Investigation of Medical- and Wellness Tourists of a Hungarian Spa to Explore Relationships Between Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Abstract

Good quality services mean an advantage in competition; they help to keep old guests and to receive new ones. For a provisional enterprise, guest satisfaction is not only an objective but also an effective marketing tool, knowing that the repeated purchases and recommendations of a satisfied, loyal customer can be very effective marketing methods. But does high quality of services and satisfaction really guarantee the loyalty of spa guests? In order to receive an answer to this, we have questioned 300 Hungarian guests of Hévíz Spa in the dimensions of service quality, satisfaction and loyalty. We have evaluated the replies of 164 medical guests and 117 wellness tourists separately. The positive relationship between quality and satisfaction has been confirmed both in case of medicaland wellness tourists. In the case of medical tourism, the significant positive relationship between the loyalty dimensions of willingness to return, recommendation willingness and positive word-advertising has also been proven. In the case of wellness tourists, however, satisfaction and loyalty relations are less obvious. Regression analysis draws our attention to the key role of pleasure and satisfaction dimension, directing spa services towards providing joyful experiences! According to this research, we can also determine, that measuring customer satisfaction is not enough, as other factors affecting the loyalty of medicaland wellness tourists also have to be explored.