Title: Assessing the effect of marketing mix on tourists' satisfaction: insights from Bangladesh

Authors: Afzal Hossain; Shahedul Hasan; Md Yusuf Hossein Khan; Md. Humayun Kabir Chowdhury

Addresses: Department of Marketing, Faculty of Business Studies, Comilla University, Cumilla-3506, Bangladesh ' Access Academy, East Delta University, Chattogram, Bangladesh ' College of Tourism and Hospitality Management, International University of Business Agriculture and Technology, Dhaka, 1230, Bangladesh; University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal ' Department of Marketing, Jagannath University, Dhaka, 1100, Bangladesh

Abstract: The tourism industry has grown to be a significant contributor to a country's economic growth. Therefore, the core intent of this study was to assess the effect of the marketing mix on tourists' satisfaction in the contexts of Bangladesh. PLS-SEM method implied that tourists' satisfaction was significantly and positively influenced by four factors, i.e., product, price, process, and physical evidence. The hypothetical result highlights that destination marketers or policymakers can implement into their marketing strategy and take into consideration the factors of tourists' satisfaction which has been proposed in this study to make Bangladesh a 'Hotspot' destinations whilst providing quality tourists experience. Tourism, being a service industry 'quality of service' does matter, and whilst marketing mix plays an imperative role in providing quality services. For policymakers and stakeholders in Bangladesh, this study provides insights on the impact of marketing mix aspects on eminence tourists' experience.

Keywords: destinations; marketing mix (7P's); tourists' satisfaction; structural equation modelling; partial least square structural equation modelling; PLS-SEM; Bangladesh.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOM.2024.136798

International Journal of Services and Operations Management, 2024 Vol.47 No.1, pp.47 - 73

Received: 26 Jul 2021
Accepted: 16 Sep 2021
Published online: 22 Feb 2024 *

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