Loyalty trends and issues in tourism research
Purpose – Loyalty, a behavioural pattern of guests, is an unpredictable phenomenon, changeable over time, adaptable to market trends and measurable only through market research. Previous research has confirmed that loyalty is not an isolated variable described only through loyalty behaviour or lo...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Faculty of tourism and hospitality management
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Tourism and Hospitality Management |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://thm.fthm.hr/images/issues/vol26no1/8_Laskarin_Dlacic_Sustar.pdf |
| Summary: | Purpose – Loyalty, a behavioural pattern of guests, is an unpredictable phenomenon, changeable
over time, adaptable to market trends and measurable only through market research. Previous
research has confirmed that loyalty is not an isolated variable described only through loyalty
behaviour or loyalty attitude, but rather it is interdependent on both behaviour and attitude.
However, within loyalty research there are many open questions, which need to be addressed by
researchers in the field of tourism and hospitality. Thus, this paper provides a unique perspective
on previous research, including loyalty taxonomy, loyalty constructs, and directly and indirectly
connected variables to loyalty in research models.
Design – Upon content analysis and refinement, four clusters are determined and explained in the
paper: (1) destination loyalty; (2) hotel (brand) loyalty; (3) loyalty programme; (4) event (festival)
loyalty.
Methodology – For the purpose of this paper, the authors applied content analysis. Based on a
keyword search on the Web of Science platform (database Web of Science Core Collection), 112
articles published in leading tourism and hospitality business journals were identified as relevant
for the study.
Findings – The study contributes to a better understanding of tourist loyalty research by identifying
shortcomings of previous research. Among the most common shortcomings are selective research
focus and uninventive research methodology. Therefore, the current study suggests multi-level
loyalty model development as a more innovative framework for future research.
Originality of the research – Since this study brings an overview of the four most commonly
researched topics in tourism loyalty research, the results will be beneficial for scientists who study
the broader aspects of the loyalty construct. |
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| ISSN: | 1330-7533 1847-3377 |