| Author: | Liang, Yiqiong |
| Title: | The factors influencing Chinese customers’ joining and maintaining decisions on international hotel loyalty program |
| Advisors: | Leung, Daniel (SHTM) |
| Degree: | DHTM |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Customer loyalty programs Hospitality industry -- China Consumers -- Attitudes Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | x, 152 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | Amid fiercer market competition, loyalty program (LP) has become a widely applied “strategic imperative.” Increasing the number of registered members and ensuring members’ activation on the hotel LPs are the primary goals of the program providers. In the past decade, Chinese customers have been considered a new growth point for LPs of international hotel chains. However, the theoretical understanding of Chinese customers’ perception of LPs of international hotel chains has been limited. This thesis explores factors influencing Chinese consumers’ decisions on joining and maintaining membership/s in LPs of international hotel chains. Two phases have been implemented to achieve the objectives. In Phase 1, a comprehensive literature review demonstrated essential LP design features affecting consumer behaviors in hospitality and tourism studies. In Phase 2, 28 in-depth interviews were conducted with existing Chinese members in the LPs of international hotel chains. Factors influencing their decisions on joining and maintaining the program/s were identified and conceptualized. Factors influencing the decision on joining (the LPs) were constructed as factors related to incentives, rewards, programs, and customers to illustrate consumers’ motivations for being enrolled in the LPs. Factors influencing the decision on maintaining (the LPs) were constructed as factors related to rewards, benefits, and customers to illustrate members’ concerns on continuing to engage with the LPs. Finally, the discussions were integrated from empirical and theoretical perspectives on LPs, and various insights were combined from empirical research and theory. This exploratory study highlighted Chinese customers’ decisions on joining and maintaining the membership/s of international hotel chains. It enriched the literature on customers’ perceptions of hotel LP design in the Chinese context. Furthermore, it extended the literature on hotel LP to different relationship stages. Abundant theoretical propositions were proposed for further numeric verifications. The practical implications can assist hoteliers in developing more effective LPs to meet Chinese consumers’ needs. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7307.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.87 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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