Examining Tour Services, Satisfaction, and Loyalty Of International Tourists in Cape Coast, Ghana

Abstract

Utilizing transaction-specific customer satisfaction theory within tourism marketing, this research investigates how tour services elicit international tourists' satisfaction and contribute to tourists' loyalty to a destination. The research was conducted using 356 international tourists visiting destination sites in Cape Coast who answered questions regarding tour services: accommodation, food services, tour guide performance, souvenir shopping, and community interaction. Structural equation modeling was used to test the six proposed hypotheses based on validated survey data from the tourists. The data revealed that community interactions, souvenir shopping, and accommodation had positive effects while food services and tour guide performance negatively influenced international tourist satisfaction. Additionally, tourist satisfaction had a positive effect on tourist loyalty. The results suggest that effective tour services encounter and tourist satisfaction can promote local city economies at destination via recommendations or revisitation of international tourists due to their memorable and unforgettable experiences. Again, the outcome of this research validates the usefulness of the transaction-specific customer satisfaction theory within city tourism literature and will help tourism officials, city managers, city developers, businesses, and tourism practitioners to have a better understanding of the studied core tour services within context.