The Impact of Customers' Expectations on the Cross-cultural Marketing in the Hotel Hospitality Industry: A Comparative Study of the UK and India

Abstract

This research utilised research findings to critically evaluate how cross-cultural marketing influences and impacts customers’ expectations and service quality in the hotel hospitality industry, through a comparative study of the UK and Indian hotels’ industries. Cross-cultural marketing in the hotel hospitality industry is still a developing aspect of hotel management, especially in the modern global culturally diverse community. In accordance with successful strategies in cultural diversity marketing and for business growth, hoteliers need to learn, analyze and understand the expectations of customers from different cultural backgrounds. Therefore, there is a need to understand and develop a framework accounting for the work of monocultural and multicultural hotel teams in India and the UK that is oriented to customers’ satisfaction and provide appropriate recommendations for practice. The research employed both deductive and inductive research approaches. The mix methods design of this study was implemented through qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods. The data collection process used involved online surveys filled in by 136 customers in the UK and India, surveys (structured questionnaires), and face-to-face interviews have been completed with 10 managers/employees in the UK and 23 in India. The contribution this research makes is the culturally sensitive framework for informing cross-cultural strategy. Research findings reveal differing expectations of customers from different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds as measured by five elements of the SERVQUAL scale, which was further analysed in the framework of the five CVSCALE dimensions. The findings were related to hoteliers to help them to develop culturally diverse and human-oriented cross-cultural departments in the hotels. Customers-oriented services intensified by the technological innovations determine the zone of impact of the Cross-Cultural Marketing Model. Developed marketing strategies are based on the higher satisfaction level of customers in Indian hotels and better technological equipment in the hospitality industry of the UK. The main recommendations for hoteliers’ concerns learning about diverse customers’ expectations, the SERVQUAL’s constituents upgrade, and overall information about the hotels with culturally marked services provision.