For businesses operating in the globalizing world, expanding their market share through
new products and hence increasing their reach to wider groups requires great eff -
orts. Many new businesses in all sectors penetrate into the markets and this has an inevitable
impact on competition to increase their market share (Porter, 1990; Ritchie &
Crouch, 2003). In addition, an increasing cost of advertising and promotion hampers
the eff ective and competent promotion eff orts for many businesses. In comparison to
other businesses, motivating consumer groups for becoming loyal requires more eff ort
and thereby the cost is high in tourism services. Th erefore, as it has been in other sectors,
the level of services off ered in tourism and hospitality to maintain customer loyalty
have also gained much importance both by the members of the academia carrying
out empirical studies and those ruling power in the industry over the last two decades
or so.