Tourists' satisfaction and loyalty in the hotel business: an application to the island of São Miguel, Azores

Given the recent competition in the hotel business and the constant search for satisfaction and loyalty of the guests, the objective of this study is to understand tourists’ perceptions of service quality offered at the hotels in São Miguel, and the factors contributing to their satisfaction and loyalty. Based on a reference model taken from literature on satisfaction and loyalty, na exploratory research of national and international tourists who stayed at the hotels of São Miguel was made. The data was used to simulate a model of structural equations to test the hypotheses of investigation. The results showed that the main influential variables of satisfaction were the quality of service offered and management of complaints. The factors that contributed most to the loyalty of the guests were the affective commitments, satisfaction, price, customer services and finally the image of the hotel itself. The information management became a fundamental factor in the satisfaction and loyalty of tourists