Track: Modeling and Simulation

Abstract

Studies about service recovery in the tourism industry have become prevalent as tourism is highly exposed to service failures. The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented situation that required massive service recovery efforts by the travel and tourism industry. This study aims to look into the influence of the justice variables of service recovery, namely distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice, on customer satisfaction, brand image, and customer loyalty of online travel agencies (OTAs), as the current fast-growing sector of tourism, during the COVID-19 pandemic. 180 respondents were gathered, consisting of OTA’s Indonesian customers who have experienced service failures due to the pandemic and thus have to request a refund, reschedule or cancel their travel plans. For data analysis, the PLS-SEM method was used. The findings showed that all justice variables had a significant and positive influence on customer satisfaction. Only procedural justice exerted a significant influence on customer loyalty, and none of the justice variables had an influence on brand image. Customer satisfaction did not have a significant influence on customer loyalty, yet it positively affected brand image. The brand image was also found to influence customer loyalty. Therefore, it is essential for OTA (s) business practitioners to pay attention to service recovery efforts during the pandemic as it can lead to long-term business success that will be beneficial in post-pandemic situations

Keywords

Service Recovery, Justice Theory, Online Travel Agencies, OTA, and Pandemic.