BSc (Honours) Tourism Management

Transcription

1 Faculty of Organisation and Management BSc (Honours) Tourism Management Title Disneyland A Study to Assess Visitors Satisfaction and Loyalty of the Hong Kong Name Fong Fong Student No Month Year April 2009

2 Sheffield Hallam University Faculty of Organisation and Management Title Disneyland A Study to Assess Visitors Satisfaction and Loyalty of the Hong Kong FULL NAME Fong Fong STUDENT No Supervisor: Dr. Connie Mok In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Tourism Management. Month Year April

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people I would like to express my gratitude. They provide valuable advice and assistance to my thesis. Without them, this research could not be done so smoothly. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Connie Mok for her support and professional guideline throughout the whole process of my dissertation. She has contributed her valuable time to it and had given me very useful advices. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude for her special effort in teaching me about the SPSS. Following her guidelines, I am able to use SPSS software to analyze the findings. Also, I also appreciate the help given to me from Dr. Kelvin Nield. He had given advices to me in looking for possible research methods and about the questionnaire design. With equal importance, I would like to present my special thanks to my friends and family to their supports and encouragement. I also appreciate the 100 respondents who participated in the quantitative research questionnaires. ii

4 Last but not least, special thanks go to my family members, friends, and classmates for their encouragement and unfailing emotional support. iii

5 ABSTRACT Theme park industry generates a large number of visitors and plays a significance role in enhancing Hong Kong as one of the most popular tourist destination in Asia. For a theme park, maintaining high visitors satisfaction is the golden rule to retain visitors to become loyal. The aim of this study is to examine the existing service quality and visitors satisfaction towards the visitors loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. The data for this study were collected at the Hong Kong Disneyland. A total of 100 questionnaires were collected from 13 to 16 February The target population were adult visitors aging between 18 to 60 years old from both the local and the overseas. A descriptive statistics analysis were used to examine to visitors demographic profile, service quality dimensions by using SERVQUAL (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1998), and the visitors satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. However, it was found that the lack of facilities and unattractive pricing policy were the major problems of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, several recommendations were made to improve the visitors satisfaction and visitors loyalty towards the Hong Kong Disneyland. iv

6 CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ii Abstract iv Contents v List of figures vii List of Tables viii Chapter 1 1 Introduction The Aim of the research The objectives of the research History and background information of the Hong Kong Disneyland Problems about the Hong Kong Disneyland Benefits from the Hong Kong Disneyland The overall structure of the report 6 Chapter 2 7 Literature Review Definition of theme park Service quality Customer satisfaction Customer Loyalty Relationship between quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty Relevant researches 28 Chapter 3 30 Methodology Study design Questionnaire design Data collection Method Data analysis Limitations 36 Chapter 4 37 Results and Analysis Demographic characteristics Gender Age Place of residence 39 v

7 4.2 Number of visits to the Hong Kong Disneyland Service Quality Dimensions Analysis by respondents Tangibles Factor Reliability Factor Responsiveness Factor Assurance Factor Empathy Factor Overall satisfaction level analysis Intend to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again Willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years t-test to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by gender ANOVA to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by place of residence ANOVA to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by age Open-end questions 59 Chapter Recommendations Wider variety of attractions and entertainments Value for money Operations Improvement Better control of queuing Comprehensive training for staff Increase the frequency of marketing strategies Infrastructure improvement Combination with local culture in Hong Kong Disneyland Conclusion Further study 69 References 70 Appendices 74 Appendices 1: Questionnaire (English version) 74 Appendices 2: Questionnaire (Traditional Chinese version) 78 vi

8 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1 Factors influencing customer s perception of service value 10 Figure 2 The building block of customer loyalty 20 Figure 3 Total satisfaction drives loyalty 21 Figure 4 Customer perceptions of quality & customer satisfaction 22 Figure 5 The link between satisfaction & profit 24 Figure 6 A Framework for Linking Quality to Financial Performance 28 vii

9 LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Gender 38 Table 2 Age 38 Table 3 Place of residence 39 Table 4 Number of visits to the Hong Kong Disneyland 41 Table 5 Service Quality Dimensions Analysis by respondents 46 Table 6 Overall satisfaction analysis 48 Table 7 Intend to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again 49 Table 8 Willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland 50 Table 9 Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass 51 Table 10 Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years 52 Table 11 Differences between Gender and customer satisfaction and loyalty 53 Table 12 Determine of respondents towards customer satisfaction and loyalty by place of residence 55 Table 13 Determine of respondents towards customer satisfaction and loyalty by age 57 viii

10 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Walt Disney Company is the largest and most famous motion picture producers in the world. Besides the spectacular motion pictures produced, the company has also created a good image in the theme park industry around the world. However, according to the press release of the government of the HKSAR on 18 December, 2007, the number of visitors to the Hong Kong Disneyland fell short of expectation. There were only 5.2 million visitors in its first year of operation and it could not match up with its target of 5.6 million (Chu, 2007). 1.1 The Aim of the research There are not too many researches who have researched the existing problems that would affect the visitors satisfaction and loyalty towards Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, this researches aims to examine the existing service quality and visitors satisfaction towards the visitors loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. 1

11 1.2 The objectives of the research The main objectives of this research are three-folded; 1) To assess the visitors satisfaction and loyalty towards the Hong Kong Disneyland; 2) To identify the service quality and visitors satisfaction in relation to staff attitude, leisure and entertainment facilities, services and products offered by the Hong Kong Disneyland; and 3) To give recommendations and comments to the Hong Kong Disneyland based on study findings. 1.3 History and background information of the Hong Kong Disneyland From The Hong Kong Disneyland Source (HKDL) in 2008, the first Disneyland Park was opened in Anaheim, California in The other theme parks are located in Florida, USA, Tokyo, Japan and Paris, France. The Hong Kong Disneyland opened on 12 September, 2005 at exactly 1 p.m. The Hong Kong government has invested a lot of money into the theme park development. 57% of the shares are owned by the Hong Kong government and 43% is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The Hong Kong Disneyland is located within the northeast end of Lantau Island. It is 2

12 about 300 acres in size, and divided into four themed lands, 21 rides, and two hotels. However, the Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest Disneyland theme park in the world. Furthermore, the Hong Kong Disneyland is divided into different themed lands which are namely the Main Street, U.S.A., the Adventureland, the Fantasyland and the Tomorrowland. 1.4 Problems about the Hong Kong Disneyland Most of the Disneyland Resorts in other countries are profit-making in general. However, the Hong Kong Disneyland had faced a lot of problems within the first year of operation. Incidents such as overcrowding during Chinese New Year in 2006 and the annual attendance may not match with its targets had turned the investment unworthily. In response to such situation, the Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman Chu (2007) said in an ed response, "In the short term, we did not achieve the attendance targets for which we had hoped. We recognize that we need to bolster our numbers " (Chu, 2007). Also, there is a strong competition from Hong Kong Ocean Park. Compare with the Hong Kong Ocean Park and the Hong Kong Disneyland, 3

13 the overall attendance of the Hong Kong Disneyland was less than the Hong Kong Ocean Park. The number of visitors of the Hong Kong Ocean Park was ranked No.5 and the Hong Kong Disneyland was ranked No.7 in the Asia and Pacific Rim in 2007 (Gene and Judith, 2007). A lot of visitors want to go to the Hong Kong Ocean Park instead of going to the Hong Kong Disneyland. On 17 December 2007, Chu (2007) mentioned that the government " have urged the management company to continue to improve operational efficiency and devise cost-effective marketing strategies". Also, most of the visitors were not satisfied with the service quality of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, the Hong Kong Disneyland had created a bad image towards the potential visitors and visitors have less motivation to revisit the Hong Kong Disneyland. It results in affecting the visitors loyalty and decreases the number of visitors. Finally, most of the Hong Kong Residents are not satisfied with the size of the park, the service quality, the price increased from 9 February 2009, the number of rides and the attractiveness of the attractions. In addition, 4

14 visitors were occasionally not allowed to enter the park due to overcrowding during the Chinese New Year in As a result, some of the visitors tried to climb over the barrier gates to get into the park and it affected the theme park s reputation (Jongo News, 2009). 1.5 Benefits from the Hong Kong Disneyland From the Press Release of the Hong Kong Disneyland on 22 November, 2004, The announcement of the opening day for Hong Kong Disneyland marks a key milestone for the development of Hong Kong tourism and the economy as a whole" said Henry Tang, the Financial Secretary of Hong Kong. Tang (2004) stated that the opening of the Hong Kong Disneyland would be a "driving force for tourism growth for Hong Kong, and family tourism development in particular". Tang (2004) also noted the Hong Kong Disneyland will benefit the Hong Kong economy. "The project has already created 11,400 jobs during construction. Another 18,000 jobs are expected to be created in phases. In the first 40 years after opening, Hong Kong Disneyland is forecast to bring about a huge economic benefit of $148 billion to Hong Kong as a whole". 5

15 1.6 The overall structure of the report Firstly, history, background information, aim and objectives, problems and benefits from the Hong Kong Disneyland will be in the introduction. Secondly, the Literature review will give more information about the definition of the theme park, the service quality, visitors satisfaction and loyalty from staff attitude, leisure and entertainment facilities, services and products offered by the Hong Kong Disneyland. Also, it will mention about the relationship between quality, visitors satisfaction and loyalty. Thirdly, the methodology part will be about study design, questionnaire design, data collection method, data analysis, and limitations of the research. The results will come from the literature review, the processed data and the conducted questionnaires. Finally, conclusions and recommendations on improving existing service quality, visitors satisfaction and towards the loyalty of the visitors for the Hong Kong Disneyland management team and the Hong Kong Government would be included. 6

16 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is a review of the relevant literature to this study. Secondary data from books, newspapers, reports and academic journals were collected. This chapter is divided into six parts: 2.1) Definition of the theme park, 2.2) Service quality, 2.3) Customer satisfaction, 2.4) Customer loyalty, 2.5) Relationship between quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty and 2.6) Relevant researches. 2.1 Definition of theme park Swarbrooke (2002) explained that theme park is mainly a man-made building, structures and sites that are designed to attract visitors. The purpose of building a theme park is to facilitate the visitors needs. Theme park creates an environment of another place and time. They usually focus on one particular theme. It assembles architecture, landscaping, costumed personnel, rides, shows, food services, and merchandise. Furthermore, theme parks and attractions are according to theme which are historical, cultural, geographical, and so on (Adel and Brown, 2003). Also, theme parks offer a new concept among the particular 7

17 visitor attraction and offer a special visitation experience to visitors (Formica and Olsen, 1998). On the other hand, the theme park helps in the progress of creating a whole new atmosphere that a theme park offers. For example, in Disney properties, fantasy entertainment allows guests to escape from the urban setting and go to another place for their thoughts. Moreover, there are several advantages of the theme park such as creating the basic perception of quality and value-adding factor, it also helps in boosting a theme park s attendance, coordinating of retail merchandise and some interesting themes will have competitive advantages (Wong and Cheung, 1999). 2.2 Service quality As mentioned in trade journals, management magazines and academic journals, service quality is a link to success. Service quality is describing things that will contribute to quality process. It is dependable, timeliness, and emphatic (Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger, 1997). To build the quality of products and services, it is necessary to set a standard. By Montgomery 8

18 (1996), quality is the scope and scale of the standard and products that meet the customers requirements. The service quality regarded as the customer expectation. Customers are willing to pay for a more expensive admission price in return of having a higher quality experience. As a consequence, theme park management needs to deliver more services of a higher quality and efficiency (Mielke, 1998). As quality is a frequently recurring process, it is not a program with only the beginning and ending. Also, quality is the most important element of a business strategy focusing on recognizing customers needs and deploying a process that the theme park ensures satisfaction of those requirements (Fliehman and Aild, 1992). Quality services provide a competitive advantage for nations in the 21 st century. World economic data mentioned about the importance of service quality in post-industrial societies. Nowadays, there are not too many companies who can manage their costs and services effectively. There are 9

19 four factors influencing perceived service value. They are the customer expectations, the service performance, the competitors service offers and a firm s reputation. Customer expectations are the ability of a company to manage customer expectation and improve their existing service standard before their competitors do. Service performance is the customer s experience during service delivery. Competitors service offers may influence the customers perceived value and a firm s reputation is to maintain a gap between the company and the competitors, and it is shown in Figure 1 (Tocquer and Cubennec, 1998). Figure 1 Factors influencing customer s perception of service value Source: Tocquer and Cubennec (1998) 10

20 Innovative technologies with human scale contribute to quality services in a theme park. Therefore, well-trained service personnel are as important as the technologies. High service standard providing from the hosts and hostesses is also one of the quality services in a theme park. Also, a theme park having complementary destination activities is a mix of entertainment and leisure facilities. A theme park also supports facilities such as high quality hotels, resorts, recreation shopping and dining experiences (Jones and Robinett, 1995). By understanding the customer perceptions and customer expectations, a standard of service quality could enhance the customers experience. According to SERVQUAL by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1998), there are five elements of SERVQUAL. They are tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. It is used to measure customers fundamental expectations of a services and service performance in the service industry. In a Disney theme park, customers should be treated as guests and all the employees should treat them honestly and with respect. For the staff, Walt Disney required all the staff, especially the cast members, to arise in their hearts with his vision to create excellent entertainment 11

21 experiences with high quality of services towards guests in the theme park (Hyperion, 1998). 2.3 Customer satisfaction There are two kinds of customers. The first one is the external customer and the second one is the internal customer. The external customer is either face-to face or over the phone, who buys products and services from the company. They are very important because without them, there are no sales and revenue. On the other hand, the internal customers are employees and co-worker in a company. The internal customers chain work in both ways. They will be the service provider and the customer (Leland and Bailey, 1999). Customer satisfaction is affected by product and service features, consumer emotions, attributes for service success or failure, perceptions of equity or fairness as well as other consumers, family members and co-workers. Customer satisfaction with a product or a service is affected by the product and the service features such as helpfulness and courtesy of staff, price, etc. Consumer emotions can affect the perceptions of 12

22 satisfaction with the products and the services. The consumer emotions can be stable or not stable and it affects customer satisfaction with a service. Attributes for service success or failure also affect the perceptions of satisfaction. Customers are willing to look for the outcomes and reasons that it can affect their satisfaction level for buying a products and services. Each customer had a perception of equity or fairness, which is to want to be treated fairly as the other customers, as well as being offered a better prices or a service of a good quality. Customer satisfaction also can be influence by other consumers, family member and co-workers by world-of-mouth (Zeithaml, Bitner and Gremler, 2006). Hill and Alexander (2006) stated that customer satisfaction is a way to measure the organization s total product performance that related to customers requirements. Customer satisfaction is based on the customer s opinion on the product or service provided by a service provider. By meeting a customer s value of a product or service, i.e. customer s expectation, satisfaction of a customer can be achieved (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Malhotra, 2002). Satisfaction can also be applied to other sorts of feelings of service that make the customers feel good or are 13

23 connected with a sense of happiness. Customer satisfaction will generate a higher amount of profit for the company. Besides, a higher customer satisfaction level will help the company to keep the old customers and attract new customers (Woon, Liu, and Chua, 1990). Also, from Robinson and Etherington (2006), the model of customer satisfaction is a variation of the met-expectations model. This model supposes that customers have their own expectations about their communications with an organization and the organization that can satisfy the customer needs and wants. In Disneyland, customers are called guests. It is used to explain the relationship between customers and the company. Customer satisfaction means to please the customers with what they expected. There are three level of customer satisfaction. The first level is the basic needs of customers. It is easy to expect that different customers may have different needs. Company should understand the basic needs of customers by 14

24 observation. The second level is to know about the customers expectation that they have intensions to be loyal or not. The third level is by doing practises that are exceeding the customers expectation (Woon, Liu, and Chua, 1990). Nowadays, customer satisfaction is the ultimate goal for many companies to achieve. Companies put a lot of efforts in improving the general performance that make a stronger relation to customer satisfaction such as quality and customer service. On the other hand, in the Customer Satisfaction Philosophy, the importance of customer satisfaction should be communicated to all employees from top to bottom and shared with a commitment to customers (Hill and Alexander, 2006). From the pricing aspects, customer satisfaction is based on the service providers that they try their best to provide the goods and services of a reasonable quality. Generally speaking, customers will select which products or services of the same quality with a lower price. Meanwhile, customers may not mind to pay more for a higher quality one. Therefore, when compare with different theme parks, it can be easy to explain why 15

25 Disneyland resort with higher price can attract more customers to go there (Woon, Liu, and Chua, 1990). Therefore, several researchers had suggested the delivery of the high-quality goods and services will increase profit for companies through customer satisfaction. As a result, customer satisfaction is related to positive word of mouth and repurchasing intentions, etc. (Baker and Crompton, 2000). 2.4 Customer Loyalty Loyalty may regard as customer retention. It is essential for a company s profits and grows. Customer retention is the act of keeping the business of existing customers (Adel and Brown, 2003). A company s success depends on a product or service in general, but it also depends on how the theme parks retain their potential and loyal customers (Fliehman and Aild, 1992). Retention is an ongoing, positive relationship with customers that will earn 16

26 the revenue from selling the products and services (Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger, 1997). Because recruiting a new customer is very expensive, it is better to keep existing customers after making a profit. Nowadays, a lot of companies know about this fact. Therefore, companies put a lot of effort on keeping existing customers loyal that is the purpose of loyalty schemes of a company. The best loyalty scheme is to keep customers retention with the company. Therefore, companies are trying to do the best to keep their loyal customers such as launching with token, bonus points and other loyalty scheme. Also, it is a hard work for managers in the company trying their best to measure customer satisfaction as well as providing information that are suitable to specific customers. So, it is a job duty for those managers to make right decisions to increase customer satisfaction and improve customers retention at the same time. Moreover, determining the concept of lifetime customer values is a way to enable company to see how to improve customers retention and profitability (Hill and Alexander, 2006). According to Berry (1995), by reducing selling costs, repeating sales, 17

27 increasing customer value and increasing new business from middleperson are the ways to increase profitability and to maximize the customer loyalty. Building a strong relationship with customers also raises the customers switching cost. Switching costs is the opportunity cost of customers changing their buying to other companies. In the customers aspects, loyalty to one company may decrease the risk of service variability. On the other hand, in the marketing aspects, marketing departments usually operate customer loyalty programs. It can ensure that customers to buy their products and services more recurrent and exclusively at their loyal company. The customer loyalty is a most important method for assessing the business performance. Researches have showed a link between customer loyalty and financial success and growth (Hayes, 2008). For example, Reichheld (1996) clearly stated that decreasing customer defections by 5% can increase profits from 25% to 85% across a variety of industries. From the Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (2005), they identified some ways for measuring and monitoring customer 18

28 satisfaction and loyalty. The objectives of doing such acts are to increase service quality awareness, identify strengths and weakness of a company, intensive for staff to achieve certain standard of performance, handle customer satisfaction in different service and customer segments, the ways to build customer loyalty and excellent customer loyalty programs as well as possible improvement measures. Furthermore, the Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (2005) mentioned about the building block of customer loyalty. The customer loyalty model showed the different factors corresponding to form a customer loyalty into one company. The model starts with customer expectations for performance. It includes tangible and intangible services and products provided by the company. The tangible services and products are time, cost, consistency, accuracy, etc. The intangible services and products are image, relationship, problem-solving, etc. Thus, each of the service attributes will form an overall perception and marketplace impression which lead to customer loyalty. If customers are satisfied with the products and services, they will repeat purchase, cross purchase and pass on referrals by positive word-of-mouth. Also, company needs to do 19

29 something for corporate intervention such as monitoring, enhancements and loyalty programs. As a result, customer loyalty is built and customers will be satisfied with the repeated purchase experiences. So, loyal customers will stay with their preferred service provider in future. As a result, most of the researches found that satisfaction is the customers perception of a company s performance and loyalty is the positive customers perception into a company. The model shows this in Figure 2. Figure 2 The building block of customer loyalty Source: Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (2005) 20

30 2.5 Relationship between quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty Customers are becoming more demanding. Also, competitors are improving their service quality at the same time. It is important that the companies should know the drivers of total customer satisfaction to benefit positive customer behaviour. The loyalty rate is from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfy which may influence the loyalty and intension of a customer and this is shown in Figure 3 (Tocquer and Cudennce, 1998). Figure 3 Total satisfaction drives loyalty. Source: Tocquer and Cudennce (1998) Woon, Liu and Chua (1990) explained that quality of the services and 21

31 goods may let customers satisfy and loyal. As customers are looking for the services and goods that are trustworthy and good in standard, service delivery process is one of the methods to influence customers preference. Therefore, customer expected that the goods and services are delivered quickly and on time. Customers also expected that all staff are in a positive attitude and manner towards business. Figure 4 Customer perceptions of quality & customer satisfaction Source: Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1998) For the customer perceptions of quality and customer satisfaction, there is a board definition for satisfaction. Perceived service quality is an integrant part of customer satisfaction. Service quality is a focused evaluation that 22

32 reflects the customer s perception of reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. Reliability is regarded as the ability to carry out the service which meets the customers request as the company promised. Besides, each of the staff should provide the acquired information to customers correctly. Reliability is based on the service delivery, service provision, problem resolution and pricing on a products and services. Responsiveness is the willingness of the front line staff to provide the efficiency service and help to the customers not in the service delivery process. The dimensions are highlight in dealing with the customer request, questions, complaints and problems. Also, responsiveness required staff to communicate with customers in a short length of time while they are waiting for assistance and demanding answer to questions or problems. It also apprehends the idea of flexibility and ability of the company to tailor-made the service to suit the customers needs and wants. Assurance is regarded as the employees knowledge and courtesy as well as the ability of the company and their employees to build the trust and confidence to customers. Assurance is likely to be more important for services industry. Therefore, customers think that it is risky and uncertain about their ability to evaluate outcomes by the promise from 23

33 the employees. Empathy is defined as sympathetic, providing special care to different customers. The meaning of empathy is varying through different tailor-made or customized service as per customer s request. Employees should understand that each customer has unique and special needs and wants. Tangibles are the meaning of the appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personal, and communication materials. Tangibles give customers physical presentations or images of the service to those customers. Therefore, customer Satisfaction is a wide concept that will not only be affected by perceptions of service quality, but also will also include price and some personal factors. At its end, it is linking to customer loyalty and it shows it in Figure 4 (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985). Figure 5 The link between satisfaction & profit Source: Hill and Alexander (2006) 24

34 The Link between satisfaction and profit by Hill and Alexander (2006) and show it in the Figure 5 explained about the company profits are mainly come from customer satisfaction and retentions etc. Customer satisfaction and retentions will link to the company success and profits. The linkage between customer satisfaction and company success is the content of beliefs and trusts. Most of the companies may retain the customer satisfaction and then to generate profits to the company itself. It is no doubt that the cost of keeping existing value customer is lower than recruit a new customer. So, it is believe that customer retention will be come from loyalty of a customer. Therefore, a commitment from the company is to tell potential customers that the company is trying their best in produces the benefits for them. In return, such action will arise retention of different customers such as repeat purchase and recommendation, reduce price sensitive and easy prey for competitors. As a result, customers become more committed that they are not going to leave their loyal company and move to the other competitors in the same industry regardless the price consideration. Therefore, commitment is a ways to explain the methods of keeping a long-term retention of the customers. On the other hand, short-term marketing activities such as price reductions, special incentives 25

35 are ways for company to retain their customers. Also, supplier provides the customer value package consisting of a mix of different set of benefits to customers to attract new customers. In order to know how to deliver the customer value package to customers, most of the companies may do some researches to understand the needs and wants of the customers such as customer satisfaction questionnaire and survey. By improving customer value package from the customers point of view is often remarkable for customers. Such improvement should be carried out by considering even the smallest part of its component. From the internal of the company, employees should achieve a certain level of satisfaction. As a result, the employees will become more motivated to achieve a certain standard of customer satisfaction. As mentioned by Heskett, Sasser and Schlesinger (1997), they concluded that 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can increase profit from 25 percent to 85 percent in general. Adel and Brown (2003) stated that a satisfied customer is more likely to remain loyal to a company instead of changing their thoughts to other competitors. To achieve a high degree of customer satisfaction, a theme park must remain the same high degree of satisfaction and developing an 26

36 ongoing relationship with customer through value-added services. The following formulas interpret the factors in making customer satisfaction and customer loyalty: Satisfaction = Performance Expectation (S = P - E) Loyalty = Satisfaction + Relationship Strength (L = S + RS) According to Johnson and Gustafsson (2000), they mentioned about a framework for linking quality to financial performance. Quality, satisfaction and loyalty may influence the financial performance of the company directly and indirectly. Quality includes internal and external quality of services. Internal Quality encompasses many production and maintenance processes. In a service and retailing industry, it may include the services offer, the physical surroundings, the satisfaction of employees and the service-delivery quality from a company. On the other hand, the external quality and satisfaction including the buying experience of the customers. From the area of customer loyalty and retention, loyalty is a customer s willingness or preferences to buy the services and products from a company. Therefore, retention is the behaviour from the customer s self. In long term, it can contribute to the company to provide a 27

37 product or service with superior quality at a relatively attractive price and eventually affects the financial performance of the company through the external customer perceptions of the buying experience. The model is show it in the Figure 6. Figure 6 A Framework for Linking Quality to Financial Performance Source: Johnson and Gustafsson (2000) 2.6 Relevant researches Compare with the other theme parks in Hong Kong and in the world, the attractiveness of Hong Kong Disneyland is lower than the local competitor, the Ocean Park, and the Disneyland resort in other country. It is necessary for giving relevant comments to the Hong Kong Disneyland for 28

38 improvement. Getting information for the above, there are not too many researches focused on visitors satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. As theme park is a fun place for customers to enjoy their experience, it is very important for the management team of the Hong Kong Disneyland to provide better service in order to build customer satisfaction and loyalty. As a result, it can generate more profit, creating better performance, deserving positive word of mouth and increasing number of visitors to the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, it is very important to examine the service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. 29

39 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY This part illustrates the study design, questionnaire design, questionnaire design, data collection method, data analysis, and limitations. 3.1 Study design In this research, quantitative approach is deployed for the questionnaire for a statistical analysis. The questionnaire is about the existing service quality, the visitors satisfaction and the visitors loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. The factors of questionnaire are drawn form the previous literature review or by adopting some questionnaires in the similar research in past few years. Therefore, several considering factors in this questionnaire are adopted from Chan (2006). An investigation of theme park image and customer loyalty: Case study of Ocean Park Hong Kong. 3.2 Questionnaire design The structure of the questionnaire is divided into 4 parts. Part 1 recorded about the personal information of the interviewee such as gender, age group, place of residence and how many times are they 30

40 visiting the Hong Kong Disneyland. By categorizing the interviewee, different expectation and level of satisfaction are expected to be observed from different group of interviewee. Part 2 asked about the service quality and the visitors satisfaction of the Hong Kong Disneyland. It will use a five-point Likert Scale from very disagree (1) to very agree (5) to measure the service quality and visitors satisfaction level. It is designed to using SERVQUAL model by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1998). They are total 26 questions related to tangibles factors, reliability factors, responsiveness factors, assurance factors and empathy factors. By collecting data related to staff attitude, leisure and entertainment facilities, services and products of the Hong Kong Disneyland, a conclusion on the current situation could be observed. Furthermore, the overall satisfaction may use a five-point Likert Scale to measure the level of agreement. It is mainly measured about tourists are satisfied the service quality of the Hong Kong Disneyland. It has drawn from the literature by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1998). Part 3 is asked about the visitors loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. 31

41 Factors of this part are drawn from the literature by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1998) and Adel and Brown (2003). The item content also consists of some factors examined by previous research which are relevant to this research. It is measured by asking the following items: the intention to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again, recommendation to friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland, consideration on purchasing the Annual Pass or not and how likely for visitors to revisit the Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens. Part 4 asked the interviewee about the other comments of improving the existing service of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Base on research findings, the collected comment will be concluded to give recommendations and comments to the Hong Kong Disneyland. 3.3 Data collection Method The questionnaire is a self-administrated and carried out by personal face-to-face interview. The reason of using questionnaire of this type is to increase the accuracy of the data and response rate of the questionnaire. 32

42 The target populations are adult visitors between 18 to 60 years old from both the local and from the overseas. Therefore, two scanning question was asked about the age and visited the Hong Kong Disneyland or not before start of interview to identify the right respondents. There are four pages in the questionnaire written in Chinese and English versions. In order to minimize the disturbance of visitors, the information is collected from those visitors who are conveniently available to provide their opinion. Therefore, convenience sampling method will be applied to this research. This is also a non-random and quota sampling. A total of 100 in-person interviews will be conducted randomly at the entrance and exit of the Hong Kong Disneyland. There are 148 respondents were approached. 46 were rejected to do the questionnaire and 2 questionnaires are not valid. A total of 100 questionnaires were successfully completed and valid for data analysis. The response rate is 68%. Most of questionnaires were completed within 5 minutes. 33

43 It is necessary to do the pilot test before conduct the questionnaire. The purpose of it was to test the feasibility of conducting the survey. The pilot test was carried out on 2 February 2009 (Monday) during the opening hours of the resort at 10am to 8pm to observe time of the visitors leaving the resort. As by personal observation before conducting the questionnaire, some students were allowed to perform surveying exercises at the main gate of the Hong Kong Disneyland resorts. To conclude, the most possible of time to conduct the questionnaire is after the firework show in the night and during the daytime at 4pm to 6pm in the afternoon at the main gate. As the pilot test was done, the personal face-to face interview will be collected from 13 to 16 February 2009 (Friday to Monday). On 13 to 14 February 2009 (Friday to Saturday), over half of the survey are expected to be done at the night after the firework show in the Hong Kong Disneyland. It is expected to have a lot of visitors to conduct the questionnaires during the occasion of the St. Valentine s Day. On the 15 to 16 February 2009 (Sunday to Monday), the other 50 to 60 data will be collected in the afternoon at 4pm to 6pm. It was randomly selected from the period of the February

44 3.4 Data analysis The questionnaire is quantitative in nature and descriptive in nature such as socio-demographic variables with nominal scale, service quality and customer satisfaction in Likert Scale. When the data is obtained, the data will be analyzed by the computer program, Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS), to analyze the existing service quality, visitor satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. After entering the data into SPSS, it is possible to do some analysis in t-test and ANOVA. t-test will be employed to analyze the different gender about how they think in service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. ANOVA will be used for knowing about the different place of residence and different age group of people how they think about the service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. After all, recommendations and comments could be drawn and suggestion could be given to the Hong Kong Disneyland based on the study findings. 35

45 3.5 Limitations Due to a shortage of time, costs and resources, only 100 respondents could be interviewed to collect their opinions. It may be not enough for in-depth research and can not fully represent all the opinions of visitors from local and overseas. As the original of questionnaires are in English, it is necessary to translate it into Chinese for some Mainland Chinese respondents. Some wording and meaning may more or less vary from the English version. For visitors who are not communicating in English and Chinese will not be interview. In order to ask for the reliability and validity of the research, the age group is from 18 to 60 years old. It is expected that they will provide the accurate and reasonable response to this research. Therefore, there is a constraint of age of respondents and can not represent all of the market. In this chapter, the questionnaire was introduced in detail. So far the reader can understand the purpose in study and can understand the process of analysis. 36

46 CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS The following paragraphs and tables present the results of the study. Analysis was also included in this chapter. Different dimension of data were processed SPSS They includes (4.1) Demographic characteristics, (4.2) Number of visits to the Hong Kong Disneyland, (4.3) Service Quality Dimensions Analysis, (4.4) Overall Satisfaction Level Analysis, (4.5) Intention to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again, (4.6) Willingness to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland, (4.7) Willingness to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass, (4.8) Willingness to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again when Phase II opening in next 2 years, (4.9) Determine if gender will affect the customer s satisfaction and loyalty, (4.10) Determine if the place of residence will affect the customer s satisfaction and loyalty, (4.11) Determine if age is will affect the customer s satisfaction and loyalty and (4.12) Open-end questions. The results demonstrate the service quality perceptions, customer satisfaction and visitors loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Also, suggestions for improving the existing service quality of Hong Kong Disneyland were also included in this chapter. 37

47 4.1 Demographic characteristics Gender Table 1 Gender Gender Frequency Percent Male Female Total About the gender, Table1 shows the demographic characteristics of these 100 respondents. The sample included 42 males and 58 females who had completed the research questionnaires. The samples are collected by Convenience Sampling Sethod Age Table 2 Age (n=100) Age Frequency Percent Above Total Within the respondents sample, the age group is target at visitors aged 18 or above. A majority of respondents (49%) were between the age group of years, followed by 17%, 15% and 14% of respondents who fell in between the age group 46-56, and respectively. Only a small number of respondents aged above 60 (5%). 38

48 According to our respondents sample, we observe that majority of visitors were aging from 18 to 25. Therefore, it can be assume that the major target market of the Hong Kong Disneyland is teenagers aging from 18 to 25. It is because young people are more eager to seek excitements than the elderly. The trend shows that the Hong Kong Disneyland could attract young people rather than attracting the elderly. We can conclude that visitors aging over 60 are not the major target markets of the Hong Kong Disneyland. The details of age of respondents are shown in Table Place of residence Table 3 Place of residence (n=100) Country Frequency Percent Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Regarding the respondents place of residence, most of them come from Hong Kong and Mainland China. It recorded 50% and 24% respectively. Therefore, excluding local citizens, tourists from Mainland China become 39

49 the most significant results finding of respondents. On the other hand, other than Hong Kong and China, the percentages of the respondents are followed by 7% that come from the other Asia Pacific cities and 5% who come from Australia. Only a minority of respondents came from Europe (4%), Africa (4%), North America (3%), Middle East (2%) and other countries (1%). The details of place of residence of respondents are shown in Table 3. In the data collection, we can see that there are not too many foreigners coming to Hong Kong Disneyland. Most of the visitors are Hong Kong residents and Mainland China tourist. As a result, it can define that the major source of market of the Hong Kong Disneyland are local residents in Hong Kong and citizens of Mainland China. The possible reason for this finding may related to the launching of the Individual Visit Scheme starting from The details of place of residence of respondents are shown in Table Number of visits to the Hong Kong Disneyland The result shows that more than half of respondents (52%) are the first 40

50 time visitors of the Hong Kong Disneyland. However, there are 19% of respondents visited the Hong Kong Disneyland more that 4 times and there are 13% and 15% of respondents of visited the Hong Kong Disneyland two times and three times respectively. As most of the respondents are the first time visitors, they have a high sense of discover to the park. In this study there are not too many respondents of Hong Kong Disneyland had been there for more than one time. It may illustrate the visitors satisfaction and loyalty of the park is low. Table 4 Number of visits to the Hong Kong Disneyland (n=100) Number of visits Frequency Percent Once Twice Three times Four times or more Total Missing Furthermore, as there is a keen competition between the Hong Kong Disneyland and other theme park in Hong Kong, visitors intention to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland for more than once are not high. Therefore, The Hong Kong Disneyland is not successful in increasing the visitors loyalty. The details of number of visits of respondents are shown in Table 4. 41

51 4.3 Service Quality Dimensions Analysis by respondents Table 5 shows the results of descriptive analysis of the Service Quality Dimensions Analysis by respondents. Respondents were asked to rate these attributes on a five-point likert scale with a set of Service Quality Dimensions. 1 indicated strongly disagree and 5 indicated strongly agree. It is acknowledged that the groups of disagree included strongly disagree (1) and disagree (2) as well as agree consists of strongly agree(5) and agree(4). The neutral of agreement was indicates as (3). A higher number denotes higher service quality dimensions of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Generally speaking, the Service Quality Dimensions are separated into 5 factors. They are (4.3.1) Tangibles Factor, (4.3.2) Reliability Factor, (4.3.3) Responsiveness Factor, (4.3.4) Assurance Factor and (4.3.5) Empathy Factor. Tangibles factor includes amusement facilities, performance, cartoon characters, etc. Reliability factors safety and reliability of amusement facilities, quality of food and beverage, service accurately delivered from staff, price, etc. Responsiveness factors including length of queuing time, willingness to help and guide by staff, etc. Assurance 42

52 factors are including capability to handle questions, unforgettable experience of visitors, etc. Empathy factor are includes staff attitude, provision of entertainment to visitors during queuing, etc. As seen from the means in Table 5, the mean score of all attributes are from to It means the respondents were generally rating neutrally with all services and facilities provided by the Hong Kong Disneyland. Among the factors, amusement facilities are safe and reliable as well as staff are polite to visitors (mean= and mean= respectively) are the most agreed service quality dimensions. Therefore, quality and quantity of facilities were an essential element of theme park. However, as visitors has a low level of agreement on the park has enough amusement facilities (mean=2.5200) and the admission, food and beverage and products fee is valuable (mean=2.3700). It means that improving the quantity and quality of facilities and lowering the price will reduce their dissatisfying feeling Tangibles Factor In terms of tangibles, the most agreed service quality dimensions of 43

53 tangibles is cartoon characters of park are interesting (mean=3.6900). This is because cartoon characters are the most popular form of entertainment in theme parks. However, the most disagree service quality dimensions of tangibles is the park has enough amusement facilities (mean=2.5200). It showed that visitors liked to experience more different types of rides during their theme park visit. However, if the Hong Kong Disneyland continues in targeting the young age group in the future, installing more thrill rides are need to be considered Reliability Factor In terms of reliability, the most agreed service quality dimensions of reliability is amusement facilities are safe and reliable (mean=3.7980). That means most of the respondents feels that they are confident with the rides and shows. However, the most disagree service quality dimensions of reliability is the admission, food and beverage and products is valuable (mean=2.3700). It 44

54 just reached the disagree level. It reveals that the price level of the Hong Kong Disneyland is higher than visitors expectation. The possible reason is that the guests perceived the food and beverage were not value-for-money. Therefore, quality of food and beverage was not good enough Responsiveness Factor In terms of responsiveness, the most agreed service quality dimensions of responsiveness is staff is willing to help and guide actively (mean=3.5900). This result indicated that visitors want to receive the staff s attention, personalized service and the willingness to get help immediately as well. However, the most disagree service quality dimensions of responsiveness is length of queuing time is acceptable (mean=2.6000). Visitors expect that staff know how to solve their problems. Besides, the small scale of the Hong Kong Disneyland may also be the cause leading to the lengthy waiting. 45

55 Table 5 Service Quality Dimensions Analysis by respondents (n=100) Attributes Mean Std. Deviation Factor 1 Tangibles 1. The park has enough amusement facilities The park has attractive amusement facilities The park has masterly performance and activities Cartoon characters of park are interesting Staff are well groomed The transportation to the park is convenient Hong Kong Disneyland always gives you a positive impression Hong Kong Disneyland has a good security system The environment inside the park is clean Factor 2 Reliability 3. Amusement facilities are safe and reliable The quality of food and beverage are good in the restaurants of the park Staff provides service accurately and error-free Staff guide you with accurate information The experience of the visit is value for money The admission, food and beverage and products fee is valuable Factor 3 Responsiveness 11. Staff are capable to provide prompt service Staff are willing to help and guide actively Length of queuing time is acceptable Factor 4 Assurance 5. Have fun with the performance shows and the attractions and entertainment Theme park provides an unforgettable experience in both entertainment and education among your peer group. 14. Staff are capable to handle questions and assist in timely responsiveness Hong Kong Disneyland is unique when compare with other theme parks Factor 5 Empathy 12. Staff provides service in friendly attitude Staff are polite to visitors Staff are able to attend and fulfill your needs individually Employees provide entertainment to you during queuing Note: Results are presented as the mean, with standard deviation in parentheses. For the mean, 1 indicated strongly disagree and 5 indicated strongly agree 46

56 4.3.4 Assurance Factor In terms of assurance, the most agreed service quality dimensions of assurance is have fun with the performance shows and the attractions and entertainment (mean=3.7200). According to the findings, visitors value the performance shows, attractions and entertainments in the Hong Kong Disneyland are attractive. However, the most disagree service quality dimensions of assurance is the Hong Kong Disneyland is unique when compare to other theme parks (mean=2.8300). When comparing with other attributes of assurance factor, the respondents were less satisfied with the uniqueness of the Hong Kong Disneyland. It is found that the Hong Kong Disneyland is not distinctive feature when comparing to other theme parks Empathy Factor In terms of empathy, the most agreed service quality dimensions of empathy is staff are polite to visitors (mean=3.7800). It was found that in this study, staff s service behaviors would affect the service quality standard of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, the park s 47

57 successfulness is related to staff s service attitude. However, the most disagree service quality dimensions of empathy is employees provides entertainment to visitors during queuing (mean=2.5900). One of the reasons for the occurrence of this situation might be due to the staff s misunderstanding of the needs of the visitors during queuing, as people coming from different places would have different expectation on service requirements. Failure in controlling the movement of the queue can be disappointing to the visitors. 4.4 Overall satisfaction level analysis Table 6 Overall satisfaction analysis (n=100) Frequency Mean Std. Deviation Overall satisfaction level Note: Results are presented as the frequency, mean, with standard deviation in parentheses. For the mean, 1 indicated strongly disagree and 5 indicated strongly agree Table 6 shows the mean of Overall satisfaction level of visitors. The statistic evaluation tool will divide evaluate the mean and the standard deviation. The overall satisfaction level of Disneyland scores That means most of them are quite satisfied with the overall performance of the park. As Disneyland is a world-known brand for theme park, actions must be done to 48

58 enhance the overall satisfaction of visitors. Such improvement could enhance the brand image of Disneyland and in return helping to increase the revenue. 4.5 Intend to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again Table 7 Intend to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again (n=100) Frequency Percent Yes No May be Total As shown from Table 7, only 35% of the respondents expressed their interest to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again. 20% of respondents were not willing to revisit the Hong Kong Disneyland and nearly half (45%) of the respondents are not sure they would visit the park again. It also shows that most respondents were not willing to say positive things about their loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. There are total 65% of respondents mentioned that they may be or not intend to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again. It implies that the redevelopment plan of the Ocean Park may still constitute a certain level of competition with the Hong Kong Disneyland, although it may bring the synergy effect to Hong Kong Disneyland at the 49

59 same time. 4.6 Willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland Table 8 Willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland (n=100) Frequency Percent Yes No May be Total As received from the table, about three tenth (33%) of respondents were generally found that they were not willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. In contradiction, 35% of respondents were generally found that they were not sure they were willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, it also shows that most respondents may not want to say positive things about their loyalty by recommending friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. However, only 32% of respondents were willing to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. For those respondents who experienced good service quality, and satisfied with it, they will have positive attitude and more likely to return. 50

60 They are more likely to recommend their family, relatives or friends to visit. The details of willingness to recommend friends and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again of respondents are shown in Table Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass Table 9 Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass (n=100) Frequency Percent Yes No Total As reviewed from the table above, about 80% of respondents were generally found that they were not willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass. However, only about one fifth of respondents were willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass. Therefore, it implies that the visitors are not loyal for the Hong Kong Disneyland. The details of willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass of respondents are shown in Table Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years As concluded from the table, about half (48%) of respondents were found 51

61 that they were willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years. Similarly, two fifth (40%) of respondents express they were not sure whether they will visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens in next 2 years. However, only 12% of respondents express they will not visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again even if Phase II opens in next 2 years. Therefore, the Hong Kong Disneyland is not attractive enough even if Phase II opens. In fact, as a growing theme park, Hong Kong Disneyland needs to expand and build more attractive facilities in order to satisfy the visitor s needs. The details of willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years of respondents are shown in Table 10. Table 10 Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within next 2 years (n=100) Frequency Percent Yes No May be Total t-test to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by gender The t-test was computed to examine whether there are any mean score 52

62 differences between male and female respondents examined in the study. Table 11 shows the gender difference on elements of loyalty and results. A significance level of 0.05 was established. The t-value for the equality of 2-tailed significance for equal was larger than The results would be considered as no significance when the 2-tailed significance was more than As concluded from the data, there was no difference between males and females in customer satisfaction with the Hong Kong Disneyland. Therefore, gender difference is not the main concern for designing strategy attracting more visitors to visit and continuous improvement for the Hong Kong Disneyland. Table 11 Differences between Gender and customer satisfaction and loyalty (n=100) Std. t Sig. Gender Mean Deviation (2-tailed) Overall satisfaction Male Female Willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again Male Female Willing to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Male Disneyland Female Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass Male Female Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the Male next 2 years Female Note: Significance level is

63 4.10 ANOVA to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by place of residence In order test for differences between the different place of residence towards customer satisfaction and loyalty, ANOVA tests were conducted. A significant level was maintained at 0.05 was established. From Table 12 it can see there was a difference between places of residence toward the customer satisfaction. Similarly, in the case of loyalty, there are differences between the places of residence and willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass. Only local residents are willing to buy the Annual Pass. It is because they are living in Hong Kong and the prices for local people are acceptable. However, there are no differences between places of residence towards willingness to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again. Similarly, there are no differences between places of residence towards willingness to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. Also, there are no differences between places of residence towards willing to visit 54

64 Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the next 2 years. Success of the Hong Kong Disneyland is to know the needs of different places of residence. Table 12 Determine of respondents towards customer satisfaction and loyalty by place of residence (n=100) Std. Mean Deviation F Sig. Overall satisfaction Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Willing to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America

65 Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass Hong Kong * Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the next 2 years Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others Total Results are presented as the mean, standard deviation, significance, etc. Overall satisfaction: 1 indicated strongly disagree and 5 indicated strongly agree Willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again, willing to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland and Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the next 2 years: 1 indicated yes, 2 indicated no and 3 indicated may be Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass: 1 indicated yes, 2 indicated no *Significance=P

66 4.11 ANOVA to determine if there are any significant for customer satisfaction and loyalty by age In order to test the differences between different age group of customer in satisfaction and loyalty, ANOVA tests were conducted. A significant level was maintained at 0.05 was established. According to Table 13 it can be observed that there were no differences between the age groups toward the customer satisfaction. Similarly, in the case of willingness to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again, willingness to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland, willingness to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass and willingness to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens in the next 2 years, no significant differences were noted between the age groups. Therefore, the critical methods for the success of the Hong Kong Disneyland are to focus on all age group for improving the existing facilities, products and services of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Table 13 Determine of respondents towards customer satisfaction and loyalty by age (n=100) Std. Mean Deviation F Sig. Overall satisfaction

67 Above Total Willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again Above Total Willing to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland Above Total Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass Above Total Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the next 2 years Above Total Results are presented as the mean, standard deviation, significance, etc. Overall satisfaction: 1 indicated strongly disagree and 5 indicated strongly agree Willing to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again, willing to recommend friend and relatives to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland and Willing to visit Hong Kong Disneyland again if Phase II opens within the next 2 years: 1 indicated yes, 2 indicated no and 3 indicated may be Willing to purchase the Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Pass: 1 indicated yes, 2 indicated no *Significance=P

68 4.12 Open-end questions There is an open-end question to ask for any suggestions for the park to add in order to improve the existing service of the Hong Kong Disneyland in different ways. There are some comments from various respondents. For the admission price, respondents mentioned that the Hong Kong Disneyland needs to lower the admission price. When compare to other theme parks in Hong Kong, its price is comparatively higher than other park in Hong Kong. Some respondents mentioned that having the admission price is unreasonable, especially during the economic recession. It may worsen the general image of the Hong Kong Disneyland. Also, it is affecting visitors willingness to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland again. Also, respondents think that increasing price will affect their loyalty and the willingness to go to the park again in short period of time. If the Hong Kong Disneyland doesn t improve the existing service, some respondents commented that they could not revisit the Hong Kong Disneyland in short period of time. For suggestions, providing discount during non-peak time and adding some promotion package to attract more visitors could be some possible method. 59

69 For the food and beverage provision, some respondents said that the quality of food is poor and the price is expensive. If the food and beverage quality are in good quality, they expected to pay for it. Furthermore, some respondents suggested that the Hong Kong Disneyland need to expand the F&B services and offer discount for particular types of foods such as items in fast food shop. Also, Hong Kong Disneyland should increase the seats available during the meal period. About the special events, respondents said that the Hong Kong Disneyland should not only focus on the major holiday such as Christmas, Halloween and Chinese New Year. Few respondents suggest that the parks must organize more special events, not just for special Festivals. For the exiting facilities, respondents said that the size of Hong Kong Disneyland is too small and can not compete with Ocean Park in Hong Kong and Disneyland in Tokyo. That will in fact increase the waiting and queuing time for visitors when they take photos with cartoon characters or for the games and rides. Furthermore, since the existing amusement 60

70 facilities, games and rides are not attractive some of those visitors, there are quite a lot of respondents said that the Hong Kong Disneyland need to add more exciting amusement facilities and rides for improving existing entertainment experience. Besides, some respondents said that the storage fees were expensive. It should be fee of charge. Also, they also stated that the park is lack of facilities for disables and some suggested providing camera rental service. For the operational aspects, it is possible to add more toilets and rubbish bins inside the parks. Also, frequency of cleanings those, especially the toilet should be increased. On the other hand, some visitors hopes to bring their own food into the park as other theme parks allow visitors to bring their own food to the parks. Also, one of the respondent mentioned that their family seldom saw the staff in Disney; they don t believe that the staff can provide prompt service to visitors. In addition, some staff is not wearing smiles and did not have professional knowledge in handling visitors enquiries or problems. 61

71 For the infrastructure improvement, Hong Kong Government needs to improve the transportation link for developing more throughout transportation network. Up to this moment, only MTR can access to the park directly, if there are more modes of public transport accessing to the Disneyland, it would be more convenience for visitors to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland. In summary, service quality of the theme park directly influences the visitors satisfaction and loyalty. In this chapter, it demonstrates the positive relationships between visitors satisfaction and loyalty by the services quality provided by the Hong Kong Disneyland. 62

72 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Recommendations This study had provided an insight of the visitors satisfaction level of the Hong Kong Disneyland. To obtain visitors satisfaction and loyalty, some recommendations are suggested for the management of the Hong Kong Disneyland Wider variety of attractions and entertainments Since the Hong Kong Disneyland is not the only theme park in Hong Kong, therefore, increasing the number of entertainments would be an incentive for attracting visitors of all ages, especially teenagers, kids and couples. They are the main target markets of the Hong Kong Disneyland. To be a successful theme park, efforts are needed to match with visitor s desires. Therefore, attractions inside the park should be diversified. As the Hong Kong Disneyland is competitively not attractive for elderly, so the Hong Kong Disneyland should design entertainments for them such as museum or exhibition as exciting game may not be so suitable for them. On the other hand, if the Hong Kong Disneyland continues to target the 63

73 teenagers as their customers in future, installing new thrill rides should be considered. It is because most of the teenagers prefer thrilling rides rather than the one which is suitable for the whole family. Besides, Hong Kong Disneyland should hold some monthly, memorable and innovative events such as special events for Valentines Day, business events, annual charity show, education class, adding surprising elements in the games and shows form time to time, etc. As to conclude, Hong Kong Disneyland should invest balance resources to maximize the benefits of all visitors in order to attract visitors for every seasonal event Value for money Consumers are looking for services or goods which value for money, as shown from research results that the valuable of admission, food and beverage are not in a high level of agreement. Hong Kong Disneyland should consider lowering the price, extending the opening hours and cooperating with the government, tour agent, hotels and schools for enhancing its service quality in order to provide a sense of feeling of value for money for visitors. 64

74 About the food and beverage, it is suggested that the Hong Kong Disneyland should invite some famous fast food chain such as the McDonalds or Pizza Hut to open their business inside the park. The foods provided by them are attractive and suitable for visitors of all ages. Moreover, Hong Kong Disneyland should improve their existing food and beverage quality and adjust the price of food at the same time. As the price of food and beverage are not value for money at this moment, it is recommended that the park should allow people to bring their own food in. For the admission price, Hong Kong Disneyland should provide discount on weekdays and during non-peak season. Besides, some promotion packages such as buy five get one free, hotel and tickets discount or merchandise discount should be added to attract more visitors from all over the world Operations Improvement As the Hong Kong Disneyland is lack of facilities for disables, it is suggested that more facilities for disables should be added. Also, the rental fees of lockers are expensive. If possible, it is suggest that it should 65

75 waive the charge for visitors and imposing a deposit to avoid any damage on lockers Better control of queuing Many visitors mentioned that the queuing time is long and there are lacks of entertainment during queuing. Hong Kong Disneyland should improve this situation as soon as possible. For example, Hong Kong Disneyland should adjust the show schedule in order to minimize visitors time spent on waiting. The frequency of shows should be set adjustable according to the number of visitor. Moreover, Hong Kong Disneyland should recruit more staff to provide entertainments to the visitors as to draw their attention on the queuing time, especially when there is a large number of visitors visiting the park at the same time Comprehensive training for staff Attitude, politeness of staff should be maintained. Additionally, role-play, challenging scenarios or job-related situations could be applied so that the staff could practice more during their training. It helps to improve the efficiency of the operations. At the same time, staff s confidence could be 66

76 built. Hence, they would response to visitors quickly or talk with them initiatively. Meanwhile, it is necessary to train all employees to have a professional knowledge with positive attitude such as wearing a smiley face when facing to visitors Increase the frequency of marketing strategies For the marketing aspects, Hong Kong Disneyland should cooperate with Disneyland in other countries. When comparing to other Disney Parks, Hong Kong Disneyland is lacking the feeling of magic. If possible, the Hong Kong Disneyland should expand its size to open phase II as soon as possible. Also, facilities and themes need to be added and improved. It may increase the visitors loyalty to revisit the park, developing the intention to buy the Annual Pass and recommending others people to visit the park Infrastructure improvement As only the MTR and some public franchised bus can go to Hong Kong Disneyland directly, offering free shuttle services is one of appropriate ways for infrastructure improvement. For example, the Disney may offer 67

77 some cash coupons for visitors who take taxi to the Disneyland. Besides, a round-trip shuttle service could be provided to those who had bought the Disneyland entrance tickets and booked a stay in resort hotel Combination with local culture in Hong Kong Disneyland As Hong Kong is a well-known meeting place for the eastern and the western culture, this special characteristic must be added in the Hong Kong Disneyland. For example, Hong Kong Disneyland should organize special celebrations such as Mid-autumn Festivals and other local cultures in order to increase the visitors satisfaction and loyalty. 5.2 Conclusion To conclude, the findings of this study contribute important information to the Hong Kong Disneyland. As the overall satisfaction level reaches only in neutral level, Hong Kong Disneyland should put more effort on improving the existing service quality. The information obtained also indicated that the service quality perceptions had a direct positive impact on visitors satisfaction and loyalty of revisiting, recommend friends and relatives, buying Annual Pass and visit the park when phase II opens. 68

78 5.2.1 Further study Since the actual size of this study included 100 respondents only, it was not large enough to get an accurate result. Therefore, the sample size must be enlarged for future research. Also, this study focuses on the service quality perceptions, visitors satisfaction and loyalty only. The future research should also focuses on the preferred theme for attractions or the suitability of offering live entertainment as Phase II opened. It might results differently. Moreover, future research should be conducted throughout the whole year in order to understand the trends of low, shoulder and high seasons. Therefore, a further study should be carried out. 69

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80 Design, Use, and statistical Analysis Methods. 3 rd ed., United States of America, American Society for Quality. HESKETT, James L., SASSER W. Earl and SCHLESINGER Leonard A. (1997). The Service Profit Chain: How Leading Companies Link Profit and Growth to Loyalty, Satisfaction, and Value. The United States of America, The Free Press. HILL, Nigel. and ALEXANDER, Jim (2006). The Handbook of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Measurement. 3 rd ed., England, Gower Publishing Limited. Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence (2005). Guide to Customer Service Excellence: Service Appreciation and Customer Loyalty. 8 th ed., Hong Kong, Hong Kong Association for Customer Service Excellence. HYPERION (1998). Walt Disney World Resort: A magical Year-by-Year Journey. New York, Disney Enterprises Inc. JOHNSON, Michael David and GUSTAFSSON Anders (2000). Improving customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, and Profit. California, A Wiley Company. JONES, Clive. B. and ROBINETT, John (1995). The Future Role of Theme Parks In International Tourism, Economics Research Associates Issue Paper, June Jongo News (2009). Ticket Price Increases at HK Disney. [online]. Last assessed 30 February 2009 at: LELAND, Karen and BAILEY, Keith (1999). Customer Service for Dummies. 2 nd ed., New York, Hungry Minds, Inc. MIELKE, Roland. (1998). Simulation Applied to Theme Park management. Proceedings of the 1998 Winter Simulation Conference, MONTGOMERY, Douglas.C. (1996). Introduction to Statistical Quality Control, 3 rd ed., New York, John Wiley & Sons. 71

81 PARASURAMAN, A, ZEITHAML, V.A. and BERRY, L.L. (1998). SERVQUAL : A Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perceptions of Service Quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), PARASURAMAN, A, ZEITHAML, V.A. and BERRY, L.L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quality and its implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49(4), REICHHELD, Frederick F. (1996). The loyalty effect. Boston, Harvard Business School Press. ROBINSON, Sionade and ETHERINGTON, Lyn (2006). Customer Loyalty: A Guide for Time Travelers. New York, Palgrave Macmillan. SWARBROOKE, John (2002).The Development and Management of Visitor Attractions. 2 nd ed., Burlington, Elsevier Ltd. TANG, Henry (2004). Disney and HKSAR Government Announce: Hong Kong Disneyland Opening Day. [online]. Last accessed 22 October 2008 at: The Hong Kong Disneyland Source, HKDL (2008). [online]. Last accessed 18 October 2008 at: TOCQUER, Gerard A. and CUDENNEC, Chan (1998). Service Asia: How The Tigers Can Keep Their Stripes. Singapore, Prentice Hall. WONG, Kevin K.F. and CHEUNG, Phoebe W.Y. (1999). Strategic theming in theme park marketing. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 5(4), WOON, Kin Chung, LIU, Betty and CHUA, Jeannie B. G. (1990). Customer Satisfaction: Completing the Productivity Equation. Singapore, National Productivity Board. ZEITHAML, Valarle. A., BITNER, Mary Jo and GREMLER, Dwayne D. (2006). Service Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm. 4th ed., Boston, McGraw-Hill. 72

82 ZEITHAML, Valarle. A., PARASURAMAN, A. and MALHOTRA, Arvlnd. (2002). Service Quality through Web Sites: A Critical Review of extant Knowledge. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 30(4),

83 APPENDICES Appendices 1 Questionnaire (English version) A questionnaire of a research concerning about the customers satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland I am a student from BSc (Hons) Tourism Management in Sheffield Hallam University, and I am currently working on my dissertation in assessing the visitors satisfaction and loyalty of the Hong Kong Disneyland. The questionnaire is designed to collect opinions from visitors from local and overseas who have visited the Hong Kong Disneyland. The information collected will be used only for academic research purposes and all you response will be kept in strictly confidential. Thank you very much for your cooperation. Part 1 Personal information Please tick the appropriate box. 1. Gender: Male Female 2. Age: 18~25 26~35 36~45 46~56 Above Place of residence: Hong Kong Mainland China Other Asia Pacific Europe North America Middle East Australia Africa Others (Please Specify) 74

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