Abstract

The study focuses on assessing the impact of factors of tourism service quality on satisfaction and the level of influence of satisfaction on the loyalty of tourists who have experienced it at Sam Son beach, Thanh Hoa. Based on inheriting and developing the SERVQUAL service quality model, there is an additional influencing factor on the rationality of service prices” be consided. The author will test the above relationships using a sample of 218 domestic tourists to Sam Son from June to September 2022 by using the partial least squares linear structure (PLS) model -SEM) with Smart PLS software. The study results have shown that there are six factors affecting tourist satisfaction; in addition, the research results have confirmed the impact of visitor satisfaction on tourist loyalty in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa.

1. Introduction

Thanh Hoa is known as one of the country's important cultural and tourist centers with the strategy that by 2025 tourism will become the spearhead economic sector of the province. On that basis, sea-island tourism and eco-tourism are two main products, along with other types of tourism, that create the diversity and attractiveness of Thanh Hoa's tourism. Sam Son is a famous beach tourism destination for Thanh Hoa and the whole country because of the scenery's features and the beauty of the beach and the waves.

In the first six months of 2022, according to the Tourism report lunched by Sam Son gorvenment, Sam Son city has welcomed over 4.1 million visitors, 2.59 times higher than the same period in 2021, exceeding 17.88% of the year plan; serving 8,431,444 domestic and foreign guests, 2.35 times higher than the same period in 2021, exceeding 2.2% of the plan. Revenue reached VND 3,450 billion, 2.47 times higher than in the same period in 2021, exceeding 9% of the plan in 2022 (UBDN Sam Son, 2022). To achieve the above results, Sam Son City has organized a variety of tourism and cultural activities with 19 festivals and cultural and artistic programs, such as the Festival of Prayer for Happiness at Doc Cuoc Temple, Celebrating 115 years of Sam Son tourism and opening the Sam Son Sea Tourism Festival in 2022; Love festival - Hon Trong Mai; street carnival; kite flying festival; parachute festival; Banh Chung - Banh Giay festival; weekly Saturday night art program; a cultural festival of ethnic groups and performance of traditional costumes of Thanh Hoa province; display and introduce OCOP products in Thanh Hoa province and organize a pedestrian street and night market in Sam Son city in 2022.

It took a long time to decide to return to Sam Son. However, the results of tourism activities in Sam Son still need to be commensurate with the advantages and potentials of the locality. One of the important reasons identified is that the quality of tourism services still is not good, this leading to low tourist’s satisfaction and return rates therefore the time enjoy and stay at the Sam Sơn destination is short. Therefore, assessing factors affecting satisfaction and the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty of tourists in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa, is essential. The study will significantly contribute to evaluating the relationship between service quality, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists, from which there are appropriate solutions and impact strategies to improve customer satisfaction when experiencing beach tourism in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa.

2. Literature Review

According to Parasuraman et al. ², service quality is the difference between customer expectations and their perception of service results. Service quality is the customer's perception of service results.

The service quality scale is called SERVQUAL scale for short, including five essential components, which are (1) Tangibles; (2) Reliability; (3) Responsiveness; (4) Guarantee, and (5) Empathy. This scale has been tested by Parasuraman et al. ² for many different service industries, such as banking, credit card service, and long-distance phone service; repair and maintenance services are reliable and valuable and can be applied to other service industries. However, many other researchers have also tested this scale with different services in many countries; the results show that service quality components vary in each service industry and market.

According to the World Tourism Organization UNWTO ³, the Quality of tourism services is reflected in the expectations of tourists when visiting the destination. It manifests through factors such as safety, security, hygiene, accessibility, transparency, authenticity, and harmony of tourism activities in relation to the environment, people, and nature at the destination.

Wei ⁴ defines tourism service quality as outstanding Quality, quality value, and Quality of amenities at each level, and it is essential to meet tourists' expectations. It is the result of comparing tourists' expectations of tourism services and their feelings after using them.

Many studies on customer satisfaction in service industries have been carried out and concluded that service quality and satisfaction are two concepts with differences. Studies also show that service quality is the cause of satisfaction. Service quality and customer satisfaction are essential factors for the success of any business ². Customer satisfaction results from their perceived value in a transaction or relationship, where value equates to perceived service quality versus expected value from transactions or relationships with competing suppliers ^{5, 6}. To achieve customer satisfaction and responsiveness, Parasuraman et al. ⁷ argue that when perceived service quality is high, then it will lead to increased customer satisfaction. The fact that service quality leads to customer satisfaction agrees with the study of Lee et al. ⁸; the research team admits that customer satisfaction is based on different service quality levels.

Many empirical studies have been conducted to prove the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. Notably, two studies by Cronin & Taylor ⁹ and Oliver ¹⁰ have tested this relationship and concluded that perceived service quality leads to customer satisfaction. Studies have concluded that service quality is an antecedent of satisfaction Cronin & Taylor ⁹ and a significant factor affecting satisfaction. Oliver ¹⁰ said service quality is a decisive factor in satisfaction.

In terms of the relationship between tourism service quality and visitor satisfaction, Akbaba ¹¹ assessed the Quality of accommodation services in the Turkish tourism industry and pointed out that the tangible factor is the most critical factor affecting the perception of the Quality of the accommodation service of tourists. Al-Ababneh ¹² studied tourism service quality and its impact on tourist satisfaction and showed that three service quality factors: facilities, accessibility, and attractiveness, positively affect satisfaction. Luu Thanh Duc Hai ¹³ said that visitor satisfaction is related to five factors: service delivery ability, facilities, local characteristics, safety, and people, which Local characteristics have the most substantial impact. Recently, according to research by Nguyen Thi Cam Phu ¹⁴, the four factors that affect visitor satisfaction are trust and responsiveness, facilities, empathy, and tangibles.

Loyalty is viewed as the continued use of products & services and customers' attitudes towards specific organizations that provide such products & services. The difference between attitudes and behaviors relates to choosing particular products and services. Loyalty can be divided into two parts: loyalty and attitude and behavioral loyalty ¹⁵. Many authors have studied loyalty based on two aspects (approaches) of customer attitudes and behaviors ^{16, 17, 18}.

Customer loyalty can be measured through consumer intent or saying positive things about the service provider, the intention to encourage friends and family to use the service, and the intention to purchase services from an existing service provider ^{16, 17, 18}.

The relationship between visitor satisfaction and loyalty also depends on how satisfaction and loyalty are measured ¹⁹. Loyal customers are usually satisfied, but satisfied customers must determine whether they are loyal. According to Jones & Sasser ²⁰, satisfaction alone is not enough to make customers loyal, but the fact is that tourists will often stay loyal if the tourist destination pleases them.

The impact of satisfaction on loyalty can be measured by returning to the destination and positive word of mouth to those around (friends, colleagues, family) about the tourist destination ²¹. Experience studies have shown that visitor satisfaction is a good indicator of return intention and positive word of mouth. Another view points out that the critical impact of satisfaction makes tourists willing to pay more for the experience of tourism services ²². That is why satisfaction and loyalty are seen as the most critical indicator of success in tourist destinations.

The degree of loyalty to the destination is often reflected in the intention to return to the tourist destination for the second, third, or fourth time, etc. Many authors have also studied the relationship between tourist satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the field of tourism; most of the results confirm that visitor satisfaction has a positive influence on willingness to pay more for services as well as positive word of mouth ^{23, 24, 25, 26, 27}.

Thus, when tourists are satisfied with the destination, it will make a good impression in their hearts, and the choice of destination in their future vacation, the image of the satisfying destination in the past will be actively promoted and prioritized by tourists. Because once satisfied customers tend to use the service more and more often than unsatisfied customers. Moreover, when satisfied, they tend to continue buying and even passing on those services to acquaintances.

3. Materials and Methods

In this study, the authors used qualitative and quantitative research methods to solve the proposed research objectives.

Qualitative research: This is the research step that is done after the research model is proposed. The authors will conduct in-depth interviews with experts to survey the suitability of the proposed research theory and model, design scales for each influencing factor, and collect opinions from experts to adjust the indicator questions and move on to the quantitative research step.

Quantitative Research: This is a formal research step by collecting data through survey forms. Based on the study of Höck & Ringle ²⁸ for reference about the expected sample size. Accordingly, the minimum sample size is five times the observed variables. This is the appropriate sample size for the study using Comrey factor analysis ²⁹: N=5*m; note that m is the number of questions in the survey. Therefore, the authors will survey the number of questionnaires as N>5*m (votes).

Collected data will be processed by Smart PLS software. It is expected that the topic will use the "Structural least squares model analysis technique" to determine the degree of influence of factors on satisfaction and the degree of satisfaction on tourist loyalty.

They are inheriting and referencing research models on the relationship between tourism service quality, tourist satisfaction, and tourist loyalty. Especially the SERVQUAL model of Parasuraman et al. ²: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, Guarantee, and empathy. The author proposes to add to the research model the factor "Price rationality" because this is the factor that causes much dissatisfaction among tourists when the author analyzes and proposes the local tourism experience. Proposing and consulting with experts, specific research models are as follows:

The following hypotheses are proposed.

H1: There is a positive impact of reliability on tourist satisfaction

H2: There is a positive impact of responsiveness on tourist satisfaction

H3: There is a positive impact of guaranty on tourist satisfaction

H4: There is a positive impact of empathy on tourist satisfaction

H5: There is a positive impact of tangibles means on tourist satisfaction

H6: There is a positive impact of price rationality on tourist satisfaction

H7: There is a positive impact of tourist satisfaction on tourist loyalty

4. Results and Discussion

The research team randomly surveyed 250 tourists to Sam Son from June to September 2022. The content of the survey consists of 8 items and 29 survey questions with a 5-level Likert scale. With the results obtained, 218 valid answer sheets were. The data is cleaned, encrypted, and processed by Smart PLS. The results obtained are as follows:

The data on the standard Guarantee scale was further analyzed using Smart PLS software. The data analysis process follows the steps of Reflective model analysis in the sequence presented in the Hair et al. (2016) document. The removed variables have an "Outer loading" coefficient of less than 0.4; variables have load factors greater than 0.4 and less than 0.7. If removed, it improves the statistical criteria to the required level. Table 1 shows all the variable indicators corresponding to the factors to ensure the load factor. The factors with corresponding indicators are included in PLS-SEM analysis using Smart PLS 3.3.3 software.

Table 2 presents the reliability parameters of the data in which: Cronbach's Alpha index is the reliability indicator, composite reliability index (Composite Reliability); Variance Extracted (Average Variance Extracted). These are important indicators to assess the reliability of research data. Research data must ensure reliability when the Cronbach's Alpha and Composite Reliability indexes must be greater than 0.7 and the Average Variance Extracted (AVE) index is more significant than 0.5. Therefore, the data analyzed here ensures the necessary reliability.

Variance Inflation Factor (VIF): The index indicates the possibility of multicollinearity in the model. Through Table 2, it can be seen that the VIF values of all variables in the model are less than 5. VIF index < 10 is acceptable, however, to ensure reliability, the VIF index is at most 5, according to Hair et al ³⁰.

The R2 index (R-square value) measures the population coefficient of determination, which is an indicator to measure the model fit of data (the explainability of the model). Hair et al. ³⁰ suggested an R-square value of 0.75, 0.50, or 0.25.

Thus, in this model, adjusted R2 = 0.447 and 0.227 are appropriate in this case study.

The function value f2 represents the influence of the structure (factor) when removed from the model. The f2 values correspond to 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 for the exogenous variable's small, medium, and significant effects ³¹. If the effect size < 0.02, it is considered to have no effect.

In this model, we see that all links affect tourist satisfaction, especially the link between tourist satisfaction and loyalty has a powerful impact when f2 is 0.300.

Analyze the impact of factors in the research model:

The research team carried out Bootrapping on Smart PLS – Sem at 500. Table 5 observe the Inner Model p-value (T-Value) and Outer Model p-value (T-Value) indexes: p-value: must be less than 0.05, T-Value greater than 1.96. It is found that the T-value and p-value indexes are entirely consistent with the research model.

Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR): calculated by the square root of this standardized residual, this index indicates the goodness of fit of the research model. According to Hu & Bentler (1998), a suitable model will usually have an SRMR value of less than 0.08. Through the research results, SRMR in Table 6 of the research model is 0.070, less than 0.08. In the case of the above research model, this condition is satisfied. Therefore, this model is suitable for data analysis.

Summary model after analyzing data using Smart PLS software:

5. Conclusion

The author's research group synthesizes theoretical issues on service quality, tourism service quality; the relationship between tourism service quality and satisfaction, and the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty; It Proposes research methods and conducts data processing surveys. The research results show the following research implications:

Firstly, the research results have confirmed the positive influence of 6 factors on tourist satisfaction after using the data to test the statistical significance. Group of 6 factors affecting visitor satisfaction in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa includes (1) Reliability, (2) Responsiveness, (3) Guarantee, (4) Sympathy and, (5) Tangibles, (6) Price Rationality.

Secondly, the research results also show the degree of influence of each factor on the satisfaction of tourists in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa in descending order specifically as follows: (2) responsiveness has the most substantial impact on the satisfaction of tourists; Next, the second largest influence belongs to (1) Reliability; Impact level in third place is (5) Tangibles, (6) Price rationality has impact level in next position, (4) Empathy is in fifth place and finally, the impact of (3) Guarantee.

Third, a positive relationship exists between the satisfaction and loyalty of tourists. For tourists in Sam Son, Thanh Hoa, if customers satisfy their satisfaction, they will tend to return. The research results of the research team are similar to the research results of some previously researched and published authors: loyal customers are often satisfied, but satisfied customers cannot conclude that they are loyal. More than simple satisfaction is needed to make customers loyal. Tourists will often stay loyal if the travel destination pleases them. This is evident when satisfaction explains only about 22.7% of tourist loyalty. In addition to satisfaction, many other factors affect tourist loyalty outside the research model mentioned above by the research team.

Conflict of Interest

We certify that there is no conflict of interest with any financial, personal, or other relationships with other people or organization related to the material discussed in the manuscript.

Financial Support

Researchers received no research grant or funds for this research project.

Ethics Statement

None.

References