How to mitigate the effects the negative events in transport sector on tourism destination

Many companies operating in the transport sector strive to keep their customers loyal over time (Chaudhuri and Holbrook, 2001). However, events that can lead the consumer to choose other companies can happen. Examining the literature (Zarantonello et al., 2016), there are three types of events and situations (negative events): i) episodes of consumer dissatisfaction related to the product or services provided; ii) associations that consumers form with respect to the brand and its users; iii) business actions and practices that are not accepted by consumers. When one of these negative events (or all of them) occur during the trip, satisfaction, service quality, value, and likelihood to return decreases with a negative impact on brand loyalty (Chen, 2008). This has negative consequences for the transport company and, indirectly, for the tourist destination (Virkar et al., 2018). The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of negative events on Brand loyalty. It is also hypothesized that these events can affect on the consumer’s personality characteristic, activated during the brand choice phase, such as Choice difficulty, leading him to select the well- known brand (increasing Brand loyalty). Finally, consumers who have a particular propensity to purchase consumer products of different brands (Brand switchers), lead to accentuate these effects.