1. Introduction
The diversity of products and services available to consumers poses some challenges when choosing. There are situations where satisfaction falls short of expectations [
1]. The increasing intensity and competitiveness that affect the service sector represent a challenge for companies to orient themselves toward the customer and deliver a quality service of superior value [
2].
Companies are adopting the co-creation process with customers to adequately meet customer needs and achieve high satisfaction levels through unforgettable experiences. This is the case in the tourism sector, where customer interaction is highly needed to provide a distinct and valuable experience. A superior value proposition is a source of competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, loyalty, and positive influence on recommendations and intention to revisit [
3,
4,
5,
6].
Value creation can arise through co-creation. In the tourism sector, the application of this concept, through interaction between the provider and the customer, can trigger unique or personalized experiences, leading to higher satisfaction levels. Service providers aim to achieve this as one of their main objectives as reputation and profitability are directly linked [
7]. When there is a co-creation process with the customer, it is expected to meet their needs and provide memorable experiences, leading to positive recommendations and an increased intention to revisit. However, in the tourism sector, it has been challenging to understand the motivations of consumers that lead to revisits. In this sense, this study seeks to understand how customer co-creation in the tourism sector influences the intention to revisit.
The service economy has been experiencing overwhelming competitive growth, and the pursuit of delivering superior value has become essential for companies [
8]. Therefore, the success of companies relies on perceiving consumer needs and generating and promoting customer satisfaction and loyalty [
9,
10]. This assertion assumes even greater relevance in the studied sector because the tourism sector is characterized by high competitiveness and the need for greater involvement between the company and the customer. This customer orientation in tourism services arises mainly from the difficulty of achieving customer satisfaction; thus, companies are seeking new forms of long-term relationships [
11].
Customer orientation plays a crucial role in the high competitiveness of the economy and the hotel sector. The goal is to maintain a long-term relationship with the customer, known as customer loyalty. To generate revenue and profits, one of the managers’ most important tasks is ensuring and maintaining customer loyalty [
12].
Value creation and its perception can also arise through interaction between the company and the customer through a co-creation process, where, for example, the customer can design and adapt a service to their needs, creating high levels of satisfaction. Several studies have demonstrated that perceived value is a precursor to customer satisfaction [
13]. Thus, the perception of value resulting in satisfaction creates a greater propensity for repeat service consumption.
The hotel sector is one of the services that requires greater involvement, with the consumer experience being one of its strongest pillars. Therefore, companies must take measures to allow customers to have positive experiences. In this regard, co-creation will positively impact customers as allowing them to share their needs will be crucial for providing a service tailored to their requirements [
14,
15]. Like all the concepts mentioned earlier, this concept does not proceed differently and will impact the intention to revisit, even if it may be indirect.
The intention to revisit is one of the most essential concepts for service managers. With the availability of various service offerings, it sometimes becomes challenging to maintain a long-term relationship with the customer. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the strategic attitudes that should be adopted to encourage customers to reuse a service. Several authors relate the concepts to the intention to revisit, but there needs to be a perception of what leads to this behavior on the part of consumers. In other words, these concepts may only interfere as a moderating effect rather than a direct one as in the hotel service, the customer seeks a new experience and something of added value; if there is no novelty in the service, their intention to revisit is likely to be lower [
16].
Initially, it can be concluded that all the concepts mentioned earlier have an impact on the intention to revisit, as well as co-creation being the focal point for the entire process of customer orientation, which, in turn, generates loyalty and has a positive role in experiences, satisfaction, and perceived value. However, it is impossible to conclude whether there is a direct relationship with the intention to repurchase the service [
13]. Measuring the most impactful underlying variables is imperative for the intention to revisit. Co-creation processes observed in the tourism sector, due to their multicultural dimension, have specific characteristics. Therefore, it is also necessary to understand what is valued according to individual needs in order to meet them [
17]. In conclusion, the aim is to investigate the influence of co-creation with customers in services, particularly in the tourism sector, to understand what leads consumers to revisit a tourism service.
5. Discussion
The main objective of this research is to understand the impact of customer co-creation in the tourism sector and to comprehend what drives a customer’s intention to revisit a particular service.
To achieve this, factors such as customer orientation, loyalty, customer participation, and emotional elements such as experiences have been analyzed to gauge their influence and interaction with the consumer’s revisitation intention. These findings will enable businesses to adopt strategies that enhance consumers’ desire to return for the service.
The structural model estimation results analysis concludes that all hypotheses, except for H6 and H7, have been confirmed (see
Table 6).
The empirical study confirms the significance of co-creation as a factor intertwined with all the variables under investigation. Regarding revisitation intention, this is directly influenced only by one variable, loyalty, while the others may exert an indirect effect, which nonetheless contributes to the revisitation intention of a service.
The concepts of customer orientation and loyalty, emphasized in the literature review, had their connection substantiated, specifically through the significant results of research hypothesis H1. As already established in the literature review, when a company places the customer first, it prioritizes all its activities around the customer to fulfill their needs [
29]. Therefore, customer orientation can be recognized as an effort to satisfy the customer [
101]. In other words, if there is an effort to satisfy the customer’s needs, it follows that customer orientation fosters an identification with the company and creates customer loyalty. The findings of this study indicate a positive influence of customer orientation on customer loyalty in the tourism sector. Consequently, a long-term relationship with the hotel is expected to develop, potentially leading to revisits to a service that has been experienced before [
22].
The first hypothesis measured the relationship between customer orientation and loyalty. Research hypothesis H2 explores the impact of customer participation on customer orientation. The literature suggests that greater customer participation leads to more information exchange, enabling a better understanding of their needs and subsequently adapting offerings with higher value. This study concluded that customer participation significantly contributes to the hotel’s customer orientation. In other words, customer participation implies the company has a customer orientation. This research verifies that greater customer participation leads to more customer orientation. The previous research hypothesis shows that if customer participation influences customer orientation, the higher the orientation, the greater the customer loyalty toward the company. These results are consistent with the findings of Yang et al. [
11], who concluded that customer participation positively influences customer orientation and, consequently, long-term relationships.
It was found that there is a positive relationship between customer participation, customer orientation, and customer loyalty. This leads to research hypothesis H3, which aims to understand if there is a direct influence between loyalty and revisitation intention. Satisfaction and loyalty are associated with positive recommendations and appropriate word-of-mouth (WOM) usage, which, in turn, are linked to customers’ revisitation intentions [
74,
75,
76]. Conversely, some authors have suggested that loyalty may not necessarily translate to revisitation intention but could be an extension of satisfaction with the service [
79,
80,
81]. Revisitation intention is often more closely tied to experiences. The investigation of this study concluded that there is a positive relationship between loyalty and revisitation intention, indicating that “loyal” customers are more inclined to use the service again. However, this inclination is often associated with novelty or convenience in the context of hotel services. For example, revisitation intention might be driven by the need for a convenient stay, where loyalty becomes a vital and sufficient factor in using the service [
86].
Customer experience and memorable experiences are highly interrelated concepts, as previously suggested by the reviewed literature, with several authors having established their influence [
64]. In research hypothesis H4, we seek to understand if the customer’s experience with the service influences the creation of memorable experiences. Though the experiential process is complex and often prolonged, experiences can become less favorable. Satisfaction is directly tied to experience as a customer can be satisfied with the service, yet the experience might be less memorable. Companies aim to create memorable experiences as these have a much more significant impact on customer interaction and relationships. However, achieving this requires working on the overall service experience as the perception of a unique and memorable experience can be formed only afterward.
Following the previously studied and analyzed hypothesis, research hypothesis H5 emerges to examine the relationship between customer participation and their experience. Customer participation allows them to perceive the value of the service better, thus gaining a deeper understanding of how it should be consumed along with its attributes, ultimately leading to a superior experience. The present study confirms the positive relationship between customer participation and their experience. This is because involving the customer in the service is crucial for understanding their needs and adapting the service, ultimately resulting in a heightened experience [
102]. Prahalad and Ramaswamy [
32] argue that experiences often depend on the level of customer involvement in the co-creation process. In other words, the more engaged the participation process, the greater their satisfaction with the service experience.
Experiences and their memorability are often associated with revisitation intention in the tourism service industry due to their highly involved nature [
86]. Research hypothesis H6 aims to confirm those above. However, the previous assertion needed to be substantiated in this study. In other words, no evidence supports a direct impact between revisitation intention and experiences. This is because, according to the literature, in tourism services, what attracts consumers the most is the experience.
Nonetheless, for those who have already experienced a specific service, revisitation intention is proportional to the level of novelty in that service [
85]. This suggests that more than customer experience and memorable experiences alone are needed for revisitation intention, at least not directly and not in this sector, which demands high involvement and significant value-added services. Customers are always seeking new experiences.
Throughout this analysis, the significance of co-creation (customer participation) in tourism services has been discerned. Research hypothesis H7 was proposed to measure this assertion. Various authors, such as Prebensen et al. [
49], mention that co-creation plays a crucial role in the intention of revisiting a service. However, the results of this investigation did not confirm this. In other words, no evidence supports a direct impact between co-creation and revisitation intention.
On the other hand, as discussed in the analysis of other variables, revisitation intention in tourism services is complex due to factors like novelty in existing services. One possible reason for these results is that the co-creation process with customers might need to be more efficient, and companies might need to address customer needs or encourage their participation effectively. In low-level co-creation processes, the perceived value is lower than the customer’s intention to revisit [
86]. As mentioned in the development of the structural model, only items related to customer participation in the consumed service were selected. Items related to the variable taste and propensity for co-creation (GPPC) were removed due to a lack of support for the study. However, when measuring the impact on respondents who demonstrated GPPC, they intended to revisit something other than the consumed service.
In contrast, respondents without GPPC had revisitation intention. This could suggest that customers without GPPC, when motivated for co-creation, perceive the actual value of the service and their involvement in the service creation process, leading to the desire to revisit the service. However, there is no basis to substantiate this possibility so it was not considered.
After analyzing the research hypotheses, they confirmed what the literature indicated. However, there is no evidence confirming hypotheses H6 and H7. Nonetheless, several authors in their studies have highlighted experience and co-creation as critical factors in revisitation intention for a service. However, one must consider the highly involved nature of the sector under scrutiny. Studies have warned that these factors might not be sufficient with a well-defined and aligned strategy. Factors like service novelty and customer interaction are crucial for the expected revisitation of the same service [
86].
The study reveals that co-creation has a highly significant effect on all the variables under analysis. In other words, customer participation in the service creation process leads to companies exhibiting a higher level of customer orientation, which influences customer loyalty to achieve higher levels. Customer participation positively influences the customer experience and the experience gained by the customer with the service impacts the creation of memorable experiences. Therefore, co-creation is a pivotal process in the strategy of any hotel company, and all the variables studied should be aligned and worked on together to increase consumer revisitation attention.
6. Conclusions
In a global and highly competitive sector such as the hotel industry, the price factor ceases to be pivotal and often takes a back seat [
13]. Competitiveness revolves around value proposition, customer co-creation, and experience. González-Mansilla et al. [
13] further suggest that hotels must evolve from mere places to sleep into providers of differentiated accommodation experiences. Therefore, customer orientation becomes crucial to achieve this as only through customer participation can suitable and exceptional experiences surpass customers’ expectations and needs.
Given the dynamics mentioned above, long-term relationships (loyalty) have become crucial for survival and competition in the hotel industry. Loyalty is an essential factor in the intention to revisit a tourism service. Co-creation can play a significant role in shaping loyalty; it can be a vital tool in promoting customer loyalty and increasing the perceived value of services [
13]. Many authors argue that co-creation has a positive effect on revisitation intention. This study highlighted that customer participation does influence the customer’s inclination, but not directly. In other words, customer participation positively influences customer orientation, which, in turn, affects loyalty and memorable experiences. This demonstrates that customer participation indirectly affects revisitation intention.
The research hypotheses of this study aimed to understand, in a co-creation context, (i) whether service providers exhibit a level of customer orientation, (ii) whether customer participation impacts experience, and (iii) whether co-creation directly or indirectly affects revisitation intention.
This study aimed to bridge the gap in academic research on the subject, particularly in the analyzed market. As such, the research initially involved a review of the existing literature on all the mentioned concepts. Subsequently, it moved to the empirical phase, where the proposed hypotheses were tested. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey based on the adaptation of previously validated scales.
The study has demonstrated strong evidence that a customer-oriented strategy positively influences the revisitation intention. This conclusion further elucidates what has been discussed throughout this investigation: customer participation (co-creation) is pivotal for consumers to value companies that prove to be relevant and authentic. Customer participation (co-creation) plays a fundamental role in crucial variables such as emotional sentiments, service experience, memorable experiences, loyalty, and customer orientation. Consequently, it can be affirmed that service providers in the tourism industry, especially in hospitality services, should consider customer participation to be a critical component of their strategy. Even though this process may not directly impact revisitation intention, it has a highly relevant influence on all other variables contributing to superior customer satisfaction and perceived value. This, in turn, indirectly affects revisitation intention.
Furthermore, as previously reviewed in the literature, the study found that experiences influence revisitation intention [
56,
57], but not directly. In other words, if the novelty factor in the service is absent, revisitation intention has a negative effect. In the tourism sector, novelty is a relevant factor in revisitation behavior.
The study confirmed that loyalty is a factor that drives revisitation behavior. It is also evident that all the other variables under study positively affect revisitation intention. Thus, a positive experience, memorable experiences, and customer participation alone are insufficient to drive customers to repeat a service. However, these concepts positively and indirectly influence the attitude of consuming the service again. Only when all these factors are aligned can consumer interest in revisiting the service arise.
This research contributes to theory in two aspects. First, it provides a quantitative study regarding co-creation and revisitation intention that had yet to be applied to mainland Portugal and its islands. Second, the study addresses gaps identified in the literature by seeking to confirm whether co-creation and experiences are pivotal variables for revisitation intention, as many authors have suggested they are critical pillars for such behavior. While it was not confirmed that they are the only variables, this study has opened a new avenue for theory to explore the connection between GPPC (taste and propensity for co-creation) and revisitation intention.
Regarding management, this study contributes by providing knowledge and guidance to companies, particularly in the tourism sector. However, the conclusions may be applicable across sectors that are not overly specific and immersive, like the tourism sector. Therefore, companies can incorporate the findings into their strategies, offering insights into customer relationship management, fostering long-term relationships, encouraging customers to share their needs and suggestions for superior value services, and increasing the likelihood of repeat consumption. Novelty is crucial for revisiting a location, even if a memorable experience has been had. Thus, co-creation is a vital process underpinning all of the concepts the study addresses.
In alignment with the conclusions, these findings support the significance of customer co-creation as it brings the service closer to the customer, fostering loyalty and making them less sensitive to competing tourism service offerings. This is because companies gain a deeper understanding of customers’ needs and expectations [
27].
However, the comprehensive analysis presented in this study has some limitations, which will now be enumerated along with suggestions for future research.
Firstly, a limitation is using a convenience sample due to the limited time frame imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample is not intended to be representative but reflects accurate data collected during the pandemic. Future studies could include a more representative sample. It would be interesting to examine the impact in other geographical locations given that the questionnaire was only applied in mainland Portugal and its islands. Additionally, distinguishing between the mainland and the islands would be worthwhile considering that the Madeira and Azores islands have a significant representation of the tourism sector in their regional GDP compared to the mainland and the tourist profile differs between the islands and the mainland. Furthermore, a more representative and equitable sample of age and gender is needed as this study had a significant percentage of female participants and a younger age group. The multicultural aspect of the sample is limited and exploring more multicultural perspectives would be valuable, particularly in understanding differences among various regions. Also, the time of year when individuals stayed in hotels can also influence the relationship between co-creation and the intention to revisit as it can also modify the visitor’s profile, which can also lead to an impact on the level of service participation, for instance. In future research, this variable may be included as a control variable.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the data collection had to be entirely shifted to an online method, where the service consumption might have occurred over a certain period, potentially introducing some deviations in the results. The initial objective was to conduct in-person distribution of surveys in hotels after the service consumption to obtain more accurate responses. Since this was not possible, it remains a suggestion for possible future research.
It would be interesting to study the impact of taste and propensity for co-creation on the intention to revisit. Additionally, exploring the factors that drive individuals who have never co-created or shown interest in co-creation to want to use the service again would be valuable. Given that the literature consistently highlights a positive link between co-creation and intention to revisit, assessing whether the intention to revisit carries more weight according to the taste level and propensity for co-creation would be essential.
Another suggestion is to apply this study to other sectors with varying levels of customer involvement, both high and low, to understand whether concepts such as loyalty, orientation, experiences, and customer participation are primary drivers for service revisits and how they behave in different contexts.
As observed in this study, customer experiences and memorable experiences alone are insufficient to drive intention to revisit, particularly in the case of hotel services where customers seek novelty. Thus, it would be interesting to introduce the variable of new experiences and examine its impact on the intention to revisit.
Finally, a qualitative methodology approach could prove advantageous as it would validate and identify the most important key aspects to investigate within the main concepts for subsequent quantitative evaluation. This type of analysis could offer significant contributions to management as it would enable assessing and identifying the most relevant factors for the intention to revisit a service [
40].