The path from customer experience to customer citizenship: new adventure is a touristic railway journey

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, the author aimed to measure the effect of customer loyalty on customer citizenship behavior as well as the effect of experience value perceptions of tourist railway journey customers on customer loyalty within the scope of social exchange theory.

Design/methodology/approach

The author obtained data from 126 participants who had experienced the tourist railway adventure through random sampling. In the next stage, the author extracted the data obtained with the bootstrapping sample technique to 5,000 samples. The author analyzed these obtained data with the PLS-SEM model with the Smart PLS 3 software.

Findings

The results of the research show that the most important experience value dimension that creates loyalty in the touristic railway journey is the emotional value dimension; the second important dimension is the hedonic value dimension and other experience value dimensions did not have any effect on customer loyalty intention levels. In addition, an important result of the study is that loyal customers mostly intend to advise other customers, and relatively less of them intend to give feedback to the firm.

Research limitations/implications

The fact that the concepts of touristic railway journeys are different due to the nature of tourism is an important limitation of the study, which is only for individuals who have experienced the Touristic Eastern Express. The fact that the Touristic Eastern Express is a long journey and stops at many destinations on its arrival and departure route can affect customers' perceptions of the experience value.

Practical implications

The values that create customer loyalty in the touristic railway journey are mostly emotional and hedonic values. In addition, customers who are loyal as a result of this journey are more intent on advising other customers than giving feedback to the firm.

Originality/value

The study was carried out on the customers of the touristic eastern express, which started its activities in 2019. Ensuring customer loyalty for the sustainability of this trend has significant tourism potential; Afterwards, the transformation of customer loyalty into customer citizenship has a very important place. In addition, as far as we have examined the literature, the absence of similar studies in the tourism sector is an indicator of the study's originality. Considering these data, it is expected that the study will fill an important gap in terms of both sectoral and academic.

Citation

Samsa, Ç. (2023), "The path from customer experience to customer citizenship: new adventure is a touristic railway journey", The TQM Journal, Vol. 35 No. 7, pp. 2092-2109. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-07-2022-0238