Identifying and Measuring Customer Delight in the Hospitality Industry

The aim of this study is to identify customer delight by developing a research model and measurement scale in the hospitality industry that includes cognitive and emotional factors. The main analysis to support the research uses a confirmatory factor analysis, while collected data represent 186 tourism experiences in hotels and restaurants. The model describes a way to appraise memorable experiences by customers and the positive significance of emotions based on their needs. The authors argue that managing designed experiences and considering a customer's service ideal from the factors in the proposed model could be the basis for achieving customer delight in the hospitality industry.