Relational Adaptation and Social Capital as Determinants of Customer Satisfaction Among Tour Operators After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Tour operators in Bangkok lost almost all of their trade during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet one outcome of crisis management held while every other collapsed. This study compared the level of customer satisfaction with the other outcomes of crisis management, analysed the relationship between relational adaptation, social capital and customer satisfaction, and compared the influence of social capital that firms build for themselves with social capital supplied by external institutions. Questionnaire data were collected from 279 licensed tour operators in Bangkok, drawn from a population of 1,124, and analysed using descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Customer satisfaction was the only outcome rated at the highest level (Mean = 4.37), with 79.9 per cent of firms scoring 4.00 or above, whereas on service continuity, stakeholder collaboration, risk reduction, business flexibility and supply-chain recovery not a single firm reached 4.00. Firms that made booking and refund conditions fully flexible reported significantly higher satisfaction than those that did not (4.45 against 3.79, F = 39.89, p < .001). Regression explained 28.4 per cent of the variance in satisfaction, with information sharing among stakeholders, flexible booking and refund terms, cooperation with supply-chain partners and sustained customer communication all significant. Support from government agencies and professional associations recorded the lowest mean in the instrument and was unrelated to satisfaction. The social capital firms build for themselves proved usable in the crisis; institutional social capital did not.