AN INVESTIGATION OF SERVICE QUALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON CUSTOMER ATTITUDINAL LOYALTY IN TRADITIONAL TRAVEL AGENCIES

Customer loyalty and its determining factors have been key issues in the tourism and destination marketing and management literature, being extensively studied over the past decades. However, the impact of service quality on customer loyalty in the tourism distribution sector has been scarcely emphasized in the literature. The current research is aimed at depicting the impact of traditional travel agencies' service quality on their customers' attitudinal loyalty, according to evidence from Romania, and is part of a larger study directed at analyzing the impact of perceived social responsibility components on customer loyalty. An online survey was conducted among a sample of 286 Romanian citizens who had purchased travel services or packages from traditional travel agencies. For the purpose of assessing service quality the SERVQUAL items were adapted to our specific case, while repurchase and recommendation intention were used as measures of attitudinal loyalty. Results showed that although each service quality dimension has a significant and positive impact on attitudinal loyalty, tangibles can be emphasized as having the lowest impact, while reliability can be depicted as having the most relevant effect.