Loyalty of travel agencies customers during the COVID-19 pandemic

The main aim of the article is to identify the directions of changes in the purchase decision-making process by purchasers of package holidays offers under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on their loyalty. The authors requested answers to the following research questions: 1. What changes have occurred in the process of making decisions regarding the purchase of package holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic? 2. Are package travel buyers loyal to travel agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic? For the purpose of achieving the research objective and obtaining answers to research questions, a literature search was conducted, as well as field research. In the case of secondary sources, the method of content analysis was used to study them, while data from primary sources (N = 1508), collected using the indirect survey technique (CAWI), was analysed using descriptive statistics methods, selected loyalty measurement methods, i.e. the Net Promoter Score and the TRI*M index, as well as methods of multidimensional statistical analysis (cluster analysis). The conducted research confirmed that in the face of the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, the behaviour of travel agency customers changed significantly, particularly in terms of reducing the frequency of trips and limiting them to domestic trips. In addition, although during the pandemic buyers of tourist events showed loyalty to travel agencies, the results indicate that there is still a possibility to strengthen the position of the both in the area of loyalty and satisfaction of buyers of their offers. Customers on the travel agency market in Poland can be characterized as loyal, but moderately satisfied.

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