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The Future of Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty on Travel Agencies

Authors

Sara Santos 4CISED - Centro de Investigação em Serviços Digitais - Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3581-6478
Joana Monteiro Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTGOH, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal
Pedro Espírito Santo Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ESTGOH, Oliveira do Hospital, Portugal
Luísa Augusto CISED - Centro de Investigação em Serviços Digitais - Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, 3504-510 Viseu, Portugal
Adriana Oliveira CEOS.PP ISCAP, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, Portugal

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34190/ictr.15.1.107

Keywords:

Travel agencies, customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, brand trust, brand awareness

Abstract

Tourism has emerged as one of the great activities of the 21st century; however, due to globalization and the development of the Internet, travel agencies see some of their business principles being changed by new technologies. Furthermore, the impacts of the pandemic crisis (SARS-COV2) have been highly negative.

In the field of tourism, travel agencies have been one of the parts that have undergone the most changes. Countless people have gone to a travel agency to book their trips in the past decade. However, this process is not always carried out in the same way. With the appearance and constant development of new technologies, the first online travel agencies emerged. In addition, the consumer becomes increasingly independent in their travel purchases, and the travel agent's work is limited.

Online travel agencies advertise more, offering more attractive prices and other conditions that attract customers to buy their trips without going to a travel agency in a physical space. The relationship between agency and tourist is essentially online.

Thus, it is essential to analyze the role of travel agents who have their physical spaces open and intend to increase their business by strengthening customer relationships. It is necessary to focus on consumer trust and loyalty while creating and establishing brand or company value.

Thus, the results obtained in this study, through a self-administered questionnaire, from a sample of 512 observations, demonstrate that the perceived quality of the relationship influences the brand's awareness and customer loyalty: consumer satisfaction and trust. In this context, this study highlights the importance of the human relationship in selling tourist products and the tourist's previous experience in loyalty to the travel agency.