Disentangling customer delight: a needs-based analysis of senior tourists in hotels

Abstract

ABSTRACT In today’s competitive environment, customer delight plays a crucial role in enhancing customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth. This paper provides a needs-based analysis of customer delight in hotels among senior tourists, who represent an increasingly important target for the hospitality industry. A total of 38 senior tourists were interviewed. Data were collected utilizing the critical incident technique and analysed through text mining analysis. Four main dimensions of customer delight emerged from the study that represent the fulfilment of different needs: learning, authenticity, exclusivity, and sharing. These findings theoretically contribute to the understanding of guest delight from a senior tourist’s perspective and can help hotel managers to design delightful customer experiences.