Tourist satisfaction antecedents and consequences a study of package tours at ninh thuan

This research identify factors influencing tourist satisfaction to package tour services at NinhThuan destination and investigate the impact of tourist satisfaction to NinhThuan package

TOURIST SATISFACTION: ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES

A STUDY OF PACKAGE TOURS AT NINHTHUAN

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

In Marketing major

By

Ms Le Chi Nga Advisor: Assoc Prof Le Nguyen Hau

ID MBA03022

International University - Vietnam National University HCMC

August 2014

TOURIST SATISFACTION: ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES

A CASE STUDY OF PACKAGE TOURS AT NINHTHUAN

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

In Marketing major

by

Le Chi Nga ID: MBA 03022 International University - Vietnam National University HCMC

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

To complete this thesis, first and foremost, I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my advisor, Assoc Prof Le Nguyen Hau for his enthusiasm, dedication, support and guidance throughout my thesis I really appreciate the invaluable advice that he has given to me

My greatest thanks go to my dear parents for always by my side and encouraging me They have given me unconditional love and support throughout my life To my mom and dad, I love you and hope I could make you proud

Last but not least, I wish to give a special thank to my friends and other people who

helped and supported me during conducting this thesis

Plagiarism Statements

I would like to declare that, apart from the acknowledged references, this thesis either does not use language, ideas, or other original material from anyone; or has not been previously submitted to any other educational and research programs or institutions I fully understand that any writings in this thesis contradicted to the above statement will automatically lead to the rejection from the MBA program at the International University – Vietnam National University Hochiminh City

Copyright Statement

This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent

© Le Chi Nga/ MBA03022/2014

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT v

Copyright Statement vii

Chapter I - Introduction 13

1 Introduction 13

2 Objectives 15

3 Practical significance 15

4 Scope of the research 15

Chapter II – Literature review and research model 17

2.1 Literature review 17

2.1.1 Tuorism industry 17

2.1.2 Tourist satisfaction to package tours and its antecedents 19

2.1.3 Customer loyalty 26

2.1.4 Customer satisfaction and relationship with customer’s decision to return/ loyalty 26

2.1.5 The indepth interviews 27

2.2 Research model 29

2.3 Research hypotheses 30

2.4 Summary 30

3.1 Introduction 31

3.2 The process of the reseach 31

3.3 Research design 33

3.3.1 Sample 33

3.3.2 Measurement scale 33

3.3.3 Questionnaire 34

3.4 Pilot testing 36

3.5 Data collection 36

3.5.1 Data sources 36

3.5.2 Data collection methods 37

3.6 Data analysis 38

Chapter 4 – Research Results 41

4.1 Introduction 41

4.2 Tourists’ demographics and travel patterns 41

4.3 Descriptive statistics 44

4 3 Reliability test 50

4.5 Hypothesis testing 62

4.6 Results of Hypotheses testing 67

Chapter V – Conclusions and Recommendations 69

5.1 Conclussion 69

5.2 Recommendations 71

5.3 Limitations and direction for the future research 73

APPENDIX A 76

VIETNAMESE VERSION 76

Phần 1: Thông tin chung 76

ENGLISH VERSION 80

Table of Figure Figure 2.1: Research model 29

Figure 3.1 : The reseach process 32

Table of Tables

Table 3.1: Measurement scale 33

Table 4.1: Tourists’ characteristics 42

Table 4.2: Tourists’ travel patterns 44

Table 4.3: Descriptive Statistics of Accommodation 45

Table 4.4: Descriptive Statistics of Restaurant 46

Table 4.5: Descriptive Statistics of Transportation 46

Table 4.6: Descriptive Statistics of Local people 47

Table 4.7: Descriptive Statistics of Optional tour 47

Table 4.8: Descriptive Statistics of Shopping activities 48

Table 4.9: Descriptive Statistics of Tour leader 48

Table 4.10: Descriptive Statistics of Overall satisfaction 49

Table 4.11: Descriptive Statistics of Tourists’ loyalty 49

Table 4.12: Reliability test of Acommodation 50

Table 4.13: Reliability test of Restaurant 51

Table 4.14: Reliability test of Local people 52

Table 4.15: Reliability test of Shopping activities 53

Table 4.16: Reliability re - test of Shopping activities 53

Table 4.17: Reliability test of Option Tour 54

Table 4.19: Re-test for Transportation reliability 56

Table 4.20: Reliability test of Tourists’ satisfaction 57

Table 4.21: Reliability test of Tourists’ Loyalty 58

Table 4.22: Re-test for Tourists’ Loyalty 58

Table 4 23: KMO and Bartlett's Test 59

Table4.24: KMO and Bartlett's Test 60

Table 4.25: Rename factors 61

Table 4 26: Correlations a 63

Table 4.27: Model Summary b 64

Table 4.28: ANOVA b 64

Table 4.29: Coefficients a 65

Table 4.30: Model Summary b 66

Table 4.31: ANOVA b 66

Table 4.32: Coefficients a for HL and TT 67

Table 4.33: Results of Hypotheses testing 68

Abstract

Tourists’satisfaction is the most important thing in tourism industry, and Package tours are the most choosen type for traveling of tourists in Vietnam This research identify factors influencing tourist satisfaction to package tour services at NinhThuan destination and investigate the impact of tourist satisfaction to NinhThuan package tour on intention to return The research proposed a model includes factors of package tours such as: Quality of Acommodation, transportation, restaurant, shopping activities, optional tours, local people, and tourists’ satisfaction, tourists’ loyalty The main results indicate that Quality of Acommodation, transportation, shopping activities, local people, have a posity effect on tourist’ satisfaction Factors as Quality of Optional tour, and Quality of restaurant service are not get the supporting from the test result in having possitive effect on tourists’satisfaction For the factor of Professionalism of tour leader, the relationship between this factor and tourists’satisfaction is not clear Tourists’ satisfaction has a strong relationship with tourists’ loyalty

Chapter I - Introduction

The goal of the introduction part is to give the reader a short introduction to the topic

In this section the goals and the structure of the research are introduced Also, there is a short description of the case of NinhThuan tourism

Customer satisfaction is the most important thing in tourism industry Today competition between travel companies is growing all the time and that is why good service and customer satisfaction are becoming more and more important Customer satisfaction has

a positive effect on an organization’s profitability The more customers are satisfied with products or services offered, the more are chances for any successful business as customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchase, brand loyalty, and positive word of mouth marketing In the recent decade, decision makers in the tourist industry have been trying to increase the level of tourist satisfaction in different manners Consequently, the tourist satisfaction is viewed as an important research topic by both practitioners and academics (Xia et al., 2009)

Customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchases, loyalty and to customer retention (Zairi, 2000)

Given the importance of customer satisfaction in the tourist industry, the concern of tourist marketers is to identify the determinants of tourist’s satisfaction This is the focus of this study

About Ninh Thuan tourism,

Ninh Thuan, located in the southern part of Vietnam Central Coastal region, borders Khanh Hoa in the north, Binh Thuan in the south, Lam Dong in the west, East sea in the East Ninh Thuan is a picture of the harmony between the plains, mountains and sea, located

in the national tourism clusters of the triangle Da Lat - Nha Trang - Phan Rang Ninh Thuan has Nui Chua National Park and many beautiful landscapes such as Ninh Chu beach, Cà Ná beach, Ngoạn Mục – spectacular - mountain pass, Đa Nhim hydropower and precious historical relics are the Cham towers: Poklong Garai, Porome, Hoa Lai, are mostly intact Vinh Hy Bay, one of the four most beautiful bays in Vietnam, by clear blue water, rocky mountain and the gorgeous coral reefs Along with the Chapher falls- one of the highest warterfall in VN, and the Nại swamp,etc…Ninh Thuận completely qualified to become an attractive destination in the region and on the national scale

The huge tourism potential along with the package tour services to Ninh Thuan of travel agencies has launched in several years, but the results have not been as expected As a report of NinhThuan department of cultural, sport and tourism show that tunover from tourism of NinhThuan in 2011 stay at only 330 billion VND, equivalent to 2,85% of the GDP This is a very small number in relation with its potentials The number of tourists has returned to Ninhthuan is also very small Consider with the figure of KhanhHoa - a province has the same conditions with NinhThuan, in 2005, the tunover from tourism was 643,738

billion VND equivalent to 40.95% GDP This showed a very long distance between the two provinces have same conditions

This situation gave managers the following questions: whether tourism programs and the package tour programs to Ninh Thuan have satisfied the customers or not? What factors that custommers expect from tour programs in general and tour programs to NinhThuan in particular? What are factors that effect tourist satisfaction to Ninhthuan package tour (NPT) services?

2 Objectives

Based on the above situation, this study is to:

- To identify factors influencing tourist satisfaction to package tour services at NinhThuan destination

- To investigate the impact of tourist satisfaction to NinhThuan package tour on intention to return

- To draw managerial implications for maketers

3 Practical significance

The results and findings will provide extra information concerning customers’ needs, wants and their satisfaction to domestic package tours and Ninhthuan packake tours Based

on that, travel agencies could have programs and strategies appropriate to their customers

4 Scope of the research

The primary data will be collected via about 300 questionare sets from respondents that live and work in HCMC or tourists are on their tours at NinhThuan who used domestic package tour service and used Ninhthuan package tour service at least one time

The secondary data will be collected from 2008-2013

The research will be conducted from January 2014 to August 2014

5 The structure of the research

The research is divided into five sections as follow:

- Chapter 1- Introduction: give the overview about Problem statement, objectives, scope, Practical meaning of the research

- Chapter 2- Literature review: present theories relative to the study

- Chapter 3- Research Methodology

- Chapter 4- Present analyzing collected data, the resuls

- Chapter 5- Conclusions and recommendations

Chapter II – Literature review and research model

This section will present theories about tuorism industry in general, package tours, tourist satisfaction Previous studies of determinants of tourist satisfaction and intention to return specifically or loyalty in general are also reviewed The Model will be showed

First, this chapter presents difinitions of tourism industry and package tour, why package tours were chosen the most by tourists

Second, previous studies about tourist satisfaction will be showed in this chapter The last part in this chapter aim to build the research model which be presented base

on the previous theories

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes Tourism is an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations

2.1.1.2 Tourist

A person who is supposed to leave his/her hometown (permanent placae) on temproray, basis fort he purpose of seaking new experiences, having fun & entertaining, doing sports, seeing cultural & historical places (attractives) etc On the condition that she/he should stay no less than 1 day and no longer than 12 months, make use of a tourist facility for accomodation and spend her/his own Money trough their holiday

Tourist means a person who travels for either tourism or for other purposes combined with tourism, except for those who go to study, work or practice their professions to get paid

at the places of destination (Vietnam law on tourism, 2005)

2.1.1.3 Tourism activity

Tourism activity means activities of tourists, organizations and individuals doing

tourism business, local communities, agencies, organizations and individuals engaged in

tourism-related activities (Vietnam law on tourism 2005)

2.1.1.4 Toursim business lines

Toursim business is supply tourism services as transportation, accommodation, entertainment, leisure, and other services aim to meet tourists’needs in a tour

Tourism business is a trade in services, including the following lines:

Travel business; Tourist accommodation business; Tourist transportation business; Business

in development of tourist resorts or tourist spots; and, Business in other tourist services (Vietnam law on tourism, 2005)

According to page ACS.edu, Package tours can be further broken down into specific tour types Tours available range from Special-interest tours, Adventure tours, City or Regional tours, Group tours and Fully Escorted tours

Classification of package tour is based on:

- purpose of the journey: honeymoon tours, eco- tour, tours for shopping, culture tours, etc

- price of package tour: cheap tour, high-class tour, ect

- duration of tour: weekend tour, short-day tour, multi-day tour, ect

2.1.1.5.1 Package tour’ advantages which help it become the most (kind of tour) chosen by tourists

To ACS.edu, when choose a package tour, this will help tourists in cost saving and budgeting - the price of a trip when organised as a package is generally less as travel agencies bulk buy their package deals and therefore can sell the tours at a lower and more competitive rate Also, as the tour often includes all meals or trips for example, this reduces any uncertainty about the additional costs and allows the consumer to budget properly for costs associated with their travel

Buying a package tour means that if something goes wrong, someone else is there to solve the problem

Using a package tour is the most convenient way to arranging a vacation or tour The travel agency deals with all the arrangements relating to airlines, hotels, transfers directly through the tour provider This saves the consumer the effort and the time of contacting each company/service individually

2.1.1.6 Tourist accommodation means an establishment which rents rooms and beds

and provides other related services for guests, of which hotels constitute a major form (VN law on tourism.)

2.1.2 Tourist satisfaction to package tours and its antecedents

2.1.2.1 Tourist satisfaction

“Satisfaction is an overall customer attitude towards a service provider, or an emotional reaction to the difference between what customers anticipate and what they

receive, regarding the fulfillment of some needs, goals or desire” (Hansemark and Albinson, 2004)

According to Danaher & Haddrell (1996) and Som & Badarneh ( 2011) Satisfaction also has been a central subject of tourist’s behaviour Measuring satisfaction in post-consumption moments aims at providing feedback from a current customer to push managers towards service improvement

Many studies about tourist satisfaction recognized that satisfaction have positive effect on destination selection decisions And, how important tourist satisfaction to loyalty,

we can find that in An Examination of the Effects of Motivation and Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Structural Model of Yoon and Uysal (2005), Dimensions of Tourist Satisfaction with a Destination Area of Pizam, Neumann and Reichel (1978), Tourist satisfaction: A view from a mixed international guided package tour of Bowie & Chang (2005), Senior Tourists’ Purchasing Decisions in Group Package Tour (Wang, 2007)

2.1.2.2 Antecedents of tourist satisfaction to package tour

Tourist satisfaction (Kozak & Rimmington, 2000) is an important facet influencing directly to a success of the destination marketing because it impacts the choice of destination, the consumption of goods and services, and the decision to return

In general, tourist satisfaction is based on many factors such as tourist expectations, destination immage, perceived quality and perceived value It is also closely related with the tourists’ post- purchase behavior (tourist’complain and loyalty) (Xiah, 2009)

According to Pizam, Neumann, and Reichel (1978) it is important to measure consumer satisfaction with each attribute of the destination, because consumer

dis/satisfaction with one of the attributes leads to dis/satisfaction with the overall destination

To Rust, Zahorik, and Keininghan (1993) the relative importance of each attribute to

the overall impression should be investigated because dis/satisfaction can be the result of evaluating various positive and negative experiences

Satisfaction is thus a multi-faceted concept and is even more complex when the focus

is on a destination rather than an individual service provider In the case of destinations, satisfaction is assessed by reference to the many individual aspects of the holiday encounter, including the services and facilities used In this way, both a measure of overall satisfaction and a diagnostic evaluation of those aspects of the holiday responsible for satisfaction may be obtained (Thuy Huong Truong and David Foster, 2006)

To tourist satisfaction of package tour, Package tour is different from the other kind of tours, it’s a package of all services for a tour aim to meet tourist’ needs It includes services

as transportation, accommodation, meals, shopping, tour leader/ tour guide, and optional tour, all in a package at a fixed price So, to find out factors of a package tour impact to tourist’ satisfaction follow the objectives and context of this research we should begin with these service factors

Rittichainuwat, Qu, and Mongkhonvanit (2006) studied the collective impacts of a bundle of travel determinants on repeat visitation to Thailand and determined tourist

satisfaction attributes in the categories of shopping, restaurants, hotels, transportation, attractions, environment, and local residents’ attitudes

Qu and Li (1997) in The characteristics and satisfaction of mainland Chinese visitors to Hong Kong The characteristics in the category of visitor satisfaction included shopping, restaurants, hotels, transportation, attractions, environment and people's behavior

According to Wang et al (2006), David Bowie and Jui Chi Chang (2005), influencing

factors of tourist satisfaction to package tours are: Accommodation service, transportation service, shopping activities, restaurant, tour leader and optional tours

Also according to the research results from Wang et al 2006, the sector of scenic spots was ultimately eliminated The information of scenic spots will be provided by tour agencies through brochures and advertisements on TV, newspaper, magazine, internet It will also be found on internet through search engine by customers So, the detailed information about scenic spots that the group package tour (GPT) tourists could obtain before the GPT begins could possibly reduce the perception of service deviation and failure Therefore, the sector of scenic has more transparency than other sectors of group package tours such as optional tour, shopping, or transportation

Also follow the above study, “Compare to other GPT sectors, the scenic spots sector

in GPT seems to have the lowest extent of ambiguity and the highest extent of clarity and guarantee Although the removal of the scenic spots sector may be somewhat unexpected, it seems consistent with what this present study has found in the qualitative stage, that the problems of the scenic spot sector were the least-mentioned GPT sector (only 7%) in the three focus groups”

Through the sudy of Examining international tourists’ satisfaction with Hanoi tourism

in 2013 conducted by Vietnam national administration of tourism showed that factors as

accommodation services, friendliness of local people, ect have possitive effects on tourist satisfaction at destination

H1: Accommodation quality has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

Local people’ attitude

Impressions of tourists about the local resident’ attitude as friendliness, hospitality, smile, friendliness of local shopkepper, local people don’tdiscriminate against tourists (don’t have activities like forcing tourists, raising prices, or tourist scams), ect these attitudes will help tourist to feel comfortable and satisfied

In “An evaluation on the attitudes of residents in Georgetown towards the impacts of tourism development”, (Lim poh Ling et al, 2011) concluded that the positive impact that resident perceived has a positive relationship with their support level toward tourism development

In the labour intensive tourism industry; tourism businesses, local people, visitors

receiving service and employees are in a bilateral communication and so the communication between these individuals plays a very important role in visitor satisfaction (Tavmergen and

Kevin, Metin and Joffrey (2000) in the role of food service in tourist satisfaction proved that food service is an important contributor to tourist satisfaction

According to the World Food Travel Association, which holds a summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, September - 2013, eating out is the number one leisure activity for

many travellers

According to Kastenholz et al., (1999), Gyimothy et al., (2000) ; Joppe et al., (2001) Gastronomy ranked among the most important attributes of a destination for rural and city tourists

H3: Restaurant quality has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

Shopping activities and optional tours

Shopping can be both an attraction and a basic facility which tourists will expect at a

destination This can include souvenir shopping or purchasing basic necessities such as shampoo Products which identify with a destination are always popular Shopping is a common and preferred tourist activity in many destinations(Timothy & Butler, 1995)

Optional tour:

When offer a package tour, tour agencies are not only offer a particular tour programe but also offer many options with attractions, accommodation, restaurant, transportation means, ect at a appropriate cost These do not automatically include but are offered at the star of the tour designed to enhance tourist’ travel experiences, and help tourists can choose a tour programe suit their needs So, giving an attractive optional tour will help to satify tourists

In statistics from 1980-2004 of the Travel Quality Assurance Asociation R.O.C.(2004) revealed that of the 6160 group package tour tourists’ disputed cases, shopping and optional tours accounted for 34,05%

According to a study of Wang et al (2006) suggested that travel managers should employ or increase the weight given to shopping and optional tours in group package tours’

service quality measurement The items for measuring shopping and optional tours in GPT are particularly important

H4: The quality of shopping activities operation has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H5: Quality of Optional tours have positive effect on tourist satisfaction

Tour leader

The tour leader manages the group’s passage over a multi-day tour and has intense

contact with the tour participants The tour leader conducting a tour needs a variety of skills and faces many challenges (Bowie and Chang, 2005)

Elements of a tour leader/ tour guide like friendliness and the ability of coordination between group members are valued by tourists (Wang et al., 2006)

Bowie and Chang (2005) indicated that the tour leader is a significant determinant psychologically, spiritually and practically in influencing the success of the tour product The research’ result contributes to a better knowledge for the tour operator of tourism satisfaction

in the international market for guided package tours

H6: Tour leader has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H7: Transportation has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

2.1.3 Customer loyalty

Customer loyalty is a crucial factor in companies’ growth and their performance Loyalty is linked with the repeat business Thus, a customer is loyal when he is frequently repurchasing a product or service from a particular provider Oliver defines loyalty

as “A deeply held commitment to re-buy or re-patronize a preferred product or service in the future despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour” (cited by Kotler, 2000)

The perceived value from the product and the service affects customer judgement about his/her satisfaction or loyalty with the product or the service The significance of customer loyalty is that it is closely related to the company’s continued survival and to strong future growth (Fornell, 1992)

2.1.4 Customer satisfaction and relationship with customer’s decision to return/ loyalty

It is clear that if a agency/destination can make a tourist satisfied that tourist will come back again and they might also tell to their friends about the good service they got

Kotler (2000) defined satisfaction as: “a person’s feelings of pleasure or

disappointment resulting from comparing a product perceived performance (or outcome) in relation to his or her expectations”

Satisfaction leads to intention to return, to willingness to pay more, and to willingness to recommend the destination to others (Baker and Crompton, 2000; Bigne´et

al., 2005; Murray and Howat, 2002; Yoon and Uysal, 2005)

Satisfied customers are more likely to repeat buying products or services They will also tend to say good things and to recommend the product or service to others On the

other hand dissatisfied customers respond differently Dissatisfied customers may try to

reduce the dissonance by abandoning or returning the product, or they may try to reduce the dissonance by seeking information that might confirm its high value (Kotler, 2000)

Tourist dissatisfaction may, on the other hand, lead to negative behavior, such as customer complaining behavior which (ultimately) affects retention rates (Bolton and Drew, 1994)

Customer satisfaction is significant to achieve loyalty not only in physical products, but also in tourism context when visitors intend to revisit the same destination ( Som & Badarneh, 2011)

H8: Tourist satisfaction has positive effect on loyalty.

2.1.5 The indepth interviews

For getting more accurate and appropriate information for the model, this research

conducted indepth interviews with experts in tourism and tourists

2.1.5.1 Procedure of the indepth interviews

 Identify the purpose for indepth interviews

 List question need tobe answereed (guideline from the previous models)

 List people to be interviewed

 Make appointments with interviewers

 Conduct the interview

2.1.5.2 The brief of results from the indepth interviews:

Through an in-depth interview with experienced experts in Ninh Thuan tourism and tourists, the reseacher gathered some information about factors that effect tourist satisfaction

to package toursand package tours Ninh Thuan The brief of results from the interviews are as follow:

- Hotel services(clean ,tidy,have good views from,services)

- Transportation service (on time as the schedule,delay,safety, )

- Tour guide (professional,skills to handle unforeseeable events,easy to

conservation with tourists,…)

- Attitude of local people (if they are friendly ,sociable,happy to welcome

tourists,… will lead tourists feel comfortable and joy the activities at the local place)

- The itinerary arrangement

- Restaurant service (places where serve food for tourists during the

tour,performance of service staffs at that places,delicious food,unique foods,…)

- Shopping activities (tourists can visist and buy unique products at that place as souvenir,and enjoy the local customs ,try local dishes and contact with local people,…)

- The settlment of tourist complaints during and after the trip (speed of

feedback.easy to contact with the tour operator,tour guide,…)

- The travel agencies have tour programs which designed as tourist is needs –the Optional tour

- Tourists’ experiences from previous trips

2.2 Research model

Based on the previous studies about factors influencing tourist satisfaction to package tours, loyalty and the research objectives, the results of the indepth interview, combined with the study area, the research modal is proposed as follow:

Figure 2.1: Research model

Loyalty

Tourist satisfaction

2.3 Research hypotheses

The hypotheses of this research is proposed as follow

H1: Accommodation Quality has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H2: Friendly attitude of local people has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H 3: Quality of restaurant service has positive effect on tourists satisfaction

H4: Quality of Shopping activities operation has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H5: Quality of Optional tours has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H6: Professionalism of tour leader has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H7: Quality of transportation has positive effect on tourist satisfaction

H8: Tourist satisfaction has positive effect on loyalty

2.4 Summary

This chapter discussed the importance of customer satisfaction as well as package tours in tourism industry, the necessity for a study on the antecedents & cosequences of tourist satisfaction of package tours The previous studies on tourist satisfaction of package tours, factors effect tourist satisfaction of package tour as accommodation, restaurant, transportation

Chapter III – Research methodology

3.2 The process of the reseach

The research process of this study includes two stages: preliminary study and formal research

Preliminary study: to explore, adjust, and implement observed variables through the indepth interviews or forcus groups

Formal research: to conduct the quantitative research to test the theoretical model and hypotheses

The steps of process are as the following figure

Figure 3.1 : The reseach process

Theorical modal

Preliminary scale model

Full scale

Adjusted scale model

Reseach

Formal reseach

Multiple

Regression

Conclusion and recomionmendation

Quality research

Literature review

test

3.3 Research design

3.3.1 Sample The sample population of this research was a sample of 300 tourists

who are on their travel at NinhThuan or people had prior experiences with package tour to

NinhThuan within six months

Respondents younger than 18 years old or interviewers that their last trip to

NinhThuan was over 6 months were disqualified

3.3.2 Measurement scale The scale to measure various concepts in the modal are

based on those previously developed and presented in the literature

In particularly, Scales of this study were adapted and modified from previous studies

of tourists’ satisfaction to package tours, their loyalty as the table follow

Table 3.1: Measurement scale

Qu and Li (1997) Huh, 2002

2 Professional and friendly staffs

3 Friendliness of staff

4 The accommodation has beautiful View and good location (near the

beach/downtown)

5 Quality of food at accommodation is good

6 Security at the accommodation is guaranteed

7 Overall, I was satisfied with the quality of Accommodation service at

NinhThuan

Quality of Transportation Service

from Wang, 2006 Passenger focus, 2012

Qu and Li , 1997 Huh, 2002

2 The seat and the personal space around my seat is comfort

3 Safety of the coach is reliable

4 In general, to me, transportation services that were supplied during the

tour were good

Quality of Restaurant Service

1 Service attitude of the restaurant’staffs Adapted and modified

from

B and Chang, 2005

Qu and Li , 1997 Siri, 2009

2 Sanitary of restaurant

3 I can enjoy the local unique cuisine at restaurant

4 Food quality – fresh, good taste, variety and hygiene

5 Overall, I was pleased with the quality of restaurant services

Quality of Shopping Activities

from Wang, 2006

B and Chang, 2005 Siri, 2009

Qu and Li, 1997

2 Shopping stores fit in with the needs of tourists

(ex: have local unique products)

3 Duration in shopping stores is appropriate

4 In general, i was satisfied with the orgnaization of shopping activities

Quality of Optional tours

1 Provided detailed descriptions of the contents of optional tours(about

the landscape, relaxation activities, etc)

Adapted and modified from

Wang, 2006

B and Chang, 2005; Siri, 2009

2 The price of optional tours is reasonable

3 The optional tour has variety tour programes(with many activities)

4 Overal, the optional tours are reasonable

Professionalism of Tour leader

1 Tour leader has a good presentation ability Adapted and modified

from Wang, 2006 David B and Jui Chi Chang, 2005

2 Has professional ability with friendly attitude

3 Has ability in solving the unforeseen things

4 Overall, tour leader of the tour(s) was professional

Friendly attitude of local people

1 Friendliness and helpfullness of local people Adapted and modified

from: Ambro,2008

Rajesh, 2013 Siri, 2009

Qu and Li (1997)

2 Attitude of local shopkeppers

3 Local people don’t discriminate against tourists

4 Overall, I were satisfied with attiitute of the locals

Loyalty

1 I will recomment this package tour to my friends and relatives Adapted and modified

from Wang Xia, 2009 Cheng et al (2008) Caruana, 2000

2 I intend to say good things about this destination to others

3 Encourage my friends and relatives to choose this tour

4 I intend to continue choosing this tour to NinhThuan in future

General Satisfaction

1 I am satisfied with my experiences in the tour to NinhThuan Huh, 2002

Lai & Vinh, 2013 Han et al.(

2 Overall, I am satisfied with this tour

3 This tour has met my expectations

4 I have had the pleasurable journey in NinhThuan

3.3.3 Questionnaire

Collection of data for this study was conducted based on a structured questionnaire

carried out from to June-July 2014

The structured questionnaire was formed from the above measurement scale

The questionnaire was designed follow the request of the research objectives such as identifying the relationship between each factor of the package tour to NinhThuan and tourists’ satisfaction, investigating the impact of tourist satisfaction to NinhThuan package tour on intention to return- loyalty, analyzing the differences in the contribution of factors to tourists’ satisfaction The purpose of the formation of the questionnaire was also analyzing the differences in tourist’ demographic with their travel behavior characteristics This questionnaire was devided into three sections

First of all, the questionnaire presented the introduction and the objectives of this research

Section one: General information

Questionaires begin by asking structured questions to remind respondants about their trip

Section two: Evaluate factors relate to package tours to NinhThuan This section

involved fourty- seven attributes of the package tours to NinhThuan that were assessed in terms of tourists’ satisfaction about the quality of accommodation, transportation, restaurant, shopping activities, and attitude of the locals during their journey

Two Open-ended questions were also included in this section The respondents were asked to give comments about two things they like or dislike the most about their trip to NinhThuan

Section three: Draws on questions about socio-demographic characteristics: gender,

age, marital status, occupation, educational qualification

For each item of the questionnaire, the participants were asked to indicate their level

of agreement or disagreement with the relevant statement by using 5 point Linkert Scale from

1 for

“definitely disagree” to 5 for “definitely agree”

Before the data collecion was conducted, the questionnaire sets were sent to experts

in NinhThuan tourism and 10 tourists who often use the package tour services which inclued NinhThuan destination The questionnaire was then adjusted in content and format based on the suggestions of them

A pilot test usually involves simulating the actual data collection process on a small scale to get feedback on whether or not the instruments are likely to work as expected in a

"real world" situation A typical pilot test involves administering instruments to a small group

of individuals that has similar characteristics to the target population, and in a manner that simulates how data will be collected when the instruments are administered to the target population

Pilot testing gives programs an opportunity to make revisions to instruments and data collection procedures to ensure that appropriate questions are being asked, the right data will

be collected, and the data collection methods will work

3.5 Data collection

3.5.1 Data sources

This research used two main sources of data that were primary data and secondary data

While the primary data was collected from the field survey, this is the kind of information that was found out by the researcher

The secondary data is used to get better insight on the research topic, to establish background for theoretical framework, and the measurement scale, this kind of data was gathered from previous studies, relevant reports on the internet or via books

3.5.1.1 Interview with tourism experts and tourists

For getting more accurate and appropriate sources of qualitative data for the research modal, indepth interviews with experts and tourists were conducted 5 experienced experts in tourism and 15 customers who often use the package tour services were interviewed The

brief of results of these interviews were presented in the literature review of chapter 2

3.5.2 Data collection methods

The survey was conducted from June to July 2014 in NinhThuan and Hochiminh city

In order to collect accurate and appropriate information from the customers, collection ways were used: face-to-face interviewing, questionnaire forms delivered to the customers of hotels, and through travel agencies

In NinhThuan, distribution of questionnaires was carried out at different places that are frequently visited in NinhThuan such as Cham towers, Vinh Hy Bay, NinhChu beach, BauTruc village,.etc and also at hotels as well as resorts in NinhThuan In HoChiMinh city, the questionnaire sets were delivered to tourists who visited NinhThuan through travel

agencies by internet (e-mail, facebook, G- Docs) with the supporting of travel companies

Students who were trained about how to collect data by the questionnaire for this research were used for collecting data

Respondents were approached and informed about the purpose of the survey before they were given the questionnaire

3.6 Data analysis

After finish the collecting data, the collected data was coded and inputed in the

Statistical Package for Social Sciences - SPSS software and then use the tools of this software which demonstrated below for analysis

MS 1, MS 2, MS 3, MS 4,

Quality of optional tours TourTC 1, TourTC 2, TourTC 3, TourTC 4

Professionalism of Tour leader

Reliability test (Cronbach’s Alpha)

A system's reliability is a measure of stability and overall performance of a system collated during an extended period of time under various specific sets of test conditions This type of testing incorporates the results from non-functional testing such as stress testing, security testing, network testing, along with functional testing It is a combined metric to define a system's overall reliability

In this research, Cronbach’ anpha was used for testing the reliability of factor before they used for EFA testing

Factor Analysis - Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)

Factor analysis is a statistical technique used for replacing a large number of variables with a smaller number of “factors” that reflect what sets of variables have in common with one another It is commonly used in an exploratory way to identify what underlies a set of otherwise loosely related variables

The study use EFA for testing factors if they are qualified (relatetive) for regression testing or not

Correlation testing

Correlation and regression analysis are related in the sense that both deal with relationships among variables The correlation coefficient is a measure of linear association between two variables

Values of the correlation coefficient are always between -1 and +1 A correlation coefficient of +1 indicates that two variables are perfectly related in a positive linear sense, a correlation coefficient of -1 indicates that two variables are perfectly related in a negative linear sense, and a correlation coefficient of 0 indicates that there is no linear relationship between the two variables For simple linear regression, the sample correlation coefficient is the square root of the coefficient of determination, with the sign of the correlation coefficient being the same as the sign of b1, the coefficient of x1 in the estimated regression equation

Regression analysis

This is a statistical process for estimating the relationships among variables It includes many techniques for modeling and analyzing several variables, when the focus is on the relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables

This research used linear regression to test the relationship of independent and dependent factors

Chapter 4 – Research Results

4.1 Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to present the results of data analysis The findings are illustrated based on the purposes of the study by steps as follow:

- Identify tourists’ demographics and travel patterns

- To identify the information sources that uses the most by tourists

- To identify relationships between the factors of a package tour to NinhThuan and tourists’ satisfaction

- To examine if have a relationship between “ the intention to return and

willingness to recommend NinhThuan tourism” – tourists’ loyalty and tourists’ satisfaction

4.2 Tourists’ demographics and travel patterns

Tourists’ demographics

To get the sample size was 300 Over 375 questionnaire sets were sent to respondents After collecting and checking, only usable 298 questionnaires were obtained

Table 4.1 showed the tourists’ characteristics

59.7 % of all the respondents were males, and 40.3% were females It is not possible

to say that more males are visiting/visited NinhThuan, but this shows that they are more willing to participate in customer satisfaction surveys

About the age of the respondent; middle-aged people (30-40) were dominating among other age groups -70.8% This tourist group has a stable economic with savings

49.3% of the respondents are office staffs, 32.9 % are students, while managers account for 10.4%

84.2% respondents are married and the last are single