Host-Guest Interaction : Analysing Perceived Service Quality, Satisfaction, Residents Support and Tourists Behaviour

Understanding the quality of tourist experiences in the context of host-guest interaction is essential for tourism development, as it helps to better position the brand of destinations by engaging both visitors and residents. This could be achieved by measuring their satisfaction and perceived service quality. In this context, the current study aimed to analyse how tourists perceive residents’ engagement and attitudes toward tourism in their destination and how this affects tourists’ satisfaction, their intention to recommend the destination to others and their likelihood to act as brand ambassadors of the destination (both online and offline). To this end, a survey was carried out with 609 tourists in two destinations in Portugal (Lisbon) and Italy (Olbia, Sardinia). The collected data was subjected to Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Findings support the research hypotheses and contribute to a better understanding of tourists' perceptions of service quality, resident support and their brand ambassadorship behavior in two cross cultural European destinations. Several implications are discussed from the research findings and directions for future research are presented