THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE QUALITY AND BRAND EQUITY ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY TO 5 STAR HOTELS IN THE YUNNAN PROVINCE OF CHINA

Abstract

          From 2007 to 2017, the number of tourists visiting Yunnan province from home and abroad increased from 91.30 million to 580.33 million. During the same time period, tourism revenue for the province increased from 58.98 billion yuan to 692.22 billion yuan. The hotel business is rapidly developing due to growing demand for such services as well as growing opportunities for travel. Hotel developments currently grow very rapidly. The emergence of new hotels increases the competition in the hospitality industry. Yunnan tourism revenue will break through 600 billion yuan this year and, at the same time, will intensify the building of high-end hotels and brands introduced as part of the key work of this year. The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of service quality, brand equity, and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in 5 star hotels in the Yunnan Province of China. The mixed method called sequential explanatory design was used in this study. It includes quantitative and qualitative methods. With the quantitative method, the researcher focuses on collecting data for analysis. With the qualitative method, the researcher focuses on collecting the words that support the hypothesis of this research. A total of 796 questionnaires were collected from 5 stars hotels’ customers in the Yunnan province of China and statistically analyzed with SEM techniques by SmartPls 3.0. The results of the study demonstrate that service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty; brand equity has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and loyalty; and customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer loyalty. Meanwhile, service quality and brand equity directly and indirectly affect customer loyalty through mediators customer satisfaction.