CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Hotel industry has become one of the most competitive industries and it comprises a huge portion in global economic. Therefore, customer loyalty is one of the key aspects of enhancing competitiveness in the industry as well as ensuring business continuity. Also, customer loyalty is mainly related to customer satisfaction. Thus, the study of customer satisfaction plays a very important role for Tharabar Gate Hotel Bagan as to improve and expand its business in Bagan. This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study and the benefits of the study.
1.1 Background
As hospitality and tourism Industry has become one of the substantial industries in global industries, services offering from hospitality industry are necessities because of change in lifestyle (Mohajerani, Jun 2012). Thus, to fulfill the demands of growing market, the hospitality market tried to grow and compete with others in market place by meeting customers’ needs. As hotel industry is one of the most substantial factors for Tourism Industry, it could provide the necessary substructures for Tourism. The growth in Tourism industry technically depends on growth in Hotel industry. Hotel industry had a major growth in recent years in Myanmar since 2015 after political changes and its popularity becomes highlighted across the world. However, it is not comparable with other countries growth.
There are two factors that lead to growth in Hotel industry, the first one is providing investment opportunities, and the second one refers to increasing customers and the number of travelers. In order to encourage the potential customers to travel and as well as to keep the loyal customers, it is necessary to make them satisfied. Customer satisfaction will lead to repurchase intentions and positive word-of-mouth.
Customer satisfaction is a measure of how products or services supplied by a company meet customer expectations. It refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are likely to be loyal, make repeated orders and use a wide range of services offered by a business.
It should be a prime consideration for every business because sales and profits depend on keeping customer happy. Customer care is more directly important in some roles than others, for receptionist, sales staff and other employees in customer facing roles, customer care should be a core element of their job description and training a core criterion when you are recruiting. A huge range of factors can contribute to customer satisfaction but customers both consumers and other business are likely to take into account the following; how well the service matches to customer needs, how well the staffs keep the customers informed, the professionalism, friendliness and expertise of employees, after sales service employees provide.
Compared to the surrounding countries like India, Thailand or Cambodia, the hotel rates are still higher in Myanmar. However, hotel room rates (in US-dollars) have been edging down the last 5 years, especially rates for luxury hotels as the number of hotels has significantly increased throughout the whole country including Bagan since 2013 (The Hotel situation in Myanmar -Hotel ; Tourism Statistics, 2018). The following Figure 1 shows the annual average occupancy and average daily price rate of rooms as of 2016.
