The effects of technological developments on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and brand image - an application in Mediterranean chain hotels

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of technological developments on hotel customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand image. The technology continues to manifest itself in all areas of our life. Like in all other sectors, the technological developments are closely followed in the hospitality sector and provide a competitive advantage to the hotel facilities that keep up with the times and establish technological superiority over their competitors. In my study, the literature sources related to such variables as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and brand image have been examined and these concepts as well as relations between them have been studied in detail. The research with regard to the literature sources on technological developments in the hospitality sector has been conducted and the BLUE APP application used in TUI BLUE Hotels has been introduced. The service sector is one of the highly competitive sectors. Being part of the service sector, the hospitality sector is also affected by intense competition. The hotels are in a constant search of the ways to stand out from their competitors and to gain a competitive advantage. Having a competitive advantage is possible with customer satisfaction, turning of satisfied customers into loyal customers and continuous brand image improvement. The relations between the technology use and customer satisfaction, loyalty and brand image have been studied. In view of the fact that there are not many studies related to the use of technology in the hospitality sector and possible effects of the technology use on customer satisfaction and loyalty, taking into account the importance of this issue for the sector and its role as an example, a detailed research has been carried out on this issue and answers to the questionnaires conducted among more than 500 hotel customers have been used for data analysis. The results of the questionnaire analysis prove all the hypotheses of the thesis owner. Keywords: Brand Image, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Loyalty, Technology