The impact of tourism service quality on destination loyalty in Uganda’s tourism sector:

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing the effect of tourism service quality on destination loyalty in Source of the Nile hotel, Jinja. The study was guided by three objectives: to examine the effect of tangible services on destination loyalty, to establish the effect of responsiveness on destination loyalty and to determine the effect of service reliability on destination loyalty of Source of the Nile hotel, Jinja. The study was anchored on Expectation disconfirmation theory. The study targeted 80 respondents (international, local tourists and employees) from the Source of the Nile hotel; Jinja and a sample size of 70 respondents were chosen to participate in the study using the help of Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table of sample size determination. The study adopted a cross sectional research design. A structured closed-ended questionnaire was used to collect data. Validity and reliability analysis were tested using both expert judgment and Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient to determine the content validity and internal consistency of the research instruments respectively. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlations, and later presented using tables and figures. The findings confirmed that tangible services, responsiveness and service reliability have positive significant effect on destination loyalty. The study therefore concluded that tourism service quality is a pre-requisite for enhanced destination loyalty of hotel industry. The study recommended that service quality should be strengthened by providing up to-date equipment, ensuring high quality meals, maintain quality accommodation among others as this will increase revisits, recommending to others amongst the tourists. The study suggested that future researchers should conduct a comparison study by covering hotels in Uganda since this study was limited to Source of the Nile hotel, Jinja which is found in Jinja city.