Attitudes of Kazakhstani consumers towards experiential hospitality and tourism services

Abstract

Object: This paper aims to addresses new transformations in customer experience concept form a hospitality perspective. In particular, it studies the attitudes and perceptions of consumers towards the implementation of new experiential offerings in hotel and restaurant sectors on an example of Kazakhstan.Methods: This research adopts the quantitative research methods with a survey data collection technique. The initial data have been collected by a self administered questionnaire with five point Likert scales and fixed-choice questions to measure attitudes of consumers. This quantitative empirical study applied a probability sampling method and involved random distribution technique. The total sample size was 300 respondents.Findings: Findings indicate that local consumers have a positive attitude toward new service concepts and experiential hospitality offerings such as “soap/fragrance butler”, “futuristic hotels” and “interactive menu”. However, Kazakhstani consumers prefer direct live communications with service personnel more than interactions with robots and demonstrate relatively negative attitude towards service automation.Conclusions: The research shows that local hospitality and tourism market is ready for service innovations. Designing customer-oriented experiences can be an integral part of competitive strategies of hospitality companies and helps to find unique ways to attract modern customer segments.