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WHEN IN ROME… CHAIR A SESSION!
There aren’t too many cities in the world whose embodiment and embrace of customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and quality service are quite as pronounced and safeguarded as the iconic city of Rome, one of the world’s top tourist destinations.
It was only fitting then that this magnificent city recently hosted, amongst other researchers from around the world, WSU hospitality management senior lecturer Dr Vikelwa Nomnga at the ’10th Advances in Hospitality and Tourism Marketing and Management Conference’ which ran from 3-7 July at the Sapienza University of Rome.
Over and above the presenting of an academic paper aptly titled: ’’The effectiveness of service quality and the role customer care in the tourism and hospitality sector’’, Nomnga also chaired one of the sessions at the conference.
’’Ensuring customer loyalty, together with the ultimate effect on repurchasing by the customer, seems to be receiving a great amount of attention. This article begins with examining the concepts of customer loyalty, service quality as well as customer satisfaction,’’ she said.
Dr Nomnga said that one of the most critical components to in-service marketing is the building of customer loyalty with the express intent of ensuring the repurchasing of goods by the customer because such a cycle is the foundation of any successful industry.
She said more research needs to be conducted and subsequently published to improve the comprehension of the effects quality of service as well as consumer satisfaction on customer loyalty to assist the tourism and hospitality sector in the improvement of service marketing.
’’It is also able to help with the suggestions on directions regarding how best to allocate resources of marketing responsiveness and service corporative. In this article, I look to add to the advancement of a conceptual framework that incorporates service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, ’’ said Dr Nomnnga.
Her trip to Rome follows on the heels of yet another fruitful conference she attended at the much-revered Cambridge University in England wherein she participated in the 5th International Conference on Business, Management and Finance, presenting a paper titled “Diagnosing Guest Satisfaction in South African Hotels: The Case of East London, SA”.
Therein Dr Nomnga used a model unique to the hotel industry which involves the completion of a guest content card (GCC) for the purpose of gathering data on the degree of satisfaction of guests.
By Thando Cezula
