CUSTOMER LOYALTY TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE HOTELS: CASE STUDIES IN SRI LANKA

The hotel sector is directly combined with customer loyalty as it has become increasingly obvious by incorporating its’ antecedents with customer satisfaction and trust. Customer loyalty is influenced by customer satisfaction of hospitality service when it is significantly related to service quality. Sustainability is an important concept that can adapt to achieving customer loyalty in the Sri Lankan hotel sector. Indeed, most conventional hoteliers in Sri Lanka do not have the idea of success in achieving customer loyalty through the sustainability concept. Also, despite the abundance of research on the concept of sustainability, a gap in literature could be identified, when it comes to analysing the customer loyalty aspects toward sustainable hotels in Sri Lanka. This study is therefore aimed to bridge the gap that exists in the literature to prove the success of adopting the concept of sustainability in achieving customer loyalty. A qualitative research approach with two case studies was used to achieve the aim of the study. The selected cases include two green-certified five-star hotels which are under the topmost sustainable hotels in Sri Lanka according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. A total of 10 interviews were conducted from both cases. The collected data were analysed using content analysis. The customer loyalty aspects were identified on the deriving basis of self-influence factors of customers and their consideration of benefits in sustainable hotels. The study unveils an analysis of the interconnection between sustainable hotels and customer loyalty. The findings provide the path to conventional hotels to identify the success of implementing sustainability concept in achieving customer loyalty.