An empirical study of customer satisfaction for online travel agencies in India

Abstract

he Indian travel market has been growing has been growing and attracting business, leisure, newlinemedical and other travelers. It is estimated that the Indian travel market will be the size of newlineUS$40 billion by 2020. Tourism has tremendous potential in India owing to a multi-cultural newlineenvironment, rich historical heritage, and a variety of climate, terrain and natural beauty. The newlinegovernment of India is actively encouraging and marketing Indian tourism as it views tourism newlinea major employment generator as well as a significant earner of foreign currency. The everincreasing smartphone, internet and digital payments penetration along with government newlineefforts to boost tourism, a rising middle class, and an increasing disposable income has newlineensured that online travel agencies in India are going to enjoy a high growth period. The only newlineway to sustain their business in this highly competitive yet low-margin environment is to newlineacquire and retain customers by improving customer satisfaction. The focus of the study is to newlineunderstand the antecedents and consequences of customer satisfaction for online travel newlineagencies in India. In this high growth and competitive environment, it becomes critical for the newlineonline travel agencies to understand the factors which affect customer satisfaction so that newlineresources may be deployed correctly to strengthen processes which impact the customers newlinemost. As this is the first research which focuses on customer satisfaction for the online travel newlineagencies in India, the researcher hopes that the finding will help the existing online travel newlineagencies and future entrants to have an in-depth understanding of customer satisfaction in newlinetheir domain which will help to improve their business operations and investment focus, newlinewhich in turn will lead to greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. newline