The impact of hotel service quality on customer loyalty: The perceptions of domestic and foreign tourists

The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of service quality offered by hotels on customer loyalty. In line with this purpose, both the service quality expectations and the perceptions of domestic and foreign tourists staying in hotels are examined.The service quality literature was reviewed and a convenience sample of 405 domestic and foreign tourists staying in five star hotels in İzmir was surveyed in the yaer of 2012. The reliability of scales used in this study were examined. The Cronbach?s Alpha was 0,92 for Servqual scale and 0,89 for Customer Loyalty scale; indicating high reliability. The data were analyzed using descriptive (percentages, frequencies, mean, etc.) and inferential (independent samples t test, one way ANOVA, Tukey HSD post hoc, linear multiple regression) statistics.The findings of the study indicate that domestic tourists? service quality perceptions (mean 3,88) are higher than the foreign tourists? service quality perceptions (mean 3,68). The educational level of the participants are also high (55,3% undergraduate level or above). The study found that the perceived service quality has a positive impact on customer loyalty. Additionally, the perceived service quality perceptions differs based on the demographic profiles of tourists.