The Relationship Between Trust, Value and Loyalty in the Internet Era: A Study in the Tourism Market

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the relationships between trust, perceivedvalue and loyalty in tourist services. As the e-commerce has beenincreasing, it's important to evaluate if trust in front line employeesand trust in management policies and practices are central determinantsof loyalty. From the standpoint of the consumer, the Internet is a toolfor decision making and used to establish comparisons to help theirbuying decision. The literature review sought to contextualize commerce,trust, perceived value and loyalty in tourism, services marketing andrelationship marketing. We conducted a quantitative and descriptiveresearch, with 201 valid interviews, through an electronic survey. Thecollected data was analyzed using the Partial Least Squares method,allowing working with a small sample size. As results, we concluded thattrust in frontline employees influences positively perceived value andloyalty, management policies and practices drive directly only perceivedvalue, and perceived value influences loyalty.