF TRAVELERS’ SATISFACTION WITH
DESTINATION TERTIARY SERVICES ON LOYALTY

VIRAIYAN TEEROOVENGADUM,* BOOPEN SEETANAH,† AND ROBIN NUNKOO*‡§

*Department of Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius

†Department of Finance and Accounting, University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius
‡School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
§Griffith Institute for Tourism, Griffith University, Australia

This article investigates the influence of travelers’ satisfaction with a destination’s tertiary support
services on their loyalty behavior, conceptualized as revisit intention. The study is based on data col-
lected from 1,721 travelers to Mauritius. To have a better understanding of the influence of travelers’
satisfaction with tertiary support services available at the destination on their loyalty behavior, we
develop two Probit models. To control for other factors that may affect the decision of tourists to
revisit Mauritius as a destination, other potential determinants of revisit intention were also included
in the econometric models. Results suggest that travelers’ satisfaction with tertiary support services
has a significant influence on their loyalty. In particular, their satisfaction with security services and
banking services are the strongest determinant of loyalty.

Key words: Satisfaction; Destination loyalty; Tertiary support services

Introduction evaluation of the destination experience and as a uni-

dimensional construct (Hultman, Skarmeas, Oghazi,
Travelers’ satisfaction and their loyalty are criti- & Beheshti, 2015). However, tourists’ satisfaction is
cal to destination competitiveness. They are perhaps unlikely to be a unidimensional construct as it is com-
among the most studied concepts in the tourism prised of their satisfaction with different components
literature (Nunkoo, Gursoy, & Ramkissoon, 2013). of a destination such as hotels, attractions, and food,
Although the theoretical link between travelers’ sat- and other tourism and hospitality services (Gursoy,
isfaction with a destination and their loyalty is well Chen, & Chi, 2014). However, travelers’ satisfac-
established in existing literature, a gap still remains. tion with tertiary support services and its influence
Most studies have conceptualized and operationalized on destination loyalty remains an underresearch
destination satisfaction as an overall postpurchase area in the tourism literature. Although some studies

Address correspondence to Robin Nunkoo, Ph.D., Department of Management, University of Mauritius, Reduit 80837, Mauritius.
E-mail: r.nunkoo@uom.ac.mu

567
568 TEEROOVENGADUM, SEETANAH, AND NUNKOO

implicitly suggest that tertiary support services, such loyalty with the destination. The quality of hospi-
as banking, health, and security-related ones, are tals, clinics, trained doctors, and the health care
important to and used by travelers at the destination system in general in a destination contributes to an
(Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2015), researchers have enhanced perception of safety and reduces the risks
largely neglected these dimensions in satisfaction of travel. Health infrastructure is especially impor-
and loyalty studies. In this article, we investigate the tant for groups traveling with children, the elderly,
influence of travelers’ satisfaction with different ter- and the disabled. The presence of good quality hos-
tiary support services on their loyalty toward a des- pitals and clinics in the destination provides tour-
tination. We employ an econometric approach based ists a guarantee of safety and health during their
on a Probit model and use data collected from 1,790 visit. In fact, several studies (e.g., Gauci, Gerosa, &
travelers to Mauritius to test the model. Mwalwanda, 2002) highlight the importance of
health services in nurturing and promoting the
tourism sector. Likewise, the banking and finan-
Satisfaction and Loyalty
cial services in a destination are also an important
Loyalty is defined as the level of commitment component of a destination’s product (Buhalis &
visitors display toward a destination (Rodger, Taplin, Amaranggana, 2015). In today’s era of globaliza-
& Moore, 2015). In the context of tourism and hos- tion, tourists rely on the banking service available at
pitality, satisfaction of travelers with a destination the destination to make transactions rather than car-
has been found to be the most important determi- rying liquid money on them. The quality of banking
nant of loyalty due to its influence on the travelers’ services therefore is likely to be a factor contributing
choice of destination and services, on their revisit to the overall quality of the tourism product. Buhalis
intention, and on their word-of-mouth behaviors and Amaranggana (2015) reported that banking ser-
(Ozdemir et al., 2012). Destination satisfaction is a vices were perceived as important for travelers and
multidimensional construct (Ozdemir et al., 2012). they expected to receive secure transactions during
However, focusing on a single dimension of a mul- their trip. Safety and security is another important
tidimensional construct that is comprised of experi- dimension that impacts destination loyalty. Crotts
ences with several aspects of a destination’s product (1996) conceptualized the elements of safety and
does not adequately reflect the satisfaction of tour- security as political instability, probability of terror-
ists with the destination experience. Travelers’ ism, crime rates, transportation safety, corruption,
satisfaction with the different components of the quality of sanitation, prevalence of disease, quality
destination experience is likely to differ (Chi & Qu, of medical services, and availability of medication.
2008). Services provided to tourists at the destina- Evidence from several empirical studies has shown
tion can be divided into three categories: primary, that the more tourists are satisfied with their des-
secondary, and tertiary tourist services (Dwyer, tination experience, the more loyal they are likely
Forsyth, & Spurr, 2004). Primary services include to be with the destination (Neal & Gursoy, 2008).
accommodations/hotels, restaurants, fast food out-
lets, and travel and tour services; secondary services
Methodology
include shopping facilities, recreational assets and
entertainment, and visitor information services; and Data were collected from travelers to Mauritius
finally tertiary tourist services include health ser- using the survey method. The survey instrument com-
vices and care, emergency and safety services, and prised three main sections. The survey was carried
banking and financial services (Dwyer et al., 2004). out at the departure lounge of the Sir Seewoosagur
The latter type of services has been a neglected Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius, over a
dimension in several tourist satisfaction studies. 3-month period. The questionnaire was designed in
English and French. Travelers were approached and
briefed about the objectives of the study. Those who
Tourist Support Services
were willing to participate were handed over the
Tertiary support services are important to tourists’ questionnaire and a token was provided to them as
experience and influence the image of and travelers’ an incentive to increase participation rate. A total of
 INFLUENCE OF TERTIARY SERVICES ON LOYALTY 569

1,979 questionnaires were obtained. Two hundred empirical models are specified below, where SAT
and fifty-eight of them were deleted due to incom- is the satisfaction score, DL is destination loyalty,
plete responses, resulting in 1,721 valid question- and i represents the respondent.
naires that were used for further analysis.
Model 1: DLi = [SAT (price)i, SAT (general infra-
structure)i, SAT (general infrastructure)i, SAT
Results
(accommodation services)i, SAT (transportation
We utilized an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) services)i, SAT (shopping and recreational ser-
with varimax rotation to delineate the factors for vices)i, SAT (utility services and infrastructure)i,
tourist tertiary support services. We did not conduct SAT (tertiary support services)i]
an EFA on the other dimensions of satisfaction as Model 2: DLi = [SAT (price)i, SAT (general infra-
these are well established in the existing literature. structure)i, SAT (general infrastructure)i, SAT
Therefore, only the items measuring travelers’ sat- (accommodation services)i, SAT (transportation
isfaction with the tertiary support services were services)i, SAT (shopping and recreational ser-
subjected to the EFA with a principal component vices)i, SAT (utility services and infrastructure)i,
method and varimax rotation to give this construct SAT (health services)i, SAT (banking and finan-
better validity. Items with double or negative load- cial services)i, SAT (security services)i]
ings and those that had a loading below 0.40 were
eliminated from the analysis and the EFA was carried The reported coefficients represent the strength
out again. The final results suggested the existence of the correlation between the independent variables
of three factors with Eigenvalues greater than 1. and the dependent variable of the model. Of particu-
Factor 1, labeled as satisfaction with banking ser- lar interest to this study is satisfaction with tourist
vices, explained 25.75% of the variance in the scale tertiary support services. As per results presented in
and was found to be reliable with a Cronbach’s alpha Table 1, the likelihood ratio chi-square of Model 1
value of 0.935. Factor 2 was labeled as satisfaction and Model 2 were 0.002 and 0.004, respectively.
with security services and explained 25.16% of the These values confirm that the models fit significantly
variance. The reliability test resulted in a Cronbach’s better than an empty model. In Model 1, the inde-
alpha value of 0.931. Factor 3, labeled as satisfac- pendent variables explained 64% of the variance in
tion with the health services, explained 19.11% revisit intention. In this model, travelers’ satisfaction
of the variance and had a reliability value of 0.907. with tertiary support services was found to be a sig-
nificant predictor of revisit intention. In terms of the
disaggregated results (Model 2), the model explained
Probit Model
64% of the variance in revisit intention. All the three
To test for the effect of tourist tertiary support types of tertiary support services had a significant
services on destination loyalty, an econometric positive influence on revisit intention. In fact, among
framework was used. The dependent variable was all the potential factors influencing revisit intention,
destination loyalty, operationalized as revisit inten- travelers’ satisfaction with the security services had
tion. We proposed two Probit models to have a the strongest effect (0.63) on their revisit intention,
clearer understanding of the influence of travelers’ followed by their satisfaction with the banking and
satisfaction with terteriary support services on their financial services (0.54) and their satisfaction with
revisit intention. In Model 1, we treat tertiary sup- the health services (0.034). Overall, the results sug-
port services as a one-dimensional construct and gest that tertiary support services play a very impor-
investigated its influence on revisit intention. In the tant role in loyalty behaviours of travelers.
second Probit model (Model 2), we dissagregated
tertiary support services into three dimensions
Conclusion
as per the EFA results, namely satisfaction with
health servcies, banking and financial services, The purpose of this article was to investigate the
and securtiy services, and investigated their unique influence of travelers’ satisfaction with tourist sup-
influence on destination loyalty. The proposed port services on their revisit intention. Security was
570 TEEROOVENGADUM, SEETANAH, AND NUNKOO

Table 1
Probit Model Estimates
Probit Model Estimates

Aggregated Tertiary Support Disaggregated Tertiary Support

Variables Services (N = 1,721) Services (N = 1,721)

Constant 0.06 (4.23)*** 0.08 (3.22)***

SAT (price) 0.012 (1.11) 0.014 (1.15)
SAT (general infrastructure) 0.07 (2.32)** 0.08 (2.55)***
SAT (information services) 0.049 (2.14)** 0.044 (2.11)**
SAT (accommodation services) 0.078 (2.17)** 0.09 (2.22)**
SAT (transportation services) 0.043 (2.36)*** 0.048 (2.57)***
SAT (shopping services) 0.058 (1.91)* 0.046 (1.83)*
SAT (utility services) 0.036 (2.21)** 0.042 (2.13)**
SAT (tertiary support services) 0.053 (2.05)*
SAT (health) 0.034 (2.02)*
SAT(banking) 0.054 (2.77)***
SAT(security) 0.063 (3.12)***
R2 0.64 0.67
Prob > χ2 0.002 0.004
*Significant at 10%, **significant at 5%, ***significant at 1%.

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