Measuring South Africa destination loyalty levels through recommending and complaining framings

Abstract

The study aims to analyse how framing (recommending versus complaining) affects the measurement of destination loyalty. It focuses on international tourists who visited South Africa, and evaluated loyalty through the two framings. The study tests whether loyalty can be measured by reversing the scale based on complaining, assuming that a lack of complaints is positively related to the recommending framing. The study employs a hybrid fuzzy TOPSIS method and fuzzy clustering to analyse tourist responses. The dataset includes eight items related to key service sectors: accommodation, attractions, food and beverages, and immigration services. A three type fuzzy clustering solution is obtained to classify the respondents based on their likelihood to recommend or complain. The study identifies drivers and barriers influencing loyalty behaviour in two controversial quadrants: those who neither recommend nor complain, and those who recommend while complaining. Key barriers include shopping motivations and travelling with extended family, while drivers include being a postgraduate and travelling with children. The results indicate that framing significantly affects how tourists express their loyalty, finding that different wording leads to varied responses. Framing of loyalty constructs has a crucial impact on results, thereby offering new insights for scholars and practitioners in tourism loyalty measurement.