The resort hotel experience : conceptualization, measurement, and relation to antecedents and consequences

xiv, 287 p. : ill. ; 30 cm.PolyU Library Call No.: [THS] LG51 .H577M SHTM 2009 YangResort hotels have sprung up all over China in recent years, providing customers with pleasurable and memorable experiences. The concept of customer experience was first introduced into the consumer behaviour literature by Holbrook and Hirschman in 1982, and the notion was quickly taken up by numerous researchers. However, the way in which customer experience is formed and the ways in which products and services affect the formation of customer experience are unclear. This study developed and tested a structural equation model of customer experience in the resort hotel setting in an attempt to better understand the nature, antecedents, and consequences of customer experience. The research model includes six exogenous variables (reception, room, food and beverage, recreation and entertainment, open public areas and customer involvement) and three endogenous variables (customer experience, satisfaction, and behavioural intention). Base on the work of Rust and Oliver (1994) and Holbrook (1994), the study developed two scales to measure resort hotel service performance and customer experience. Customer involvement was measured using Mittal's (1995) revised personal involvement inventory; customer satisfaction was measured using three items from Crosby and Stephens (1987); and behavioural intention was measured using the loyalty and willingness-to-pay scales developed by Zeithaml, Berry, and Parasuraman (1996). All of the scales used in this study were pretested and refined using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. An on-site survey was conducted in three resort hotels in the province of Yunnan, and 497 questionnaires were successfully completed. The collected data were first analyzed through structural equation modelling (SEM) with LISREL. The results suggested that the proposed model fit the observed data well, with acceptable model fit indices. The results from confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated that the scales had good reliability and validity. Customer experience was confirmed to be a significant mediator between service performance and customer satisfaction, and in addition to service performance, customer involvement was found to be an antecedent of customer experience, directly having a positive impact on behavioural intention. Taken together, the results suggest that service quality is important, but not as important, as customer experience in a resort hotel which has a direct effect on customer satisfaction. Therefore, resort hotels should make every effort to create a special customer experience and promote it among customers.School of Hotel and Tourism ManagementM.Phil., School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 200