Tourist Satisfaction Index for Tourism Destination, Integrating Social Media Engagement into the European Customer Satisfaction Index: A Conceptual Paper

Abstract

The rapid development and adoption of social media technology has revolutionized the tourism business environment. Engagement through social media for mutual interactions practised by both customers and the businesses is substantially evident in destination tourism. The existing debate on the impact of social media engagement on consumer behaviour is inconclusive with mixed findings, thereby suggesting the need for further research. This paper integrates tourist engagement through social media into the European consumer satisfaction index to propose a destination tourist satisfaction index that can examine the tourist satisfaction and loyalty intention towards tourism destinations. The implication of this paper is to assist tourism marketers by providing a robust and comprehensive spectrum to examine tourist satisfaction and loyalty behaviour.