TTLA: The influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa.

1. Full name of doctoral candidate: Phi Hai Long 2. Gender: Male
3. Date of birth: June 29, 1987 4. Place of birth: Khanh Hoa
5. Decision to recognize doctoral students: Decision No. 4416/2019/QD-XHNV dated November 26, 2019, of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
6. Changes to the training process (if any):
7. Thesis title: The influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa.
8. Major: Tourism. 9. Code: 981010.01
10. Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Hong Long
11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

• Purpose and scope of the thesis

- Research objectives: To develop a theoretical framework for service space in resort environments; to analyze the impact of service space on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts, and thereby propose management functions to enhance the competitiveness of resorts in Khanh Hoa.
- Research subject: The influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists.

• Research methods used

- Systematic overview: identifying the theoretical foundations that serve as the basis for constructing research hypotheses.
ButThe focus group discussion method (Group 1 consists of 5 experts and 5 tourism business managers, Group 2 consists of 10 tourists): aimed at developing a preliminary questionnaire.
- Survey method using questionnaires (target group: tourists): testing the measurement model and the structural model.

• Key results, new contributions, and conclusions

- Firstly, the service space has a direct positive influence on the perceived value of tourists, encompassing four components: the surrounding environment, the aesthetics of the facility, signage and symbols, and cleanliness.
Secondly, perceived value has a direct impact on tourist satisfaction and loyalty.
- Thirdly, satisfaction has a direct impact on tourist loyalty.
Fourth, perceived value acts as a mediating variable in the relationship between service space and tourist satisfaction.
- Fifth, satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived value and tourist loyalty.

New contributions

- Firstly, the research has contributed to the development of Bitner's (1992) theoretical basis for service space, thereby identifying the constituent components of service space and building an official scale for measuring service space in resort environments.
Secondly, the study analyzed the influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists. The service space factor comprises four different components that directly impact perceived value, and perceived value directly impacts both satisfaction and loyalty of tourists. Regarding their mediating roles: firstly, perceived value acts as a mediator in the relationship between service space and tourist satisfaction; secondly, satisfaction partially mediates the relationship between perceived value and tourist loyalty. Currently, to the author's knowledge, there are very few studies that test the relationship between all four of these factors.
- Thirdly, the study examined differences in tourist loyalty related to demographic characteristics (gender, age, occupation, frequency, education level, income, marital status, nationality). Through T-test and ANOVA, the study concluded that there are differences in loyalty among tourist groups with different frequencies of stay.

Fourthly,The research findings help resort managers in Khanh Hoa understand the relationship between service space and perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists. Simultaneously, these results help them identify which components and aspects of the service space need improvement to enhance perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. Furthermore, the study provides specific management implications to improve the competitiveness of resorts in Khanh Hoa.

Conclude

Overall, to maximize guest satisfaction and loyalty, resorts need to invest in improving their service spaces, thereby increasing perceived value and leading to maximum guest satisfaction and loyalty.
12. Directions for further research:
- Firstly, the study focuses solely on the resort business sector, neglecting other services. Each service has distinct characteristics; therefore, the study's findings cannot be generalized to the service industry as a whole. The author suggests that future research could contribute to the generalizability of the findings by exploring diverse service sectors and comparing results across different service types.
Secondly, the study was only conducted in Khanh Hoa province, which again limits its generalizability and overall representativeness; because each geographical area, topography, and cultural context will have different ways of designing and arranging resort service spaces. Therefore, conducting research on resort service spaces in different cultural contexts and geographical areas with diverse topography is a novel and attractive research topic for the future. From there, the research results will have a higher degree of generalizability and representativeness.
- Thirdly, the thesis data was collected in the post-COVID-19 period, a particularly sensitive time when tourists still harbored concerns about the pandemic. This could lead to significant differences in demographic characteristics and perceived values ​​among tourists compared to the pre-pandemic period. Therefore, to ensure greater generalizability of the research results, future studies should be conducted during periods when social activities are returning to normal.
13. Publications related to the dissertation:

1. Phi Hai Long, Pham Hong Long, Pham Thi Bich Thuy (2022), “The relationship between Servicescape, perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa”, The 3rd International Conference on Human-centered Artificial Intelligence, IS-VNU, pp 314-328.

2. Phi Hai Long (2022), “The relationship between servicescape, perceived value, satisfaction of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa”, International Conference: Innovation And Development Of Tourism, University of Khanh Hoa, pp 523-536.

3. Phi Hai Long (2022), “The mediating role of perceived value in the relationship between service space and customer satisfaction: the case of resorts in Khanh Hoa”, Tourism Magazine, No. 11, pp. 50-52.

4. Phi Hai Long (2022), “Research framework on the influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction and customer loyalty at resorts”, Khanh Hoa University Journal of Science, No. 2, pp. 74-81.

INFORMATION ON DOCTORAL THESIS

1. Full name: Phi Hai Long

2. Sex: Male

3. Date of birth: June 29, 1987

4. Place of birth: Khanh Hoa

5. Amission decision number 4416/2019/QD-XHNV dated November 26, 2019 by University of Social Sciences & Humanities, Vietnam National University, Ha Noi.

6. Changes in academic process

7. Official thesis title: Effect of servicescape on perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa

8. Major: Tourism

9. Code: 981010.01

10. Supervisors: Assoc. Prof. Pham Hong Long

11. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

The main results:
Firstly, servicescape influences customer perceived value, including ambient conditions, facility aesthetics, sign and symbol, and cleanliness.
Secondly, perceived value highly affects customer satisfaction and loyalty
Thirdly, customer satisfaction highly affects customer loyalty.
Fourthly, customer perceived value is a mediating variable between servicescape and customer satisfaction.
Fifthly, customer satisfaction was a mediating variable between customer perceived value and customer loyalty.
The new findings:
Firstly, the research has contributed to the development of the theoretical basis of the servicescape of Bitner (1992), thereby identifying the components that make up the servicescape element, and building a formal scale of servicescape in a resort environment.
Secondly, the study tested the impact relationship between 4 factors: servicescape, perceived value, customer satisfaction and loyalty. In particular, the servicescape factor is tested based on different components affecting the perceived value, satisfaction and loyalty of visitors. Currently, to the author's knowledge, there are very few studies testing the relationship of all four factors.
Thirdly, the study tested the differences in tourist loyalty related to demographic characteristics (gender, age, occupation, frequency, education level, income, marriage, nationality) ). Through the T-test and ANOVA, the study concludes whether there is a difference in loyalty for different demographic groups of tourists.
Finally, this study has applied modern research methods, combining qualitative and quantitative research methods with advanced data analysis support tools to demonstrate the research results. reliability. guarantee. Thus, the research results will encourage researchers to be more interested in using modern tools to develop research related to the service space.
Conclusions:
In general, to maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty, resorts need to invest in improving servicescape.

12. Further research directions

Even though the present study provides several contributions to tourism and service marketing literature, some limitations still exist. This study only concentrates on investigating the resort without covering other services. Each service has different characteristics; Only investigating a resort setting could lead to difficulties in generalizing the findings to the service industry. It is suggested that future research can contribute to the generalizability of conclusions by exploring diverse service contexts and comparing results across service types. Additionally, applying interviews and survey methods at resorts in Khanh Hoa also results in a specific market pattern, again limiting the representativeness, generalizability and applicability of results. The design characteristics of resorts vary in different cultural contexts. As such, it could be an interesting research topic to carry out a cross-cultural study, extending the research resort to other geographical locations.

13. Thesis-related publications

1. Phi Hai Long, Pham Hong Long, Pham Thi Bich Thuy (2022), “The relationship between Servicescape, perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa”, The 3rd International Conference on Human-centered Artificial Intelligence, IS-VNU, pp 314-328.

2. Phi Hai Long (2022), “The relationship between servicescape, perceived value, satisfaction of tourists at resorts in Khanh Hoa”, International Conference: Innovation And Development Of Tourism, University of Khanh Hoa, pp 523-536.

3. Phi Hai Long (2022), “The mediating role of perceived value in the relationship between service space and customer satisfaction: the case of resorts in Khanh Hoa”, Tourism Magazine (11), pp. 50-52.

4. Phi Hai Long (2022), “Research framework on the influence of service space on perceived value, satisfaction and customer loyalty at resorts”, Khanh Hoa University Journal of Science ( 2 ), pp 74-81.