Tourism Satisfaction and Loyalty: From UK to Shanghai Dissertation

Abstract

The study was informed by different theories on consumer behavior, destination image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty that result from the behavioral choices of UK tourists visiting Shanghai as the destination of choice. The study used the theories of operant conditioning, which relies on the operant conditioning of the customers to make them loyal to Shanghai. If a tourist beliefs that the destination will serve his or her needs, the customer is likely to develop a positive attitude towards that Shanghai. Attitude is likely to modify their behavior and perceptions are likely to make them be loyal customers. Loyal UK customers show a tendency to repeat visiting Shanghai as their preferred top tourist destination. It is assumed that behavioral outcomes lead to attitude and attitude leads to intention, which leads to a certain behavior. Theories, which provide the foundation to achieve the objectives of the study, include the theory of reasoned action and the commitment theory among others. It was established that customer loyalty to Shanghai as a tourist destination is strongly influenced by the perceptions of the tourists from the UK about Shanghai, which has a strong influences on the behavior of visitors.

Introduction

The city of Shanghai is one of the top destinations for visitors from the UK. However, not many studies have been conducted to appraise Shanghai as a tourist destination for people from the UK. In theory and practice, customers are attracted to different tourist destinations because of different psychological influences that include consumer behavior and its effects on loyalty. The problem is to determine how visiting Shanghai leads to customer satisfaction based on the explanations of different theories that deal with the psychology of people from the UK (Anastassova 2011). The study provides the background information, the aims and objectives, and the rationale for conducting the study.

Here, the study examines the theories underpinning the factors that influence the attitudes customers develop towards a tourist destination (Adnams 2010). One of the theories applied in the study is the theory of reasoned action, which focuses on the prediction of behavioral intentions, which result from the attitude one develops towards a destination and the intention to revisit the place as the most preferred tourist destination (Um & Crompton 1990).

The study is informed by the behavioral intentions UK customers develop as a result of the quality of services and products they enjoy when they visit Shanghai. Intentions and other antecedents of behavior provide explanations on how satisfaction can be caused by the uniqueness of Shanghai as a tourist destination and the features that might influence the attitude of the visitors to revisit the place again. Here, the theory is based on the urge that necessitates someone to act in a certain way that influences the outcome of the action (revisiting the place). For example, a person can visit a certain tourist destination after they have examined and evaluated the destination if it satisfies the needs and want of the customer, creating an intention to revisit the place in accordance with the theory of reasoned action (Altinay & Paraskevas 2008). ON the other hand, the theory of planned action conveys the meaning of actions such as paying to visit the place, and the consequences are to visit or not to visit a place (Um & Crompton 1990). The theories are important in explaining how intentions, attitude, and belief lead to actions and that enables the destination owners to understand how to create an attractive destination for the customers, based on their perceptions (Altinay & Paraskevas 2008). The study will be informed by examining different sources of literature that deal with behavioral theories of that explain how behavior, attitudes, intentions, and beliefs affect the actions and decisions of prospective tourists.

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

The aim of this paper is to appraise Shanghai as a tourist destination by explaining customer satisfaction based on the psychological theories of human behavior in relation to the UK tourists. The theories are used to explain how visiting Shanghai leads to customer satisfaction. Customer or tourist satisfaction from the UK is about how products and services meet and even exceed the expectations of tourists who visit Shanghai. Customers “satisfaction consists of a sense of pleasure or disappointment resulting from comparison of the perceived performance (or result) of a product regarding the customer’s expectations” (Baloglu & Mccleary 1999). In addition, customers ‘satisfaction of the UK tourists can be defined as “as a psychological concept which involves the sense of well-being, resulting from the achievement of what one desires and expects from a product or attractive service” (Yuan, Wu, Zhang, Goh, & Stout 2008). Satisfaction is derived from the products and services that are offered to the visitors from the UK and that includes items that tourists buy when they visit Shanghai and the services they enjoy that include the beautiful sceneries, transport facilities, food and accommodation, and the security services to ensure that they are safe. The theories fit into this scenario by explaining how the services and product influence the behavior, attitudes, intentions, and beliefs of the customers or tourists towards the destination, which makes them likely to come back.

Typically, the theories provide content explanations on customer behavior and the customers provide empirical data to determine whether the product or services meet or exceed their expectations. Expectations and satisfaction are driven by the antecedents of behavior, attitudes, intentions, and beliefs as explained in the behavioral theories and directly influence customer loyalty.

Literature reviews of the factors that make a destination important to visit have been discussed in detail based on the theoretical perspectives and models of tourism loyalty. Some of the variables considered in the study include consumer behavior, customer satisfaction, and expectations that make a customer loyalty. Many customers from the UK visit Shanghai as the destination of choice because the city has a wide range of feature that appeal to visitors. Among the features include the cultural history of the people and the city, the architecture of the city, the communication systems, and other features, which have been developed and which distinguish the city from other cities in the world (Anastassova 2011).

Objectives and aims

The aim of the study is to give the most accurate description of how the city of Shanghai attracts tourists by influencing the psychological factors of consumer behavior and customer loyalty of tourists from the UK.

The objectives include:

1. To identify the specific features that positively influences consumer behavior and customer loyalty of the tourists from the UK.
2. To determine how visiting Shanghai positively to improves the attitudes, intentions, and behavior of the UK tourists to become loyalty Shanghai customers
3. To how the destination image can positively change consumer behavior and increase the UK customer loyalty.
4. To determine the best tourist’s destination model to adopt by Shanghai to win the loyalty of UK tourists.
5. Evaluate the UK as the source of tourists and Shanghai as the tourist destination.

Significance of the study

The study will provide the foundation of many researchers and business organisations to understand the factors, which make people, prefer as certain destination as a tourist destination and avoid other destinations. The study will provide the business organisations and starters of businesses in the tourist sector on the best approach to use to create a competitive destination, based on the factors, which make someone, do certain actions and develop a certain loyalty to a specific destination. With that knowledge, it is possible for Shanghai to be tailored to suit the needs and expectations of customers based on their needs. The key elements of the study include image, loyalty, satisfaction, and behavior and the age of different customers. In addition, the outcome could be important for starters in the tourism sector and other types of businesses because of the competition and the dynamic nature of the people in the market because markets and the behavior of customers change with time.

Literature Review

Introduction

This chapter provides a detailed study on appraising Shanghai to create tourism satisfaction and loyalty for customers from the UK. Different theories and models are used to explain the underlying variables that influence the loyalty of tourists to the city of Shanghai.

Consumer Loyalty

Shanghai is a city that many people from the UK regard as one of the top tourist destinations for customers from the ULK. The city has many customer loyalty programs that are modeled after the theories consumer loyalty and the antecedents of consumer loyalty where tourist customers from the UK make repeated visits to Shanghai as a destination they like most. The underlying factors that influence UK customers to become hard core, shifting, switchers, split loyalists include behavior, attitude, and intentions (Lichtle & Plichon 2008). The study shows that Shanghai city has several agencies that work towards influencing customer loyalty with different consumer loyalty programs as the tourist industry becomes competitive.

When customers become brand loyalists, they develop an attachment for the service or product for a long time that makes them want to consume the service or product again and again. Here, the antecedents of the theory of planned action of attitude, intention, and behavior play a significant role in providing the explanation of how the customers become loyal to the city of Shanghai as a strong brand. Brand loyalty or consumer loyalty is a psychological process that has its foundation on a study by Copeland on ‘brand insistence’ and consumer behavior. When applied to the tourism sector, it shows that the psychological process is influenced by the predisposed commitment of customers to the destination, customer perceptions about the value of the destination, customer satisfaction, and brand trust. Brand trust is the confidence that UK tourists can develop towards shanghai as a preferred tourist destination (Pritchard & Howard 1997). In theory, satisfaction is defined as an “overall evaluation of a customer’s experiences with a service provider, as opposed to a transaction-specific satisfaction judgment” (Pritchard & Howard 1997).

Commitment and repeat visits are consider to be strong elements of brand loyalty that provide strong ground for identifying the psychological factors that influence what makes Shanghai to be the destination of choice for tourists from the UK. How the theories of band loyalty and consumer behavior explain how to make UK customers loyal to Shanghai as a tourist destination depends on the different levels and types of loyalties. In theory, loyalty can be based on price, social services, and the structure and nature of the services offered in Shanghai as illustrated in the following framework.

In the framework shown above, different elements contribute to the loyalty that is established between the customer and the destination of choice. In this case, the cognitive antecedents combine with the affective and conative antecedents to influence the attitude of the customers towards Shanghai as the most preferred destination (Baloglu & Mccleary 1999). The cognitive antecedents include competitive attractiveness of Shanghai, service satisfaction, economic, political, and legal environment, the duration customers from the UK take to developed attachments with Shanghai and the type of relationship between the customer and the destination, the depth and value of communication, and quality of services (Baloglu & Mccleary 1999).

Here, the expectations of the customers from the UK are to see and enjoy the unique features that appeal to their eyes and make them want to visit the place again. Typically, when people pay a visit to a place, the attitude they develop towards the place influences their behavior and that leads to the consequences of their actions that makes them to become repeat visitors of the place. That is because of the effects of the psychological influence the place has on the visitors. When visitors from the UK go to the city of Shanghai, they develop an image about the city that has a strong influence on their attitude towards the place (Bloemer & Kasper 1995). In addition to that, the experience of the people when visiting Shanghai is another element that influences their perceptions about the city and the level of loyalty to the city (Assael 1995). Perceptions are strong elements that influence the behavior of the customers.

In addition to perceptions, attitude plays a significant role in influencing the perceptions of the customers toward the Shanghai as a tourist destination. Typically, research shows that “attitudes are learned through past experiences and serve as a link between thoughts and behavior” (Baloglu & Brinberg 1997). Here, attitude leads to different level of commitment of the customer to the tourist destination of choice (Baloglu & Brinberg 1997). Here, attitude about Shanghai is of different levels that include the commitment level, where the customer intends to comply to please other customers, without necessarily pleasing themselves about a place, identification, which is a level of commitment where the customer wants to be part of a group by sharing similar values, beliefs, and attitudes. Once the customer has undergone the stages, it is possible for the customer to internalise what they have learned and the attitude they have developed towards a destination. Once the customer internalises the attitude and commitment to the place, they develop strong loyalty to the destination and become repeat customers. The behavior of the customer has changed and they become loyal and tell others through the word of mouth about the likes about the place (Baloglu & Brinberg 1997).

Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior explains the attachments the UK people have to the city of Shanghai. According to the consumer behavior theory, the UK customers choose Shanghai as a preferred destination because it makes them to repeatedly visit Shanghai, which markets itself as the top tourist destination because of the motivation they get from visiting the city (Chi & Qu 2008). The marketing program of Shanghai for the UK customers is one of the components used to change the attitude of people, their behavior, and intentions to visit the city again and again. It For instance, the decision to visit Shanghai is a mental process that is influenced by attitude and behavior of the customers from the UK and that makes them become repeat customers (Chi & Qu 2009). Motivations include effective travelling services, a good image, and the perceptions of the UK people on Shanghai (Collins-Kreiner 2010).

Repeat customers

Customers can be practically attracted by marketing strategies that continuously bombard the customers with marketing messages to make decisions that make the UK customers to become loyal to Shanghai (Chen & Tsai 2007). Here, loyalty is reinforced by focusing on what makes UK customers happy when they visit Shanghai as a preferred tourist destination (Chen, Chen & Lee 2013). Such customers are referred to as repeat customers. Here, antecedents of behavior are used to modify the behavior of the UK customers to create loyal tourists from the UK by focusing on the characteristics of the destination that make Shanghai attractive. Those characteristics include unusual experiences, new offers and experiences, new discoveries, familiarity with the destination, novelty with the destination, and knowledge about the destination (Chi 2012).

Here, the determinants that lead to an increase in behavior include stimuli such as giving the UK tourists incentives such as low priced products and services to achieve positive behavior to revisit Shanghai (Chi & Qu 2008). In addition, the factors that can influence people to visit Shanghai include family influence, reference groups, personality attitudes, social economic influence, cultural issues, learning experiences, and personal needs. On the other hand, if the stimuli that include the above factors are removed, it is possible for the results to lead to negative behavior such providing unreliable communication systems.

Those elements include destination image that makes the customers create and recreate images of the city in their minds and that stimulates the motivation to revisit the city again and again. In addition, the images influence the behavior that is increased through reinforcements (Chi & Qu 2009). On the other hand, behavior is decreased through punishment that occurs when the tourists are denied basic services such as hygienic living environment. At the same time, if a stimulus is prevented, the overall results are a lack of or avoidance of certain behavior that includes personal perceptions about the city. One of the behaviors that can be avoided as a result of that is for a UK tourist to refuse to visit Shanghai again.

Typically, a good image influences to develop a post trip behavior that makes them come back to the city. The destination image is created by the service providers and the quality of services that are offered to the tourists. The study shows that when behavior is reinforced, the customer is likely to repeat the actions of visiting a destination and the behavior is likely to be repeated all over again, than when the behavior is not reinforced (Blythe 2008). According to Blythe (2008), behaviour can be learnt by manipulating the destination characteristics such as the price of the services and products at the city of Shanghai and the infrastructure of the city to suit the lifestyle of the UK tourist who are targeted as tourists to Shanghai (Roseman, Herrero & Fife 2008). Here, the city if Shanghai is highly endowed with appropriate infrastructure, has a wealth of historical features, and has both indoor and outdoor resources that can be used to appeal to the UK customer or tourist to make them loyal by modifying their behavior and attitude towards Shanghai (Rinschede 1992).

Research has shown that the theory of reasoned action is the basis of the argument that the actions of UK customers who visit tourist destinations rely on their beliefs about Shanghai (Blythe 2008). This approach shows that when a UK customer is positively inclined towards certain features he or she has seen or has a strong positive attitude towards the place, they are likely to make a comeback and pay a visit to the same place again (Rivera, Shani & Severt 2009). This theory explains the view that UK consumers consciously evaluate the ramifications of alternative behaviors and their actions (Hillman 2013). Here, when a tourist identifies a feature in a place they like to visit as a tourist destination, the feature and the appeal to interact with the feature underpin the behavior change based on that environmental variable (Ryan 1995). If a UK tourist beliefs that an action leads to a certain benefit such as personal gain, the tourist is motivated to act in a manner likely to reflect their positive perceptions and attitude about the attraction of the feature (Ryan 1995).

Planned behavior

According to Seyer and Muller (2011), it is possible to control the behavior of a UK tourist and achieve the required outcome by the provision of services that are of the desired quality. A strong relationship exists between the service quality, the prices of the services, the perceptions of the customers, and the intent to visit Shanghai. The consumption permanence that emanates from the perceptions and behavioral outcomes of the customers can be explained by the theory of planned behavior. Here, tourists from the UK have certain behaviors that are consisted with the theory of planned behavior can be applied in the tourism sector to introduce certain variables that include behavioral beliefs of the tourists and other variables that contribute to the positive behavior changes of the UK tourists and to develop certain characters (Seyer & Muller 2011).

Reasoned action

According to Smith (2010), reasoned action leads customers to perform a certain action because of the reliability, quality, and satisfaction of the customers from the UK when they visit Shanghai. The customers find the services provides at the city reliable and that position influences visit experience, purpose of visiting the city, visit intentions, word of mouth, family influence, and travel motivations. The theory of reasoned action leads one to the conclusion that the above variables influence the customer to act by making post visits to the Shanghai city (Chi 2012). Here, some customers act in ways they might not have acted because they are influenced by others. For example, someone who is not interested in visiting Shanghai as a tourist destination might be able to visit the place because of the influenced of other members of a group.

Here, behavior preceded attitude that precedes actions done by some tourists. According to Smith (2010), behavioral results from the attitude developed by a customer about something and are based on the subjective norms that prevalent in the new environment. The theory operates on the principle that customers act in the way they do because they voluntarily control the way they behave. Here, customers make decisions on what to do by weighing on the consequences of their actions (Su, Cheng & Huang 2011). It they perceive their actions to lead to a better life and if the consequences are positive, they are likely to do a certain action. It is possible to use the theory to understand why consumers behave the way they do to formulate an appropriate strategy on how to influence their behavior to make them act ins a way to achieve the long term goal of making them loyal customers to Shanghai. In addition to that, it is possible to use the theory to determine the strengths and weaknesses of Shanghai as a tourist destination.

The image shown above is about the theory of planned behavior. Planned behavior is about a combination of the beliefs that are developed because of the behavior of individuals and the resulting attitude that leads to the intention of a customer from UK develops about a certain situation. In this case, it is possible for the tourist from the UK to develop a certain attitude about Shanghai as a destination of interest and that is able to modify the behavior of the tourist towards the city (Tirca, Stanciulescu & Chis 2010).

Tirca, Stanciulescu and Chis (2010) suggested that the theory can be used to change the attitude of the UK customers towards visiting Shanghai by changing the beliefs the customers have about Shanghai. One of the approaches suggested by Tirca, Stanciulescu and Chis (2010) is to use to use the internet and send messages about the features and other areas of interest that the tourist will experience when they visit the city. In addition, the destination messages can be tailored to lessen negative feelings about the destination and increase the positive attitude about the place. For instance, a message can be used to show that the place is secure and that many tourists recommended it to be one of the best destinations to visit for the holiday. In addition to that, it is crucial to note that the destination image can be improved to make the place more attractive by adding new beliefs such as visiting Shanghai makes one create new friends and see feature that have not been seen before.

Customer Commitments

According to Walliman (2011), commitment to visit a place and is developed from the trust develop in a person about something. Visiting Shanghai because of a variety of features has made the visitors to develop trust in the place. Trust is generated from the use of shared values, and the belief that is developed about Shanghai. Commitment has been shown to be a critical element in the collaboration that exists between different partners who want to do something. Here, commitment to develop the attitude and belief that the place they are visiting is worth their visit is the underlying reason for the positive attitude customers have towards Shanghai. In addition, researchers have established that commitment leads to the strong development of mutual relationships that in this case is the relationship between the people from the UK and Shanghai as a top tourist destination. When high levels of commitment are developed between the destination and the people form the UK, it increases the trust people develop for Shanghai.

The customer’s commitments theory has widely been used and applied in marketing. The fundamental elements of the theory are based on establishing a strong relationship between the customer and the tourist destination that the customer values as the most preferred tourist destination.

According to Walliman (2011), commitment is a psychological process that results in the attachment a person develops towards a specific destination. Here, Walliman (2011) established the three dimensions of commitment and identified them as normative, continuance, and affective elements. Here, those elements have been proved by different authors to be appropriate for different destinations that can be applied in different areas. Of crucial importance is the application of the theory in making Shanghai the top tourist destination for the people in the UK. Grossbart et al. (1987) identified different levels of commitment and established that people can develop a type of commitment to a specific location based on the three psychological states of the mind that include normative, affect, and continuance. According to the study by Grossbart et al. (1987), affective commitment provides the basis for UK customers to visit Shanghai as the destination of choice because they want to visit the place. On the other hand, continuance commitment is based on the desire for the tourist to continue visiting Shanghai because they want to do it because it is cheap. Here, normative commitment refers to a situation where tourists find the destination the right place to visit and try to encourage others that it is the right thigh to do to visit the destination.

Grossbart et al. (1987) argues that the strategy makes the UKL customers to develop a strong attitude and behavior inclinations towards Shanghai.

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In practice tourists are influenced by the characteristics of Shanghai that is the target destination that influences their behavior and determines their attitude towards Shanghai. The behavior of UK tourists is crucial because it provides information about the factors that are crucial for the city of Shanghai to adopt to influence the tourists to visit the city. It also helps the people of Shanghai to determine the consumer patterns of the tourists from the UK in the context of tourism and the city of Shanghai (Ozdemir, Çizel & Bato Cizel 2012b). Some of the factors that influences the tourists include of importance include motivation, consumer attitudes, culture, age, gender, values, and social class (Pizam, Neumann & Reichel 1978).

Motivation is crucial in influencing the UK tourists to prefer the city of Shanghai as a top tourist destination because it is the inner drive in a person to consume a product or services. There are many products and services under consideration here in the city of Shanghai that influences the UK people to be the destination of choice. The city has unique features that distinguish the city from other parts of the world. The uniqueness contributes to the appraisal of Shanghai as a tourist destination based on the attitude of the people from the UK towards the city and the inner drive to visit the city. In addition to that, the features that trigger the behavior in the people of the UK to like the city of Shanghai as a top destination for tourism include self-concept and personality, expectations, and satisfaction (Polo Pena, Frias Jamilena & Rodriguez Molina 2013).

The need to visit the city is one of the crucial elements that make the people from the UK want to visit the city of Shanghai. The needs argument is based on the features and other attributes of the city that arouses the behavior of customers from the UK and drives them to become loyal as shown in the diagram below.

If the services providers of the city of Shanghai understand the needs of the UK people very well, it is easy to understand the reason why Shanghai is one of the top tourist destinations for UK customers. The “hierarchy of needs is arranged in a ladder according to Maslow and provides an explanation on the needs hierarchy and its effect on the destination they like to visit for tourism” (Prayag 2009). Here, people want to travel and travelling is a need they want to satisfy. Traveling makes the people get satisfied and it is important to note that the city of Shanghai provides the infrastructure that supports travelling to fulfill the needs of the customers. In theory, the push and pull factors are the ones that make the people want to travel. The push element is based on the desire of the people from the UK to travel and escape the feelings and the experience they have in their home city. Such mundane environmental factors include relaxation, prestige, development of relationships, facilitation of social interactions, and enhancement of kinship (Prayag & Ryan 2012).

According to Maslow,” the hierarchy of needs is classified as physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization” (Reilly 1990). Traveling from one destination to the other provides the ground to achieve some of the needs. The needs of the customers vary according to gender, age, and social class (Reilly 1990).

Importance of consumer behavior and destination success

Different theories have been developed and written about consumer behavior and the underlying reasons to success in influencing customers. In practice, consumer behavior in the context of customers from the UK to Shanghai as a tourist destination of choice is important to consider.

Social class

Shanghai is a city of many attractions. In addition, the city fits well into the needs and expectations of different classes of customers. Social class here means the position one occupies in the society, the influence one exerts in the society and the expectations one has about the perceptions others hold about him. The income level, education, wealth, the neighborhood, and the wealth of an individual have a strong influence on the perceptions of the people towards others (Smith 2010).

People would like to visit a place that is of their class. The city of Shanghai is one of the destinations that has been visited by people of different social classes and provides the facilities to address the needs of each people in the social class (Soyoung & Busser 2005).

Predicting behavior

Behavior can be predicted using different methods and models. The reason is that each consumer has different attitudes towards a certain destination and each category of brand that fit into the perceptions and desires of a customer depend on the attributes of the target destination.

Culture and consumer behavior

Research has shown that culture is an important element in influencing the behavior of consumers to visit a destination (Tasci & Gartner 2007). The culture of the people of the UK and the culture of the people of Shanghai are crucial in influencing the people to pay a visit to Shanghai. Culture is important in influencing consumer behavior because it defines the people’s values, norms, attitudes, and beliefs.

Decision making process

The decision making process is crucial to understand how tourists make decision to visit the city of Shanghai. The key elements of the decision making process that are important to use to attract customers to the destination include: awareness and unawareness. Awareness makes people know about Shanghai and its attributes (Tasci, Gartner & Cavusgil 2007). Here people get to know about the characteristics of Shanghai as a tourist destination. Some of the attributes they get to know include the culture of the people in Shanghai in comparison with the characteristics of the people in the UK. In addition, the people get to understand the infrastructure of the city of Shanghai and the ease with which they can travel within and outside the city without the problems of congestion. Here, other attributes include indoor and outdoor resources and the level of satisfaction the people derive by visiting the city. According to Da Costa Mendes, Do Valle, Guerreiro and Silva (2010), unawareness makes the people not to be able to notice the destination and its attributes and might not be able to visit the place.

It has been shown that knowledge is another essential component that enables one to make informed decisions to visit the city of Shanghai as a tourist destination. Knowledge is based on the information people have about the attributes of the destination that enable them to make informed decisions. Another element in the decision making process is the element of ‘liking’ (Day 1969). Liking has been seen by many authors as a tool that enables a UK resident to make decisions about the place and to develop favorable attitudes about the place. In addition, attitude can either be positive or negative and positive attitude depends on the attachment and liking one develops towards a destination (Tse & Wilton 1988). Preference has been identified as another element, which makes people to like and visit the place.

Communication

Communication is another of the key elements that has been identified to be a crucial component in the influencing consumer behavior, attitude, and loyalty towards a certain destination to visit. Communication is based on the messages that are conveyed to the customers and the effect such messages have on the intended audience (Echtner & Ritchie 2003). Communication in theory is based on the elements that include high involvement in thinking to appraise the destination to choose and the high involvement and feelings one gets by visiting Shanghai. Researchers have recommended the use of certain strategies to achieve effective communication, which includes creating a certain habit to visit the place.

Communication has been used to make people to like Shanghai as a destination of choice. Communication is important and is achieved through advertising on the internet, in radio, Television, and in newspapers (Eusebio & Vieira 2013). It has been established that advertising causes changes of attitude and creates new attitudes in the customers. On the other hand, the city of Shanghai uses several platforms to advertise their services to the people of the UK and that makes the customers to develop positive attitudes towards the city. The attitude the people develop makes them like the place because they are able to appraise the destination and prefer it as a top destination (Forgas-Coll, Palau-Saumell, Sánchez-García & Callarisa-Fiol 2012). On the other hand, the process of persuasion is crucial in determining the suitability of the destination as a place worth visiting.

Consumer attitude and behavior

Different theories can be applied to explain the attitude developed towards a destination and the effect of attitude toward the consumption of a product and a service such as a tourism service. In theory, attitude is about the “what we feel about a concept which may be a brand, a category, a person, an ideology or any other entity about which we can think and to which we can attach feeling” (Fornell 1992). Researchers argue that an attitude towards Shanghai as a tourist destination can be used to appraise Shanghai as the destination of choice as a tourist attraction. In theory, it has been argued that a brand is crucial in providing the customer with the satisfaction required to influence them to visit a certain destination (Gartner 1989).

The potential for the city to satisfy the needs and wants of the people from the UK is one of the crucial components that have made the city the top tourist destination for the people from the UK (Peter, Olson & Grunert, 1999). It is attitude that structures the way a person interacts with others and the perceptions the people from the UK develop towards Shanghai as a top destination for tourists from the UK. Attitude can be formed by appraising the city of Shanghai. Attitude is based on the preferences people have towards Shanghai as a destination of choice when they compare them with other destinations (Gartner, Uysal & Fesenmaier 1993). Here, it is evident that Shanghai has been and is a destination of choice because of the variety of features and other attractive scenarios that people experience when they visit the city.

In addition, attitude is developed towards a destination by comparing the attributes of the city of Shanghai against other cities. Once the appraisal of the destination has been done, the results lead to a subjective attitude of utility in the mind that is based on the utility model of choice (Gallarza & Gil Saura 2006). Here, the evaluation process is cognitive in nature and the process enables the customer to make informed decisions about their preferred destination to visit. The classification procedure is based on different models and processes and includes the relative importance and utility the customers are likely to gain by consuming a product or a service, appraisal of the performance of the destination in relation to the utility one is likely to gain, and the set of beliefs the customer holds about the destination to visit. In addition, the brand image of Shanghai is another element that influences the attitude and behavior of the customers who visit the place (Hill & Alexander 2000).

Studies have shown that attitude is born out of different factors, which include 1) direct experience that is based on the experience a person develops when visiting a place. People for the UK get a lot of experience when they visit Shanghai. 2) The experience of others that is based on the narration people from the UK make to family members and other people from the UK (Petrick & Backman 2001). In addition, reference groups that are developed because of different characteristics of the group makes the reference, influence others in the group to see value in visiting the destination of choice (Um & Crompton 1990). Another element that influences attitude is the commercial messages that are communicated by the destination of choice. The contents of the messages influence the perception and attitude of the customer in seeing value in an object, which is the destination of choice (Hosany & Prayag 2013).

Destination Image

Destination image is one of the core elements that the UK customer value in making decisions to visit the city of Shanghai. In theory the destination image is a perception that is developed in the mind and the perceptions are developed through multiple sources of information (Kim & Brown 2012). It h s been established that two types of image exist in the mind and include the cognitive image and the affective image. The affective image is about the feelings the visitors develop about the place, which leads to a certain attachment and unique perceptions about a place. Some of the unique feature, which lead to the destination image include the feature that identify a place, the culture of the place, the infrastructure of the place, the innovations, and the service quality of the place (Kim & Jamal 2007). Those factors contribute to the attitude the customer develops towards a place and the loyalty customers develop toward the place. When the image is favorable, the destination is likely to be favored by many people from the UK. (Korzay & Alvarez 2005).

Several features make Shanghai the destination of choice that reflects the elements of image are explained in theory. Among the features, which define Shanghai include new malls, new nightclubs, and several restaurants. The city has been transformed into a modern city because it is a combination of western and Chinese culture. In addition to that, the city is home to massive skyscrapers and places that are home to classical architecture (Kozak & Rimmington 2000). In addition, there are ancient buildings in the city of Shanghai that occupy the western side of the city. It has been established that the city of Shanghai provides strong and attractive experiences to the visitors because of the combination of cultures from the west and the Shanghai (Lai & Vinh 2013).

The city has the third tallest building in the world known as Jin Mao Tower. The building is found at the center of the financial hub of the Shanghai and has a tower that is 88 floors up the building. In addition to that, the tower combines aspects of western and Chinese cultural artifacts and some of the floors are reserved for the high class people. Another feature that is liked by the people in the city is the Oriental Pearl Tower (Machado, Santos & Sarmento 2009). The tower is surrounded by the different bridges from different sides of the city, which gives the city such a great image for tourists. In addition, the city is appealing because it provides the observation decks for people who take lifts up the building. On the other hand, the tower is made of decorative spheres, which add to the experience the customers gain when they visit the city (Lois González & Somoza Medina 2003).

The city provides a walking experience for the victors who travel to Shanghai as shown in the pictures above. Those features “in the pictures contribute to the influence that leads to consumer behavior and customer loyalty” (Oppermann 2000). Another feature is the Science and Technology Museum (Martinez Roget, Novello & Murias Fernández 2009). The technology and science features are illustrated in the picture shown below. The Centre develops the urge in the visitors with the feelings of wanting to come back again as repeats customers. It is a point where people acquire knowledge and skills, education, and a unique experience of the modern scientific experiences (Mackay & Fesenmaier 1997).

Satisfaction

Satisfaction is one of the elements that defines the type of feelings developed towards a Shanghai and is based on positive feelings about the place (Oliver 1999). The ‘disconfirmation theory’ explains how customers feel when they attend a place and compare it with another place of interest. Here, Ozdemir, Aksu, Ehtiyar, Çizel, Çizel and Içigen (2012a) argue that when people from the UK visit the city of Shanghai, they do comparisons and the affect or the attitude they develop towards the city of Shanghai defines the emotional attachment they develop towards the city.

Customer practice, customer satisfaction is based on the quality of services, the perceptions about the performance of the destination in fulfilling the desired need of the customers when they visit thru city of Shanghai. Here, satisfaction is about the price, the brand image, convenience, consistency, service quality expectations, and overall transaction experience (Kivela, Inbakaran & Reece 1999). In theory, satisfaction “is an emotional response to the use of a product or a service: and it is also a complex human process, which involves cognitive and affective process, as well as other psychological and physiological influences” (Tse & Wilton 1988). Many theories have been developed and written to explain customer satisfaction and one of them is the dissonance theory. In this theory, when a person visits a place and discovers that it does not meet the expectations they had in mind, they are likely to refuse to visit the place again. In theory, the gap between the expectations and the observation makes a person undergo a dissonance cognition process (Hunt 1975). The psychological process makes the customer want to reduce the time they stay in a destination by changing the perceptions about the place. The theory of dissonance has been criticised because it focuses on expectations and leaves out the performance of a product. However, it is crucial in explaining the behavior of customers and their expectation when visiting Shanghai (Hudson 1999).

Another theory, which is a combination of other theories, is the expectancy dis-confirmation paradigm. The theory argues that when a customer visits a place and is satisfied as per the expectations, then the expectation is confirmed. On the other hand, dis-confirmation occurs when a tourist visits a place and finds a lot of differences between their expectation and what is found on the ground. It is possible for a gap to occur between what a customer expected and the psychological process that lead to positive dis-confirmation (Oppermann 2000).

Models of Tourist satisfaction

Models of satisfaction and loyalty

Many models “have been developed to explain consumer behavior and satisfaction” (Oppermann 2000). According to Mat Som, Mostafavi Shirazi, Marzuki and Jusoh (2012), the structural equation model offers an explanation on why customers develop destination loyalties that creates in them the desire to return to a destination and to recommend to others the destination to return to the destination. In the model, general satisfaction, attribute satisfaction, and fulfilled or met expectations contribute to tourist satisfaction, which leads to destination loyalty, intentions, and the need to recommend to others to return to Shanghai again (World Travel and Tourism Council 2013). The model is consistent with the theories of consumer behavior that leads to customer loyalty.

The model shows that consumer satisfaction is multidimensional and depends on the perceptions that the UK customers have about Shanghai. In addition, the experience a person gain by visiting Shanghai shapes their loyalty and the desire to visit the place of interest (Mckercher, Denizci-Guillet & Ng 2012). The results are based on the evaluative outcomes of visiting Shanghai. On the other hand, the extent to which satisfaction is achieved by tourists from the UK to Shanghai can be appraised using the theory of perceived expectations, which compared expectations and the actual outcomes from a visit to Shanghai (Tse, & Wilton 1988). If the expectations are higher than the actual outcomes and the visitor develops a negative attitude the customer cannot pay another visit and if the outcomes are higher than the expectations of customer, then the customer is likely to pay a second visit.

Perception, destination image, satisfaction, and loyalty model

Destination image is very important aspect of tourism marketing and destination loyalty that is developed as a result of the attitudes people develop towards the destination. Image creates in the customers the perceptions about a destination are crucial in influencing the attachment of the customer to a destination (Mckercher & Guillet 2011). A good image influences positive attitudes and behavior and a negative image causes a negative attitude and behaviour. Typically, Shanghai influences the perceptions of the people from the UK about the city of Shanghai based on the image the customers develop towards the city (Yoon & Uysal 2005). In addition to that, the historical attractions, the infrastructure, the price and value, the accessibility of the city, and the cultural attractions of the destination make the people loyal to the destination in the context of the city of Shanghai.

On the other hand, the destination image is influenced by the perceived quality of the services, the level of attractiveness, and the repeat intention of the tourists to the place. The factors that strongly influence the relationship between loyalty and destination image include motivation, satisfaction, destination image, and attitude (Yuan, Wu, Zhang, Goh, & Stout 2008). Here, the destination image is about the quality of the services provided to the customers that are the direct result of several factors that include lodging facilities, accessibility to the city that are facilitated by the infrastructure of the city of Shanghai, the environment, the events, and the activities that take place in the city of Shanghai. In addition to the destination image, the model shows that tourist satisfaction. Once the customer is satisfied, they are bound to make repeat visits that lead to destination loyalty (Yuan, Wu, Zhang, Goh, & Stout 2008).

The consequences model

The model shown below consists of variables that include tourist characteristics, complaints, perceived performance, assessed value, expectations, tourist satisfaction, and loyalty.

Each of the variables in the study makes a significant influence towards the loyalty of the tourists to Shanghai as a tourist destination (Oliver 1980). One of the variables is the characteristics of the tourists (Yuan, Wu, Zhang, Goh, & Stout 2008). Some of the features of a tourist include the age and gender, which defines the rate at which a tourists pays a visit to Shanghai.

The case study of the UK and Shanghai

The UK is one of the sources of tourists to Shanghai, making it one of the top destinations. Different theories and models have been used to evaluate the loyalty of customers to Shanghai from the UK. It has been established that over 70 million tourists visit Shanghai from the UK. Many factors have been established, which underpin the rationale for the visitors the people for the UK pay to Shanghai.IN addition to that Shanghai appeals to the tourists from the UK depending on the age groups of the visitors, the infrastructure of the city, the culture of the people, the features that are found in the city, the history of the city and several other features, which make the city very attractive.

Once a person pays a visit to the city of Shanghai, the person is bound to experience different features and lifestyles which are very appealing to a new visitor. One of the features is the foods that are prepared by the tourist catering industries in Shanghai. An example is the buffet. Buffets are foods, which are prepared so that they reflect the western style of preparing food to suit the needs of the visitors from the west. Among the foods, which are used to make buffets include boiled meat that is prepared in a very short time and that makes the preparation processing very appealing. Studies show that the food that is prepared in Shanghai is of high quality, and that makes it a very attractive destination. In addition to that, the people employ the services offered by the catering industry because they are offered by professionals with high quality skills trained to address the catering needs of the people from the UK. The city offers a wide variety of services, which are characterised by features, which include the cosmopolitan history of the city. The city hosts different people with different religious affiliation and any one traveling there finds it an attractive place to perform their religious services. The services are tailored to suit the needs and expectations of the people from the UK.

The city of Shanghai has several features that make it a destination of choice for the people from the UK. The features include an extensive roads network of taxis, buses, and metros. The city provides a rapid transport system with an extensive network of roads such as the G50 Shanghai–Chongqing, G15 Shenyang–Haikou, and G40 Shanghai–Xi’an networks among others. In addition to that, the city has extensive railway lines, which pass through the city and provide quick communication services for the people. On the other hand, “Shanghai provides extensive air travel services using the Pudong and the Hongqiao Airports” (Yuan, Wu, Zhang, Goh, & Stout 2008). When a person pays a visit to Shanghai, they meet a rich architectural history of buildings with different architectural styles.

Methodology

Introduction

The research methodology was used to systematically collect primary and secondary data that was used to determine how the features and other tourist features and attraction service factors including psychological factors make the city of Shanghai attractive to the visitors from the UK. The focus of the study is on the theories that explain the relationship between consumer behaviour and customer loyalty. The methodology employed quantitative and qualitative data collection methods by using the questionnaire as a tool to collect primary data. The theories that explain how consumer behavior in relation to intentions, behavior, beliefs, and attitude towards Shanghai lead to UK customer loyalty and how that makes them become repeat customers. Some of the factors that have effects on the behavior of customers include infrastructure, indoor and outdoor resources were statistically evaluated to determine how they influence the UK customer’s loyalty and consumer behavior into becoming loyal Shanghai customers.

Aim and objectives

The aim of the research is to evaluate the factors that make Shanghai a top tourist destination for tourists from the UK.

1. To identify the specific features that positively influences consumer behavior and customer loyalty of the tourists from the UK.
2. To determine how visiting Shanghai positively to improves the attitudes, intentions, and behavior of the UK tourists to become loyalty Shanghai customers
3. To how the destination image can positively change consumer behavior and increase the UK customer loyalty.
4. To determine the best tourist’s destination model to adopt by Shanghai to win the loyalty of UK tourists.
5. Evaluate the UK as the source of tourists and Shanghai as the tourist destination.

Research Approach

The approach uses a mixed research method that is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative part is the rigorous content analysis of the literature review and the quantitative part used questionnaires that formed the main tool and component for data collection (Hart 1998). The mixed research paradigm was selected as the best option because of the many advantages of using the approach.

Qualitative paradigm

The qualitative paradigm used content analysis of the literature review including models and theories to explain consumer behaviour and customer loyalty that are caused by the attachment the customers develop by visiting the city of Shanghai. The factors that lead to customer loyalty were examined in the literature review and how those variables were used to appraise the city of Shanghai as a tourist destination for people from the UK.

Content analysis was used to analyse the literature review. Here, the type of data collected from the literature review was qualitative in nature and was based on a ‘within-the study’ method. The within the stud method was also referred to as content analysis. In addition to that, a Meta-analysis technique was used to categorise and analyse the data according to the customer satisfaction and loyalty variables (Finn, Elliott-White & Walton 2000). The content analysis was used because technique has been tested for rigour and transparency and has been proved to be effective in providing comprehensive information about the effects of the behaviour of UK customers and their loyalty to the city of Shanghai as a tourist destination of choice. Different resources were used to inform the study can be examined and the results evaluated using the ‘within-study’ approach. In addition, a recursive abstraction approach was used to identify the variables that were used in the study and the effects on customer loyalty.

In theory, it is important to note that qualitative research is an inquiry that is based on the literature review. Here, researchers argue that qualitative research does not follow a specific structure, but provides the flexibility to use the theories that explain consumer behavior and customer loyalty and the models that explain the relationship between customer satisfaction and consumer loyalty. In addition, the study used the qualitative paradigm to provide rich and deep meaning of how the factors such as attitude, behavior, beliefs, and intentions lead to influencing UK customers prioritise Shanghai as the best destination to visit as tourists making them to become loyal customers (Field 2009). Qualitative data was used to provide information and explanations about the behavioural issues that influence UK customers’ decision making processes in prioritising Shanghai as a destination of choice to visit. In addition, it is important to note that qualitative data provides explanations on the natural occurrences such as the way people in the UK perceive the city of Shanghai as a tourist destination and what drives their perceptions. In addition to that, qualitative data provides a view of the real life situations that influence the attitudes and behavior of the UK customers leads to their customer loyalty to Shanghai (Jennings 2001). The study used the qualitative content analysis to interpret the findings and connect the behavior of the UK tourists with their perceptions, behavioural intentions and loyalty to the city of Shanghai (Jones & Kay 1992)

Quantitative paradigm

The research used the quantitative paradigm that employed the questionnaire as the tool to collect data forming part of the mixed research method to determine how services providers at the city of Shangri can make the city a destination of choice. It uses ‘deductive logic of the natural sciences’ technique to make the decisions. The approach can be used to test and justify the occurrence of the behaviour of tourists that are possible to duplicate including the elements of behavior, attitude, belief, and perceptions among the UK visitors to Shanghai as the destination of choice. In addition to that, the study provided the researcher with the ability to collect data independently free inferences at the analysis phase.

The research approach shows that the results from a quantitative study were based on the administration and use of questionnaires that provide a researcher with the ability to validate and verify the results of the study using objective means. The quantitative paradigm was used to formulate a research design that was used to establish the casual relationship between the variables and the findings of the study.

On the other hand, it was possible to make large scale data collection from the target population at a minimal cost to provide the ability to process a set of variables, which are somehow equivalent across the whole study and the persons involved and across situations” (Ledo, Bonín & Iglesias 2007). The situations include the differences in gage, gender, income levels, and other appeals that make UK visitors to like Shanghai.

The mixed paradigm

When both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms are combined, the results are a mixed research paradigm. In theory, the mixed research method provides a balance between the two approaches discussed above that include both the qualitative and quantitative paradigms. Both approaches were used to provide solutions to the study from different perspectives that were combined using the triangulation technique.

Triangulation

In theory, triangulation is an approach that is used to combine different research paradigms to study the occurrence of a phenomenon as illustrated in the diagram below.

The above method used qualitative, quantitative, and literature review as sources of data to analyse and determine the solution to the research problem. Different types of triangulations were done to validate the data source to increase the validity of the inquiry. Triangulations were done on questionnaires sources of data and the literature review based on content analysis (Petrick 2004). Investigator triangulation was the most crucial approach used to analyse the data from different sources to ensure that the contributions from other researchers added to the value and depth of the research process. In addition to that, theory triangulation was used in the study to combine different sources of theoretical knowledge to interpret the different sets of data, which were acquired from the literature review (Creswell, 2009). It is crucial to note here, that another method used in triangulation is the methodological triangulation, which contributed to the study by combining different methods and approaches in conducting the study.

Tools for data collection

To address the qualitative and quantitative sources of data a specific tool for data collection was used that include questionnaires. Questionnaires formed the most important part of the study in the mixed research method because of the suitability and appropriateness of use in the study. It is important to note that the questionnaires are reliable instruments for collecting data that can be analysed to present the results of the study using numbers that can be easily interpreted to inform the study. The advantages of questionnaires are that they are practical and can enable the researcher to collect in a short while, a large amount of data from a large population of participants. Another element that motivated the researcher to use the questionnaire is the ability to use it to determine the validity and reliability of the results (Finn, Elliott-White & Walton 2000). The questionnaire has been discovered to be an excellent tool or comparing results from different areas of research, which are related to the current study. In addition to that, questionnaires can be used to prove theories, which explain different elements of the theories. Therefore, a pre-test was carried out between 12 and 14 July 2014; the questionnaires were distributed to 10 respondents staying at Shanghai. Here, nobody showed difficulties in understanding the questions; everyone kindly cooperated by responding to the questionnaire and no one expressed that the task was a nuisance.

Typically, a pre-test was done because its importance is undeniable because pre-test aims to improve the questions on the questionnaire and consequently increased the value of the questionnaire. It is agreed that pre-test “will point out the questions’ ambiguity, the existence of unnecessary questions and the need or not to adequate the questions’ sequence” (Marconi 2001).

Sampling

The sampling was conducted by first determining the size of the UK tourist population to select the sample size for the study. The approach consisted of selecting elements of the population by age groups, gender, income, and educational levels. Those elements were important because they consisted of the actual factors that determine the behavior of each customer. The number of participants was selected at 300 because it is workable number and adequate for the study. The method used to create the sample of 300 participants included classifying people according to age, education level, and income levels that could respond to the different attitudes and behaviours depending on personal and customer profiles.

Any person who has visited Shanghai city could be a participant in the study. Because it could be difficult to determine the number of people who have visited shanghai from the UK, the study used a sample size of 300 participants based on the fact that when the sample is too small, the results cannot be relied on and when the sample is large, the results become more accurate. According to Sekaran, (2003) a sample size ranging between 30 and 500 is appropriate for collecting quantitative data and in this study a sample size of 300 was identified as appropriate. The proportion of male to female was settled at 8:7 based on the frequency that each category of participant has visited the city. In addition, the proportions according to age are tabulated in the table of results.

Validity

The construct validity of the questionnaire was the point of concern because if the tool was not valid, the questionnaire data could provide wrong results, which could lead to wrong analysis and the results could not reflect the true nature of the study. To ensure the results were valid and the instrument was valid, the questionnaire data was subjected to construct validity to evaluate the repeatability of the results using 50 responses. A period of one week elapsed before another other questionnaires were issues out to the 50 participants, who participated in the test three times. The validity, which was done on the questionnaires includes content and construct validity.

Reliability

Reliability was another element considered in the administration questionnaires. The internal consistencies of the questionnaires were evaluated to determine the manner and patterns of the repeatability of the results after the tools was administered twice on a sample of the target population. The face and content validity were done to determine the reliability of the questionnaires in gathering the desired data for analysis.

Questionnaire administration

The questionnaires were administered to the target population by using the sample, which was selected for the study. The questionnaires were selected as the most appropriate tool to collect the data because of several advantages that arise when using questionnaires and the rationale for using questionnaires include:

1. To identify the specific features that positively influences consumer behavior and customer loyalty of the tourists from the UK.
2. To determine how visiting Shanghai positively to improves the attitudes, intentions, and behavior of the UK tourists to become loyalty Shanghai customers
3. To how the destination image can positively change consumer behavior and increase the UK customer loyalty.
4. To determine the best tourist’s destination model to adopt by Shanghai to win the loyalty of UK tourists.
5. Evaluate the UK as the source of tourists and Shanghai as the tourist destination..

The research was informed about the advantages of using the questionnaire for the study that include:

1. The ability to issue the questionnaire to a large number of people in different settings.
2. It is easy for the respondents to issue responses to the questions.
3. It was easy to identify the respondents and give them the questions to answer.
4. The questionnaire is practical
5. The questionnaire data can be used to create theories and to explain other theories.

Questionnaire design

Different approaches were evaluated in the design of the questionnaires and the following steps were used in the initial design using the following elements.

1. What to be asked
2. Phrasing of the questions
3. The sequence, in which the questions were asked
4. The questionnaire layout

Different approaches were used to create the questions in the questionnaire and different types of formats were evaluated (Pallant 2010). The formats included multiple choice questions, structured and unstructured questions. The approach used structured questionnaires because they were easy to create, administered, and analyse.

The questionnaire was evaluated several times to determine its suitability for the study and the results showed that it was was suitable for collecting the desired data for analysis to answer the research questions (Pallant 2010).

Contingencies

A contingency plan was in put place to ensure that the response rate was high and sufficient to address the research objectives. Observations and results from the study showed that the response rate was below 70% and a repeat administration of questionnaires was done to ensure that the threshold level of responses was achieved (Petrick 2004). The researcher liaised with the people in administering and encouraging the respondents to fill the questionnaires and submit them (Pallant 2010). The process was conducted and over 95% response rate was observed, making the study achieve the required responses for analysis.

Data cleaning

Once the data from the study was collected, it was taken through another step of cleaning it to ensure that the correct and appropriate data was used in the study (Pallant 2010). Data cleaning was done by engaging different people with knowledge in research to check the questionnaires to ensure that the data was error free (Pallant 2010). In addition, data was counterchecked and entered by different people to ensure the data entry was correct (Petrick 2004).

Pretesting

Pretesting was crucial to yield data that could provide the true picture of the results from the study on the effects of the variables that include people, infrastructure, customs, the resources of the cost of Shanghai and how they influence the tourists form the UK to visit Shanghai as shown in the table below (Pallant 2010). It was crucial to ensure that the results, which were obtained from the study, were consistent with the objectives of the study to ensure that the results were accurate and accurately reflected the true findings from the study. To ensure the validity and reliability of the data, some of the data was taken, entered and run on the SPSS program (Pallant 2010).

Some of the Cronbach’s Alpha Item items were deleted because they were below the 0.7 values that could be used to evaluate the consistency and accuracy of the results. The values below 0.7 were assumed according to the study not to convey accurately the impact of the variables. The variables included in the study are people, life, and customs and how they affect the characteristics of the city of Shanghai and the infrastructure on its effects on the attitude, perceptions, behavior, and customer loyalty and satisfaction who visit the city of Shanghai. Other tests were done to determine the adequacy of the variables that were used in the study in subsequent tables. The variables of people, life, and customs were graded according to the Cronbrach’a values to determine how they were affecting the consumer behavior and customer loyalty towards Shanghai as the most preferred tourist destination.

According to results in table above, the Cronbach’a value for each variable was above 0.7, with CICT above 0.5 for each items, which indicate that the measurement items for each variable is reliable and internal consistent

Data analysis

The questionnaire data was analysed to find how destination image positively affect customer behavior and influence their loyalty towards Shanghai from the UK (Pallant 2010). It was assumed that the variables that were used were continuous and that there were linear relationships between the variables. In addition to that, it was assumed that the variables do not have the outlier effects, which could generate results, which are inconsistent with the values predicted by the regression equation.

Results

The study was conducted to achieve the following objectives:

1. To determine how the features of Shanghai city positively influence the loyalty of tourists from the UK
2. To determine how the attitudes, intentions, and behavior of the UK tourists can be positively influenced by the services provided at Shanghai.
3. Determine the effects of the destination image of Shanghai have on positively increasing the UK customer loyalty to Shanghai.
4. Determine the best tourist’s destination model to adopt by Shanghai to win the loyalty of UK tourists.
5. Evaluate the UK as the source of tourists and Shanghai as the tourist destination.

The following table shows the number of people who participated in the study and their characteristics that influenced them in their decision making processes to be the UK tourist visitors. The table shows the frequency at which different customers have visited Shanghai from the UK according to gender, age, their professional qualifications, educational status, their income levels, the sources of information about Shanghai and their professional works. The table below is for respondents from the UK who provide personal information that can be used to determine how they affect their level of commitment and financial ability to visit Shanghai as tourists.

Descriptive statistics

Table 1 Demographic profile of respondents (N=120)

Table 1. Summarises the demographic profile of the respondents.

Here, the statistics shows how UK customers are influenced by factors such as age, income level, employment, academic and professional qualifications among other variables shown in the table. Those factors strongly influence the decision making process of the customers to tour the city of Shanghai because tourism depends on personal factors such as income level, education, age, infrastructure, quality of services, prices, and the duration one takes to visit Shanghai. IN addition, the frequency of visiting the city determines the attitude and behavior of the visitors from the UK to Shanghai. In addition, the duration for decision making helps the researcher to connect the behavioral outcomes with the loyalty developed towards the city of Shanghai.

In addition, once the people with the attributes shown in the table have visited Shanghai, the table shows the distribution in decision making because they have been influenced by the features, services, destination image and other variables them to be repeat visitors. As for the education backgrounds of respondents, Almost 43.3% of the respondents were bachelor degree, diploma holders, constituting a 40.0% of sample, besides, High school students or below and postgraduate or above made up of 8.3% and 8.3% of sample, respectively. With reference to visitors’ annual income, 43.3% of the respondents earned above 50000 per year and 30.0% of respondents earned 20,001–50,000. Respondents earning 10,001–20,000 and 5001-10,000 per year represented 16.7% and 1.7%, respectively. While 8.3% of the respondents had under 5000 annual income. The low-income respondents represent those who are unemployed such as students. In addition, 37.0% of respondents have high hierarchical rank, 31.7% of respondents only have low hierarchical rank and 31.3% of respondents have middle hierarchical rank.

Almost 40.0% of the respondents stated that it took 1-2 months to make a decision on whether to visit Shanghai again. We can also get that as many as 26.7% of respondents had a worked period of 3-5 years, decision making period of 3-4 months and 2-3 months composed of 18.3% and 15.0% of sample, respectively, moreover, 14.0% of respondents express that they need 4-6 months to make a decision, only 5.3% of respondents took less than a month top decide to revisit the city of Shanghai.

Reliability analysis

Reliability was used multiple times to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaire to ensure the accuracy of the results. The results were above the 0.8 mark, showing a high level of reliability. If the reliability was above 0.6, the Cronbach’s alpha was frequently used to test the reliability of the results used in the study (Alegre & Garau 2010). The minimum requirement for CICT is 0.5, if the CICT for item is below 0.5, the item need to be excluded from the analysis. In addition, if the Cronbach’a values increase with the exclusion of the items, the item should be excluded.

Factor analysis

A test was done to determine if the sample was sufficient for the study and the selected variables for the factor analysis (Bryman, 1989). As seen in Table 3, KMO test resulted in a 0.721 value that was greater than the suggested minimum value of 0.5 for adequacy, and Bartlett’s test also demonstrated a very good sphericity (v2 = 6554.627, df = 276, p < 0.000). These tests indicated that the 27 variables were suitable for the following factor analysis. All the variables were tested as below.

Table 3. KMO and Bartlett’s Test.

Table 4. Factor analysis results.

Table 4 shows the results of the factors that influence the people to be repeat visitors to the UK. Factor one included 5 question items with regard to issues of people, life and customs, which resulted in a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.721. The Cronbach’s alpha of 0.721 help determine the reliability of the results about the factors that influence their perceptions, behavior, and loyalty due to indoor and outdoor variables.

Independent sample t-test and one way ANONA analysis

Independent sample t-test and one way ANONA analysis are used in order to find out the relationship between people, life and customs, infrastructure, indoors and outdoors resources, satisfaction, destination loyalty and demographic factors such as gender, age, education and income.

Independent sample t-test

An “independent T-Test was applied to investigate how loyalty and customer behavior are influenced by the people, life, customs, infrastructure, indoor and outdoor resources and their summed effect on satisfaction that leads to UK customer loyalty (Anderson et al, 2007). The T-Test on gender differences in mean values reveals that some significant differences exist between the male and female who visit the city of Shanghai. The results for the mean independent T-test analyses contrasting the male and female group of visitors showed five variables and no differences between males and females were observed because people (0.707), infrastructure (0.224), indoors and outdoors resources (0.123), satisfaction (0.086) and destination loyalty (0.333) are larger than significance level of 0.05 respectively. The statistics below were used to show the level of confidence of the findings that make results reliable on how they influence the loyalty and behaviour of the UK customers (Hair et al, 2006).

Table 5. Independent sample t-test of five variables for different gender.

One way ANONA analysis

The one-way analysis of variance (abbreviated one-way ANOVA) was used to compare means of two or more samples (using the F distribution) that includes the loyalty and behavior of the UK customers. ANOVA is “used to test for differences among at least three groups, since the two-group case can be covered by a t-test” (Creswell 2009).

Table 6. One way ANONA analysis of five variables for different age groups.

First of all, the result of analysis of variance (ANOVA) in table 6 suggested that people, life and customs (0.000), infrastructure (0.000), indoors and outdoors resources (0.000) and satisfaction (0.000) had significant differences in the in influencing the satisfaction of UK tourists and their loyalty, because all of their p-values were smaller than the significance level (0.05) (Riley, Niininen, Szivas & Willis 2001). Further inspection of the results showed that the people, life and customs in 50-59 age groups showed the strongest greater satisfaction and loyalty to Shanghai as a destination of their choice (Pizam & Mansfeld 2000). On the hand, both infrastructure and indoors and outdoors resources in 30-39 age group are higher than other age groups, which showed that they were elements, which caused greater satisfaction among the respondents (Hair et al, 2006).

Table 7. One way ANONA analysis of five variables for different education groups.

Correlation analysis

Pearson’s correlation coefficient assumes that each pair of variables is a bivariate normal and it is a measure of linear association (Balnaves & Caputi 2001).

The results suggested that there were significant relationships between destination loyalty and other variables because the P-values of all the correlations are significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Further inspection of the results manifested that nearly all variables have positive relationships with destination loyalty. The correlation value of people, life and customs (0.314**), infrastructure (0.686**), indoors and outdoors resources (0.589**) and satisfaction (0.881**) indicate that the correlations are medium. The strongest relationship exists between satisfaction and destination loyalty (0.881**). It shows that there were strong relationship between destination loyalty and customer behavior and the Shanghai destination variables.

Regression analysis

Regression analysis was used to estimate the relationships among variables that influence customer loyalty and behavior and their satisfaction with changes in customs, infrastructure, and resources (Balnaves & Caputi 2001). The table shows how dependent variables of the customers are influenced by dependent variables of the destination that is Shanghai.

Table 10. Regression analysis result.

Path coefficients for the proposed theoretical model are illustrated in Figure 1. A key variable in the theoretical model is the satisfaction of respondents. The results of regression analysis with satisfaction as the dependent variable appear in Table 10 (Equation (1). Here, as predicted in H₂, infrastructure is a statistically significant predictor variable (p=0.000). Also, as predicted in H3, indoors and outdoors resources is significant (p=0.001), further inspection suggests that both infrastructure (0.243**) and indoors and outdoors resources (0.495**) have significant positive impact on satisfaction, however, People, life and customs does not have a statistically significant correlation with satisfaction, which indicates that H1 is not supported. Equation (2) reveals the proposed relation (H₄) between satisfaction and destination loyalty is supported. Moreover, satisfaction has a statistically significant positive influence on the destination loyalty.

Discussion

The analytical results of the study showed that people, life, customs, infrastructure, indoors, outdoors resources of the city of Shanghai had a significant impact on the UK customer loyalty towards Shanghai as a preferred tourist destination of choice. It shows that those factors can theoretically be explained by the behavior that is developed because of the image factors that qualify about Shanghai to be the preferred as a destination of choice. However, there were significant differences among different education groups on their attitudes and customer loyalty towards Shanghai as a destination of choice. That is because people of different demographic profiles have different profiles and persona preferences about a place. Further inspection of the results showed that the respondents with postgraduate degree or above most cared about people, life and customs and infrastructure in influencing them to visit Shanghai. That is because each respondent had certain preferences about the city of choice. The respondents for high school or below most care about indoor and outdoor resources and have strongest destination loyalty because their liking of such games in Shanghai. However, in addition, the study shows that the level of satisfaction varies from one group to the other. Satisfaction is measure of the degree of product compliance to the needs and expectations of the customers and even exceeds the expectations when they visit Shanghai as a preferred destination of choice (Hair et al, 2006).

On the other hand, loyalty to Shanghai as a destination of choice for the visitors from the UK varies significantly among the target population with different demographic profiles. That is because the factors that affect customer loyalty are both attitudinal and behavioral and depend on the perceptions of each person in the population being researched from the UK. The study shows the strength of the psychological commitment of the people of different academic qualifications to the city of Shanghai as the most preferred place of choice. It also shows that some of the methods that encourage visitors from the UK are based on destination image. The destination image is crucial here because people from the UK develop certain perceptions about the city of Shanghai that influences their behavior and loyalty. The image customers from the UK develop about Shanghai is crucial because it influences their decision making process in determining whether to visit Shanghai or not. It is possible for the image of Shanghai to influence positively influence the demand factors for the people of the UK to positively regard Shanghai as a destination of choice based on the cultural, social, economic, services delivery, infrastructure, experiences, and motivations to visit and become loyal to the city. The theories of consumer behavioral and customer loyalty provide the ground upon which to determine the extent of customer loyalty and the behavior of customers form the UK towards Shanghai.

Conclusion and recommednations

The purpose of the study was to appraise the city of Shanghai to create tourism satisfaction and loyalty for visitors from the UK. The results were based on the explanations of the psychological antecedents of the theories of reasoned action, customer loyalty, consumer behavior, and the theory of planned action and the effects on the antecedents have on the loyalty those customers towards develop the city of Shanghai. A questionnaire was issued and administered on the respondents and the resulting data was analysed using the SPSS program. The results led to the conclusion that the behavior and attitudes of many customers from the UK were influenced by their demographic profiles. The antecedents of behavior that include intentions, beliefs, and attitudes were influenced by the features that define Shanghai as a destination of choice. Those features that have a positive effect on the attitudes, intentions, and beliefs of UK customers include the fascinating way of life of the people in Shanghai, the culture of the people, the customs and other ways of life of the people. In addition, the infrastructure, the indoor and outdoor resources make the visits to Shanghai enjoyable for people from the UK. If the people are satisfied about their expectation when visiting Shanghai as a tourist destination, their attitudes become positive and that makes them become repeat customers.

In theory and practice, it can be seen that the destination of choice is influenced by several theoretical and practical elements. One of them is image. Image is about the features that define a place of choice and when the UK customers develop a positive image about Shanghai, they tend to create a mental map of positive perceptions and positives attitude and behaviors as per the theories of planned behavior and reasoned action and that makes them visit the place again, which makes them to be referred to as repeat customers. Image is about the information customers gather about Shanghai with time and the expectations people develop about the place. Here, Shanghai is a destination of choice for many people from the UK who wish to travel outside of the UK because of the unique features in shanghai city. Another unique and distinguishing element is that Shanghai is one of the largest cities of the world and has rich historical heritages. Those heritages contribute to the sum of the attributes of the place of interest and that leads to individual perceptions about the city. In addition, image provides the destination image is controlled by other variables, which include environmental factors such as rivers, buildings, accommodation, and other infrastructure, which makes the Shanghai to be the most preferred destination of choice.

Other theoretical explanations include the planned theories of action that is applied in conjunction with the theory of operant conditioning, the customer from the UK get conditioned such that it makes them to plan to act in ways that leads them to visit Shanghai and that makes the city to be the preferred destination of choice. Customers from the UK reason that when the destination satisfies their needs and expectations, it enables them to positively rate Shanghai as a destination of choice. On the other hand, it is through the word of mouth that the customers from the UK get conditioned to pay a visit to Shanghai because they have heard stories told to them about Shanghai as a beautiful place to visit. Here, the theory of reasoned action is based on the beliefs that are developed about the place. Those are normative beliefs, the control beliefs, the perceived behavioral control, and the subjective norms that lead to intention to act in certain ways and the end result are the behaviors of the customers.

Other theories, which explain Shanghai as a destination of choice, include the commitment theory, which explains the commitment customers have towards Shanghai. In addition, the theories explain how customer loyalty is established to address the needs and expectations of the customers. Shanghai is crucial destination of because it provides the foundation for influencing the customers to make it a top number one destination of choice. That results in destination loyalty, which is achieved by satisfaction, the infrastructure of the tourist destination, the customs and way of life of the people, and the resources that are found in Shanghai.

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