THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE QUALITY AND BRAND EQUITY ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY OF 5 STAR HOTELS IN YUNNAN PROVINCE OF CHINA

Abstract

From 2007 to 2017, tourism in Yunnan province from 91.30 million tourists from home and abroad, and increased to 580.33 million person-times, tourism revenue increased from 58.98 billion yuan to 692.22 billion yuan (Tourism Bureau of Yunnan Province, 2017). Yunnan tourism work conference in 2017, commission proposed tourism development in Yunnan province, Yunnan tourism revenue break through 600 billion yuan this year, at the same time, will intensify the building of high-end hotels and brand introduced as one of the key work of this year.  The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of service quality, brand equity and customer satisfaction on customer loyalty in 5 star hotels in Yunnan Province of China. The mixed methods called as sequential explanatory design was used in this study, it includes quantitative method (designed to collect numbers) and qualitative method (designed to collect words). A total of 796 questionnaires were collected from five stars hotels’ customers in Yunnan province of China and statistical analyzed with SEM techniques by SmartPls 3.0. The results of study demonstrates that service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; brand equity has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty; customer satisfaction has positive effects on customer loyalty. Meanwhile, service quality and brand equity directly and indirectly effect customer loyalty through mediators customer satisfaction.