Building Customer Loyalty in Rural Destinations as a Pre-Condition of Sustainable Competitiveness

Kateřina Ryglová, Ida Rašovská (), Jakub Šácha and Vanda Maráková
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Kateřina Ryglová: Faculty of Business, Mendel University in Brno, 631 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Jakub Šácha: Faculty of Business, Mendel University in Brno, 631 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Vanda Maráková: Faculty of Economics, Matej Bel University, 975 90 Banska Bystrica, Slovakia

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: The paper is dedicated to the issues of rural tourism with regard to the visitor’s loyalty towards the destination in a sustainable development context. Particularly, the findings of the research focused on exploring mutual relations among quality dimensions of the rural destination, overall satisfaction of the visitor, and his or her loyalty towards the destination are presented. A structural model was used to explore the relations among quality dimensions, overall satisfaction, and loyalty in the specific environment of the Czech Republic (inland European country, EU member, until 1989 a socialist country, nearly 93% municipalities with fewer than 3000 inhabitants). The research results allow deeper understanding of the visitor’s behavior and the factors influencing the loyalty towards the destination. The significance order of the dimensions according to their direct influence on the required loyalty towards the destination, i.e., coming back to the destination and spreading positive references to the destination, is as follows: 1. well-being, 2. image, 3. services. We conclude that overall satisfaction directly influences loyalty towards the destination.

Keywords: destination; customer; loyalty; sustainable tourism development; competitiveness; structural model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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