Pilgrims' Expectations and Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry
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©International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems Volume 1 Issue 1 2008 Pilgrims’ Expectations and Satisfaction in the Hospitality Industry – A Case of Katra Bharti Gupta Research Scholar, Centre for Hospitality & Tourism Management, University of Jammu, Jammu (J&K) Sonia Sharma Tourism and Hotel Management Course coordinator, UttraKhand Open University, Haldwani (Uttaranchal) Abstract:- that they can be used to boost tourism even in adverse situation like terrorism. Hospitality is one of the most important Although no definitive study had been completed components of tourism industry. In many regions on world wide religious tourism, some segments of the hospitality industry thrives only due to the the industry have been measured. According to the presence of tourism. The service providers add world tourism organization, an estimated 300 to facilities and features so as to attract and retain 330 million pilgrims visit the world’s key religious customer base. The hospitality industry of Katra sites every year. According to the U.S office of township of J&K is based on the pilgrims’ flow to Travel and tourism industries, American traveling Shri Mata Vaishno Devi. This paper tries to overseas for religious of pilgrimage purposes has determine whether the hospitality industry of Katra increased from 191,000 travellers in 2002 to really looks in to the customer satisfaction which is 633,000 travellers in 2005 (30% in this study the pilgrims’ satisfaction when the increase).According to the religious conference customer flow is constant. In order to determine Management Association, in 2006 more than 14.7 this, the paper tries to find the religious million people attend religious meetings an expectations of pilgrims from the hospitality units increase of more than 10 million from 1994 with like hotels of Katra; and their satisfaction level by 4.4 million attendes. One quarter (25%) of traveler finding the extent to which the pilgrims’ said they were currently interested in taking a expectations are met. The paper also examines the spiritual vacation (e.g. religious retreat, pilgrimage) difference between male and female level of . more than one in 10 travellers (12%) said they expectation and satisfaction. were more interested now compared to 5 years ago in taking a spiritual vacation. The appeal of a Keywords: hospitality industry, satisfaction, spiritual vacation spans the ages, with approx. one- pilgrims, expectations . third of each age group (18-34 years old, 35-54 years old and 55 plus) expressing current interest in taking such a vacation. Introduction:- At the level of countries initiatives for religious Religious tourism is a fixture of both ancient and tourist, India boasts largest portion of visitors as modern cultures- a constant through the ages. religious pilgrims. In India, the domestic tourism is Religious tourism also commonly referred to faith at a wider scale than the international tourism. tourism is a form of tourism by which people of Among the various tourism forms more than 50% faith travel individually or in group for pilgrimage, of the tourism is of pilgrimage tourism type. Infact, missionary or leisure (fellowship) purpose. The it is religious/spiritual motivation which dominates international conference on religious tourism in case of the Indian travelers. This has actually led estimates the worldwide faith tourism industry at $ the agrarian society of India to participate in 18 billion. Religious tourism comprises many tourism. The religious sites of India are thronged facets of the travel industry including pilgrimage, by pilgrims in lakhs. This can be estimated by the missionary travel, leisure and vacations, faith based annual pilgrims’ arrival to the shrine of Shri Mata cruising, crusades, conventions and rallies retreats, Vaishno Devi, which is around 7 million. The monastery visits and guest stays, faith based camps other countries who are actively promoting and religious tourist attractions. From among these religious tourism include Jordan, Cypress, Italy, facets the pilgrimage is now a major pillar of the Bahamas, Scotland, Switzerland and Israel. Jordan: nascent tourism strategy of many countries. promoting niche markets such as religious tourism Pilgrimage tourism strategies in various countries is a large part of Jordan’s overall tourism strategy. have in common that they are major growth area, Cypress: launching new marketing efforts to increase religious tourism of its current 100,000 73 ©International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems Volume 1 Issue 1 2008 faith –based visitors annually. Italy: religious while some researchers found that consumers tourism in Italy alone generates $ 4.5 billion each weigh their prior cumulative experience more year. Bahamas: one of the few countries with a heavily than their most current individual service director of Religious Tourism and Staff dedicated encounters when updating their cumulative overall to attracting faith based visitors. Scotland: satisfaction, others found the opposite result. The projected to triple from religious tourism dollars of study of “Hotel Guests’ Cumulative Satisfaction GBP 80-100 to GBP 300 million by 2014. updating process in the context of service failure Switzerland: seeking to highlight its religious sites and service recovery” has investigated customer and attract more visitors. Israel: tourism Ministry satisfaction updating process in the context of looks to boost tourism from North America. service failure and service recovery in the hotel (Wikipedia encyclopedia, 2006) industry. The results of the data analysis show that In this background it can be said that the when updating overall satisfaction, participants pilgrimage tourism has a wider existence. The weighed their current service encounter satisfaction direct benefits accrued to hospitality industry are more heavily than prior cumulative overall immense. When the flow of customer base in the satisfaction, regardless of different levels service form of pilgrim is constant there is a natural failure and service recovery. When one customer tendency to overlook the expectations of such experience service problems, it is difficult to bring customers resulting into dissatisfied guests customers’ satisfaction level back to where it was. although satisfied with his/her religious motive. (Fu yao-yi, Mount Daniel). To build lasting This study tries to determine this aspect that relationships and keep highly desirable customers whether the hospitality industry really looks in to coming back, one need to ensure that their the customer satisfaction, which is in this case the experience constantly meet their high expectations pilgrims’ satisfaction when the flow of the ( SurveyoTM). Estimates suggest that it is upto ten customer base is constant. While determining this, times more expensive to acquire a new customer the paper determines the expectations and than to retain an existing one. Building customer satisfaction of pilgrims from hospitality industry of loyalty is not only the basis for repeat business, but Katra. al a means of broadening offerings and cross selling services. For a mature business customer LITERATURE REVIEW retention is the key to increased profit ( www.hospitalitynet.org). In the hospitality and leisure (H&L) industries, Several researchers have studied customer employees contact with guests is perhaps the most satisfaction and provide theories about tourism critical part of the guests’ experience. Guest (Bramwell, 1998; Bowen, 2001). For example, service, guest satisfaction, spend rates and return parasiraman, Zeithaml, and Berry’s (1985) rates are all affected by these interactions. The best expectation- perception gap model, Oliver’s in the industry are known for their service, having expectancy- disconfirmation theory (Pizam and made these touch points a competitive advantage Milman,1993), Sirgy’s congruity model (Erdly.M et al.) Hotel managers are primarily (Sirgy,1984: Chon and Olsen ,1991), and the responsible for enhancing guests’ experience with performance –only model (Pizam, Neumann and their stay. Guests are obviously influenced by Reichel ,1978) have been used to measure tourist different touch points during their stay at the hotel: satisfaction with specific tourism destinations. In the room, reservation process, front desk services, particular, expectancy- disconfirmation has the room and different types of value- added guest received the widest acceptance among these services. In order to be actionable and relevant, the theories because it is broadly applicable. guest satisfaction program must evaluate each of Pizam and Milman (1993) utilized Oliver’s these contacts and provide diagnostics for (1980) expectancy- disconfirmation model to improvements as well as identify areas with a high improve the predictive power of travelers’ impact of guests’ overall assessment of the brand. satisfaction. They introduced the basic dynamic Most of the studies into customer satisfaction in nature of the disconfirmation model into hospitality the hospitality literature have focused on research, while testing part of the original model in identifying service attributes, which are treated as a modified form. In order to assess the causal customers’ needs and wants. From a marketing relationship between two different disconfirmation perspective, customer satisfaction is achieved when methods, they employed a regression model with a their needs and wants are fulfilled. There is a single “expectation-met” measure as the dependant general