Assessing the factors influencing tourists patronage in Epitome Hotel and Suites, Barnawa, Kaduna.

 

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1            Background of the Study

Hotels are now the most important and popular type of lodging for travelers and some locals all over the world. One of the tourism sector’s most important divisions is the hotel sector. There has been an increase in demand for high quality hotel services all around the world. Zervas, Proserpio and Byers, 2023).

According to (Adjoe 2024), the hotel industry has grown significantly because of its adaptability to meet the needs of tourist of all income levels.  The hotel industry is an economic development engine; it generates several additional guest facilities such as restaurants, swimming pools, and social or childcare function services, which provide revenue to service other sectors and other auxiliary services. Hotels offer attractive ways to generate scarce foreign exchange and job creation for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour. (Kasavana and Brooks, 2022).

The term "hotel" broadly encompasses various accommodation properties, including motels, inns, and conference centres. According to Davidson (2018), hotels offer furnished and serviced accommodations to guests in exchange for payment. They are businesses primarily focused on providing lodging facilities to the general public, along with various services such as food and beverage, linen laundry, furniture use, uniformed service, and room attendant services. Hotels typically have a significant number of rooms, ranging from 50 to 2,000. (Kasavana and Brooks, 2022)

Tourist’s satisfaction is a crucial success factor in service organizations. Hotel industries in developing countries also have to compete with others and have to satisfy local and international tourist, because today’s tourist are more aware, educated and open to a lot of information through web sources, internet, bulletins, magazines, journals, articles e.t.c) Armstrong, Mok et al., 2023).

Tourist satisfaction is a key to building a lasting relationship. Satisfied tourist repurchase the service, recommend and encourage others to use the service, develop positive word of mouth toward the service and the organization, pay less attention to competitive brands and advertising, are less sensitive to price and buy other services (Zekiri, 2021).

A dissatisfied tourist on the other hand, responds differently. As he/she tells people about a good service experience, dissatisfied tourist complains to even more people than a satisfied tourist does.

In the hotel industry, service quality received much attention from both researchers and practitioners because of its positive impact on financial performance, customer satisfaction, patronage and retention. Akbaba, 2023).

Patronage is the sole aim of every enterprise. Tourist patronage has however been described as the concept of repeat purchase behaviour, which can be regarded as some degree of repetitive purchase of the same brand by the same buyer (Zeithaml, 2020).

Tourist patronage is the economic and social justification for the existence of any business and satisfaction (Garga and Bambale, 2024). It has however, been described as the concept of repeat purchase behavior, which can be regarded as some degree of repetitive purchase of some brand by same buyer. When tourist are satisfied with the quality of service delivery, they are more likely to consistently patronize the company.

Ramjit and Abid (2018) suggests that perceived service quality positively influences tourist patronage intentions. However, no matter how good service quality systems are, it is believed that service failure is inevitable (Morch, 2018). Once an offering falls below the perceived expectation of the tourist, service failure has occurred. For example, if a hotel fails to provide a tourist with the expected service, it will create a negative picture in the mind of the tourist. Service failure causes tourist dissatisfaction and threatens the growth of service, because the business environment is becoming more competitive, and organizations are mapping out strategies to ensure they provide superior service quality and avoid service quality related problems (Ramesh, 2023).

Patronage is tied to competitiveness, profitability and even survival of an enterprise. It is therefore an important issue in a contemporary business world. Patronage (level of patronage per time period) becomes even more important in hospitality industry in general (hotels in particular) because of the nature of the product offered which cannot be stored and which becomes effectively lost once not rendered within a particular time period. In other words, the non-storable nature of hotel services makes the issue of ensuring constant patronage a front burner issue.

 

1.2     Statement of the Problem

The need for this study arose from personal observations over the years that there are several hotels that are no longer in business. These hotels sprang up rapidly and were luxuriant and after a while the influx of tourist dwindled and some of those hotels eventually extinguished. One wonders why this happened even when the facilities seem superb.

Previous research revealed that reasons including poor customer service, substandard service delivery, occasioned by failure in service quality dimensions such as reliability, assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness account for low patronage of hotels in their studies. From the foregoing, it is evident that multiple factors could influence patronage including service quality, atmospheric quality, perceived value and demographics.

 

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The specific objectives of the study are to:

Ø    Identify the factors influencing tourists patronage of Epitome Hotel and Suites

Ø    Examine the level of tourists patronage of hotels in Epitome Hotel and Suites

Ø    Identify the challenges hindering tourists patronage at  Epitome Hotel and Suites

 

1.4     Significance of the Study

This study will contribute to the theoretical advancement in the field of hotel industry by empirically testing a structured model to develop a concept of service scope of the hotel industry.

From a practical standpoint, the findings of this study will be useful to the following people, this study will enable owners/operators learn more about what a hotel’s physical environment should look like as they manage hotels or before going into construction of buildings as the case may be.

The research work will help employees to know the importance of facilities in terms of contributing to service quality as regards guest satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Guests/tourist will have a clearer picture of what to expect in a hotel environment after going through this research work. The value for their money will also be improved in terms of service quality

In addition, understanding the factors that influence tourist patronage by tourist could help the hotels to improve service delivery to the already existing clients. Improved service delivery to tourist is one of the goals of a modern day responsible business organization. This study will give further insight into the hotel tourist patronage level of fast-paced developing communities like that Barnawa in Kaduna South Local Government Area.

 

1.5     Scope of the Study

The study is assessing the factors influencing tourists patronage in Epitome Hotel and Suites, Barnawa, Kaduna.

This study will center on the importance of understanding the factors that influence tourist patronage of hotels in the study area. Such information will be beneficial to the hotels towards improving their sales and profitability. When the hotels are able to improve their turnover and profitability, they can then be position to employ more people from within and outside the community.

 

1.6            Research Questions

The following are research questions will be used for this study

1.     What are the factors influencing tourists patronage of Epitome Hotel and Suites

2.     How is the level of tourists patronage of hotels in Epitome Hotel and Suites

3.     What are the challenges hindering tourists patronage at  Epitome Hotel and Suites


 

Location: Kaduna 800283, Kaduna, Nigeria

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