Domestic Honeymoon Tourists’ Loyalty towards Hotel Attributes: Mediating Role of Satisfaction

Abstract

Honeymoon tourists, one of the integral market segments, play a vital role in the tourism industry, especially in domestic tourism. However, there is a dearth of literature in the respective study area especially concerning domestic tourism in Sri Lanka. And also, there is a concern about the impact of hotel attributes on the satisfaction and loyalty of domestic tourists. Thus, the study attempts to investigate whether the hotel attributes; accommodation, dining experience, and service staff, impact the loyalty of the domestic honeymoon tourists with the mediation effect of satisfaction. This empirical study on quantitative nature has adopted the post-positivism philosophy and employed an online survey using a structured questionnaire. The sample of 133 domestic honeymoon tourists who have visited three-to-five-star hotels in Sri Lanka, having six-months of reminiscence on their honeymoon trip, were selected through the convenient sampling technique. Data were analyzed employing both descriptive and inferential statistics through the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 26.0. T-test and ANOVA test results disclose a significant difference amongst the greatest demographic factors on satisfaction and loyalty. Pearson Correlation results reveal a significant positive relationship among the accommodation, dining experience, service staff, tourists’ satisfaction, and tourists’ loyalty, while satisfaction presence a significant positive relationship with the tourists’ loyalty. All the hypotheses tested were accepted revealing that hotel attributes positively impact the satisfaction of the domestic honeymoon tourists and the overall satisfaction impact loyalty. The Sobel test results prove a partial mediation of the tourists’ satisfaction amid accommodation, dining experience, and tourists’ loyalty while a full mediation among service staff and tourists’ loyalty. So, the findings conclude, that the hotel attributes impact on the on satisfaction, the satisfaction impacts on the loyalty, and finally, the satisfaction mediates the impact caused by the hotel attributes on the loyalty of the domestic honeymoon tourists. Improving the hotel attributes is profoundly recommended to intensify the satisfaction and loyalty of the domestic honeymoon tourists.