Satisfaction, loyalty and profile of Chaves thermal Spa customers
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The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES to UNIAG (UIDB/04752/2020) and CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020): Also, this work is a result of the projects “AquaValor – Centro de Valorização e Transferência de Tecnologia da Água” (NORTE-01-0246-FEDER-000053) and project “GreenHealth-Digital strategies in biological assets to improve well-being and promote green health” (Norte-01-0145-FEDER-000042), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Thermalism has increasingly been an option for tourists to the detriment of ‘sun and beach’ tourism, due to the growing importance given to customers’ physical and mental well-being; in addition, thermalism has contributed to mitigate regional imbalances and asymmetries. Chaves thermal spa is one of the essential elements for the economy of the northeast region of Portugal, as well as a strategic agent for regional development. The main goal of this study was to outline the profile of the customers who visit Chaves thermal spa, as well as analyse their satisfaction and loyalty to this spa. To that end, a quantitative research was performed using the primary data collection method by applying a questionnaire. An exploratory descriptive analysis was used for characterising the customers, and inferential analysis for the validation of the research hypotheses, by means of parametric tests, whenever possible. The main results obtained from the descriptive analysis indicated that the customers who visited Chaves thermal spa had an average age of 58 years, coming from the northern region. They had visited this space mainly for therapeutic reasons in the summer months, and for an average time of 12 days. In addition, it was found that customers who visited this spa were globally satisfied, expressing the conviction that they would revisit and recommend the thermal spa. In addition, there was a weak relationship between global loyalty (recommending and revisiting the place) and the degree of satisfaction.
