Abstract

The paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of tourist satisfaction evaluation. Satisfaction is the fulfilment of human needs. The distinction between tourist expectations and perceived performance shows the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. If expectations exceed perceived performance, this means that the customer is satisfied. Satisfaction leads to loyalty and revisits. Hence, it is crucial to evaluate the satisfaction level of tourists and find out gaps. Systematization literary sources and approaches for solving the problem indicate that many countries have their indexes to measure customer satisfaction. The main purpose of the research is to measure tourist satisfaction in Armenia. Investigation of the topic in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence: the main literature was observed, the index and model of tourist satisfaction evaluation were elaborated for Armenia, and a survey was conducted among 385 incoming tourists during 2018. Methodological tools of the research methods were sociological survey, IPA analysis, CSAT, NPS methods. As a result of the calculations, the main issues of service quality were detected. The main results were analyzed using Importance-performance matrix. Also Customer satisfaction score and Net promoter score were calculated. The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis that shows the main gaps in the quality of tourism services. Based on the analysis some suggestions were done towards improving the performance of main services which failed to satisfy tourists. The research empirically confirms and theoretically proves the necessity of doing the following steps: reducing airfare costs, increasing direct flights, improving tourism infrastructures, road quality, public transport, taxi services, the level of tourism services, increasing the competence level of touristic staff and their English language awareness, insuring environmental protection, increasing marketing performance of tourism sector in order to provide more information about Armenia abroad, etc. The findings have practical significance and the results of the research can be useful for the public and private sector of tourism industry.  

Keywords: Сustomer satisfaction score, tourist, survey, satisfaction, Net promoter score, model

JEL Classification: L83, Z32.

Cite as: Tovmasyan, G. (2019). Assessment of tourist satisfaction index: evidence from Armenia. Marketing and Management of Innovations, 3, 22-32. https://doi.org/10.21272/mmi.2019.3-02

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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