Importance Of Customer Satisfaction In Tourism

Introduction
Tourism has come to play essential economic role for many countries. Globalisation has allowed for airlines to extend their operating routes. Even the most remote of locations have come to use tourism as a fundamental tool to economic growth. With this newly globalised world has increased demand and competition. Destination marketers and managers are constantly being met with the challenge of learning to attract newer tourists and to encourage their revisiting to the destination. The keys to such actions lie in the understanding of tourist behaviours and the antecedents involved in influencing consumer loyalty to destinations. A common assumption made is that an overall satisfied tourist plays a fundamental role in that tourist’s choice to continue returning to a destination and recommend it to others. The purpose of study is to review literature on this idea of “tourist satisfaction” and investigate to what extent it influences destination loyalty amongst tourists.
Tourist Satisfaction Defined
Tourist satisfaction has become a major area of research over the past three decades (Kozak, 2001). In turn, a large number of definitions of customer satisfaction have since emerged. Song (2010) suggests that tourist satisfaction refers to the post-consumption evaluation that’s made after a tourist has consumed a product or a service. Pizam et al., (1987) define tourist satisfaction as ‘the result of interaction between a tourist’s experiences at the destination area