UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
THE INFLUENCE OF AIRPORT RESTAURANTS’
ATTRIBUTES ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN
LCCT
OSNILINA OTHMAN
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements
for the degree of
Master in Hospitality
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management
January 2012
Candidate’s Declaration
I declare that the work in this applied project was carried out in accordance with the
regulations of Universiti Teknologi MARA. It is original and is the result of my own
work, unless otherwise indicated or acknowledge as referenced work. This topic has not
been submitted to any other academic institution or non-academic institution for any
other degree or qualification.
In the event my applied project be found to violate the conditions mentioned above, I
voluntarily waive the right of conferment of my degree and agree be subjected to the
disciplinary rules and regulations of Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Name of Candidate
:
Osnilina binti Othman
Identity Number
:
2009220418
Programme
:
Master
in
Hospitality
Management
(HM770)
-
Coursework
Faculty
:
Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management
Title of Thesis
:
The Influence of Airport Restaurants’ Attributes on
Customer Satisfaction in Low Cost Carrier Terminal
(LCCT), Malaysia
Date
:
January 2nd, 2012
Signature
:
……………………………….
.
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ABSTRACT
Airport eating outlets’ or restaurant products and services are aligned and tailored to the
need of its own unique market segment. In serving for ever growing numbers of travelers
in an airport setting, the challenges are more intense and focused. The nature of airport
operations and flight traffic requires fast, efficient and reliable dining service forces the
eating outlets to offer attractive and convenient menu choices. Owing to the limited
number of studies on airport eating outlets’ menu attributes, this study intended to focus
on the dining satisfaction of travelers based on menu attributes such as price, offerings,
portion size, waiting time and food quality. This study focus on air travelers who choose
to dine in the airport terminal and Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) in Sepang,
Malaysia was chosen. Eighteen (18) restaurants and eating outlets in all four (4) different
ares in LCCT as the sample of this study and used distribution of questionnaires to gather
the information. The main reason in choosing LCCT was due to the fact that this terminal
mainly handles domestic and Southeast Asian destinations although they also cater for
few other international destinations. The nature of domestic flights and its shorter
distance may raise the issue of necessity to dine in LCCT’s eating outlets. Therefore,
travelers dining at 18 eating outlets of the airport (LCCT) were asked for input. As the
findings of this study, it shown that the quality of food as the most significant attribute
towards customers satisfaction to dine at the eating outlets in LCCT and demographic
profile of the customers that gave significant impact to the customer satisfaction. This
study is hoped to be able to assist the eating outlets operators to understand the needs and
reduce difficulties of travelers to dine in an airport eating outlets especially LCCT.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Alhamdulilah, thanks to Allah the Almighty for the great strength from Him I am able to
accomplish this study even though there are a lot of challengers and hassle that I have to
encounter.
I am heartily thankful to my supervisor, Mr. Mohd Hairi bin Jalis for his encouragement,
time, idea, effort, guidance and being supportive from the initial until the final stage of
my research and helped me in developing understanding of the subject. It was a great
privilege to work under his supervision, professionalism and expertise which led me to be
more focused in sharing thoughts and ideas.
This thesis also would not be possible without help from those parties within LCCT:
1) Ms Sabrina – Public Concourse Customer Service Staff
2) Mr Padzi – Public Concourse Customer Service Supervisor
3) Ms Wan Hazrina –LCCT Public Relation Manager
4) All person in charge of all 10 eating outlets
They are great people in showing warm service and good hospitality for me even though
I am not the customer; they understood my needs to obtain information from those 10
eating outlets within LCCT. Beside that, the superior of each eating outlet in LCCT also
willing to assist me in accumulating the feedback from respondents when I am not around
and gave their full cooperation throughout the process of distributing and approaching
their customers.
Special thank extended to Associate Professor Dr Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari as the
Postgraduate Coordinator, Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management who was kindness
to glance through manuscript of the thesis, giving me insights and comments for this
study as well as kindness and encouragement in completing this thesis.
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I wish to gratefully acknowledge the faculty members of Hotel and Tourism Management
(FHTM), UiTM for their words of encouragement and kind assistance rendered
throughout my study and assisted me in running the pilot test to reduce the bias and flaw
in my set of questionnaire, all the lecturers who have thought me until I am able to
complete this study.
Not forgetting Mr. Aiemullah for his help in getting the approval for my permission letter
and my student, Mohd Aiman Adnan for helped me in distributing the questionnaire with
me at the LCCT. Their efforts in giving the best are highly appreciated.
My heartfelt thank goes to my husband and two lovely daughters for their unwavering
support and encouragement during the many hours I dedicated to achieve this milestone
in my life. And of course, my warmest gratitude is dedicated to my lovely parents, Mak
and Ayah and dearest siblings.
They gave me strength, courage, inspiration, and
unconditional love which influenced my greatest success throughout my pursuit of this
master’s degree. My endless gratitude and love would never be enough. Thank you all
from the bottom of my heart!
Finally thanks to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) who has granted me this chance and
without it I might not able to complete this study.
OSNILINA OTHMAN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
TITLE PAGE
i
AUTHOR’S DECLARATION
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
ix
LIST OF TABLES
ix
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0
Overview
1
1.1
Background of the Study
1
1.2
Problem Statement
3
1.3
Research Objectives
4
1.4
Research Questions
5
1.5
Theoretical Framework
5
1.6
Research Hypotheses
6
1.7
Definitions of Terms
7
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0
Overview
8
2.1
Restaurant Attributes
8
2.1.1
The Development of Low Cost Carrier terminal
10
2.1.2
Customer Satisfaction
13
2.2
Relationship between Restaurant Attributes and Customer Satisfaction
13
2.2.1
13
Food Quality
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2.2.2
Price
14
2.2.3
Waiting Time
15
2.2.4
Menu Offerings
15
2.2.5
Portion Size
16
2.3
Underpinning theory on Customer Satisfaction
16
2.4
Past and relevant Studies
17
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0
Overview
19
3.1
Research Design
19
3.2
Unit of Analysis
19
3.3
Population and sample size
20
3.4
Data Collection Method
24
3.5
Instrumentation Design
26
3.5.1
Question used in Section A of the Questionnaire
29
3.5.2
Question used in Section B of the Questionnaire
31
3.5.3
Question used in Section C of the Questionnaire
31
3.5.4
Question used in Section D of the Questionnaire
32
3.6
Pilot test
33
3.7
Assessment of Internal Reliability
33
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.0
Overview
38
4.1
Introduction
38
4.2
Demographic Profile
39
4.2.1
Gender
40
4.2.2
Age
41
4.2.3
Annual Income
45
4.3
Characteristic of Respondents
46
4.4
Analysis Procedure
49
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4.5
Restaurants attributes and Customer Satisfaction Rating Means and
Standard Deviation
50
CHAPTER FIVE: RECAPTULATION, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTION
FOR FUTURE RESEARCH, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0
Overview
56
5.1
Introduction
56
5.2
Recapitulation of findings
56
5.2.1
Research Question 1
57
5.2.2
Research Question 2
57
5.2.3
Research Question 3
57
5.3
Limitations and Suggestion for Future Research
59
5.4
Implications and recommendations
60
5.5
Conclusions
61
REFERENCES
62
APPENDICES
Appendix A – Sample of Questionnaire
68
Appendix B – Permission Letter
73
Appendix C – Slides of MAHB Financial Statistic
74
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LISTS OF TABLES
Title of Tables
Pages
Table 1
:
The list of food outlets at LCCT, in year 2012
10
Table 2
:
Total population for this study based on daily total number of
22
customers dined at eating outlets in LCCT.
Table 3
:
Suggested Table of Sample Size for a Given Population
23
Table 4
:
The number of respondents for each of the selected samples
26
Table 5
:
Measures of the Study Variables
29
Table 5.1
:
Items used in Section A : Airport restaurant Attributes
30
Table 5.2
:
Items used in Section B : Customer Satisfaction
31
Table 5.3
:
Items used in Section C : Return Intention
31
Table 5.4
:
Items used in Section D : Customers’ Personal Data
32
Table 6
:
Alpha Coefficient of internal reliability for each section of
the questionnaire
35
Table 7
:
The result of Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin of sampling adequacy and
Bartlett test of Sphericity shown by sections of the
instrument
37
Table 8
:
Group Statistics
40
Table 9
:
Independent Sample t-test Result
41
Table 10
:
Mean rank for all group of ages
42
Table 11
:
Test Statistics Output from SPSS
42
Table 12
:
Results of Kruskal Wallis Test
44
Profile of Respondents
46
Table 13
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Table 14
:
Restaurants’ Attributes in LCCT Dimension of Means and
Standard Deviation (n = 112)
52
Table 15
:
Determinant of Return Intention
54
Table 16
:
Tabulate of Return Intention Results
58
LIST OF FIGURES
Title of Figures
Pages
Figure 1
:
Theoretical Framework
5
Figure 2
:
Distribution of Gender
40
Figure 3
:
Distribution of Age
41
Figure 4
:
Distribution of Annual Income
45
Figure 5
:
Tabulation of Return Intention Results
58
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
IV
:
Independent variables
DV
:
Dependant variable
MV
:
Mediating variable
LCCT
:
Low Cost Carrier Terminal
PCA
:
Public Concourse Area
DD
:
Domestic Departure
QSR
:
Quick Service Restaurant
MAHB
:
Malaysia Airport Berhad
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0
Overview
This chapter consists of seven (7) sections. In the first section, this chapter is
discussed about the background of the study. This is followed by the problem
statement and objective of the study. Then it touched on research questions and the
theoretical framework formulated. The benefits from this study are describe in the
significance of study and final section is the list of definitions on all important terms
used to get the clear picture of this research.
1.1
Background of the Study
The word Airport is commonly correlated with huge building and space to
accommodate highly sophisticated giant transport called aero plane where people
come for airways transportation services either inbound and outbound or domestic
and international. Similar to other places, people or more appropriate term is
‘customer’ by their very nature besides expecting good service worth to whatever
they have paid for sure request other amenities and services available within the
airport area for their convenience usage.
Public toilet, waiting seats, luggage trolley, check-in counter and customer service
counter are among popular and high in demand when travelers are around. However,
other than the above mentioned amenities and services, presently food and beverage
has become one of signature and attraction amongst airport customers. This is true as
Manataki and Zografos (2009) have proven in their empirical study on airport
attraction and pull factor investigation that food outlets fall as second importance
attraction to the customers.
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According to Heung, Wong and Qu (2000), customer expectations towards what they
perceived are the most important factor in choosing a restaurant in an airport setting.
Airport restaurant and eating outlets have to meet the stringent expectations of the
travelers that may come from any countries of the world with different tastes,
cultures, preferences and eating beliefs. They concluded that most of the diners at
airport restaurant are travelers who expected to get prompt and quick service and
convenient operating hours. This is owing to the round-the-clock flight arrivals and
departures.
Service provider must meet the expectations of the customer. An organization
building customer retention should enable customer to receive what they want, when
they want it, a perfect each and every time with the desired level of service that
appeal to the customer (Teas, 1993). To meet the higher expectation and demand of
consumers, the producers and traders will need to continuously improve their
efficiency and productivity to provide quality goods at competitive prices (Eight
Malaysia Plan, 2003). Airport restaurant owners that are able to serve their customers
efficiently will be able to build loyalty bond especially for next visit.
For example, currently, Thailand, Singapore and of course Malaysia are the only
Southeast Asia countries have been nominated and awarded as the best Asia
international airport standard for 2 (two) consecutive years in 2009 and 2010. This
recognition is given due to full specification and high quality standard of services
offer including the other convenience services such as variety choices of food outlets
(restaurant). In Malaysia particularly, there are total of fourteen (14) state airports and
two (2) international airports namely KLIA and LCCT located in Klang Valley area.
KLIA and LCCT are the heart and gateway for international inbound and outbound
from all over the world.
The development and rapid growth of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
since its first opening in 1998 in terms of number of travelers and the introduction of
the country’s first low cost airline; Air Asia has initiated the move to build an
extension to it especially to cater for domestic market and international market.
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Low Cost Carrier Terminal Airport (LCCT) in Sepang, Malaysia is the first in its kind
to be build to cater for low cost carrier in the country. The construction was started on
June 2005 and fully operated on 23rd March 2006. At the beginning LCCT was build
to cater passengers of low cost airline, Air Asia but nowadays they except full service
airline such as Malaysia Airline, Singapore Airline, Firefly, Royal Dutch Airline,
China Eastern, Qatar Airways, Korean Air, China Southern Airline, Silk Airways,
Uzbekistan Airways, Etihad, Royal Brunei, Philipine Airline, Tigerairways.com,
American Airline, China Airline, Gulf Air, Cathay Pacific, Egypt Air, Air France,
Delta Airlines, Sri Lankan Airways, Jet Airways, Thai Airways, United Airline,
Fedex, UPS, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airline, Lufthansa, Austrian, Emirates,
Vietnam Airlines and Cebu Pacific . The facilities offered are variety business outlets
beside the airline service itself including food and beverage outlets.
Currently LCCT has eighteen (18) food and beverages outlets in four (4) different
areas; public concourse area, international arrival and departure and domestic
departure. LCCT restaurants and eating outlets are differentiated by the types of food
served. They are fast food restaurants, bar, cafes, kiosk, casual dining and local food
outlets through food court setting.
1.2
Problem Statement
In order to succeed in the restaurant business, operators and owners must be aware of
their standards of food quality offered to their guest. Products and services offered
must be tailored to the need of its market segment. Customers’ satisfactions towards
restaurant offerings are the core of the business. Managing loyal and repeat customers
must start from the food itself. In serving for ever growing numbers of travelers in an
airport setting, the challenges are more intense. The nature of airport operations that
requires fast, efficient and reliable services force the restaurant and eating outlets to
be more proactive to sustain. Travelers’ satisfaction towards the food and services
offered in an airport setting will determine their re-patronizing intentions for the next
visit or flight.
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Based on customer perception toward low cost carrier terminal airport, they expect of
low cost dining expenses, limited choices of food offered by the restaurants and
eating outlets and also expected of inadequate facilities in LCCT. LCCT has been
chosen because of limited number of research based on airport restaurant attributes
that lead to the customers’ satisfaction. For the time being, there is only one research
done based on airport restaurant that emphasized only on service quality and the
setting was at Hong Kong Airport (Heung, Wong and Qu, 2000).
Further empirical investigation helps in identifying the most important factors that
leads to airport customers or travelers satisfaction thus helping the restaurants and
eating outlets to be more competitive. Researchers need to examine what makes the
airport customer satisfied with the restaurant and eating outlets, what attributes are
the most important to travelers and other significant findings. Therefore, this research
will determine the factors leading to customer satisfaction in eating outlet at Low
Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) airport in Sepang, Malaysia.
1.3
Research Objectives
After considering that the purpose of the study is to examine the influences of airport
restaurants’ attributes on customer satisfaction in LCCT, the following objectives
were set out:
1.
To identify the most significant influence of airport restaurants’ attributes
towards customers satisfaction in LCCT;
2.
To examine significant differences based on demographic profile of customer in
association to their dining satisfaction in LCCTs’ restaurants; and
3.
To determine customer satisfactions in LCCT restaurant’s attributes
significantly influences the intention to return patronage
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1.4
Research Questions
To better support the research objectives, the following questions were formulated:
1.
What airport restaurants’ attributes have significant influence among
customers satisfaction in LCCT?
2.
To what extend do airport restaurants’ attributes scores differ based on diners’
demographic profile and information?
3.
Is there any significant influence the customer satisfactions in LCCT
restaurant’s attributes and their intention to return patronage?
1.5
Theoretical Framework
IV
MV
DV
Customer
Satisfaction
(Yuksel &
Yuksel,2002)
Return Intention
(Yen Nee Ng,2001)
Airport Restaurants’
Attributes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Price;
Menu offerings;
Portion size;
Waiting time and
Food quality
(Kivela, (2000),
Steven,Knutson &
Patton, (1995),
Soriano (2002) and
Clark and Wood,
(2002)
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework of the study
Figure 1 is showing the variables used for this study started with the five (5)
restaurants attributes as the independent variables which are consists of Price, Menu
Offerings, Portion Size, Waiting Time and Food Quality. Return Intention as the
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Dependent variable while the Customer Satisfaction as the mediating variable for this
study. Further elaborations of each variable are clearly discuss in Chapter Two.
1.6
Research Hypotheses
Based on the considerations and the study variables earlier mentioned, the following
proposed hypotheses are formulated. The development and formulation of the
hypotheses were based on earlier mentioned objectives and study framework above:
H1:
Airport restaurants’ attributes significantly influence customer
satisfactions in LCCT.
H1a: The price of food and beverages offered significantly influence
customer satisfactions in LCCT.
H1b: Menu offerings significantly influence customer satisfactions in
LCCT.
H1c:
Portion size of meal served significantly influence customer
satisfactions in LCCT.
H1d: Waiting time significantly influence customer satisfactions in
LCCT.
H1e:
Food quality significantly influences customer satisfactions in
LCCT.
H2:
Customer satisfactions in LCCT significantly differ based on their
demographic profiles.
H3:
Customer satisfactions in LCCT restaurant significantly influences the
intention to return patronage
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1.7
Definition of Terms
Customer Satisfaction: The level of feeling by the customer or user towards service
that they felt matches their expectation (Yuksel & Yuksel, 2002).
Restaurant: The most convenience place where people having their meal, beverages
or just having light refreshment.
Airport: A place where aircraft land and take off; which has buildings and facilities
for passengers (Collins, 2005).
Low Cost Carrier Terminal: The Low Cost Carrier Terminal or LCCT is an airport
built and designed for the Low Cost Airlines with limited and moderate services.
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CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.0
Overview
This chapter consists of four (4) sections. Restaurant attributes are clearly discussed
at the beginning of the chapter. Further it also discusses on two (2) other crucial
aspects in this study which are the nature of LCCT and the customer satisfaction
perspective. In the second section, it emphasized on the relationship between
restaurants’ attributes and customer satisfaction. The underpinning theories and past
relevant studies are discussed in the last two (2) sections of this chapter.
2.1
Restaurant Attributes
Numerous studies had shown that food quality, atmosphere, service quality and price
and value has a favorable effect on dining satisfaction level, as it has been related to
increase sale, revenue and customer loyalty (Kivela, Reece and Inbakaran, 1999).
However, according to Lee (2004), dining environment, price, nutrition information
and employee competency are considered the most influential factors in determining
satisfaction level.
Yuksel and Yuksel (2001) mentioned that food plays a key part by no means but is
the only part that satisfying the customer. Previous studied reported that restaurant
services were a blend of tangible and intangible components. The service encounter is
and individually experience process where production and consumption take place at
the same time. There is concept called “moments of truth” can defined as the “time
and place” and “the where and when”. The service provider has the opportunity to
show to the customers the quality of its service. Therefore what happens in these
interactions will obviously have significant impact on customer satisfaction within
service organization.
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In addition to assess customer satisfaction in foodservice industry, it is also essential
to find out which restaurant or dining attributes are most important to customers. It’s
generally accepted that multi-attributes scale is appropriate for use in measuring
customer satisfaction in restaurant (Steven, Knutson and Patton, 1995: Kivela, Reece,
Inbakaran, 1999; Qu, 1997). A study by Dube, Renaghan and Miller (1994) used
attributes importance of various upscale restaurants; attribute to determine repeat
purchase intentions. From the perspective of author, they theorized that customer
satisfaction in restaurant is a function of multiple elements in dining experience.
They found out that all the elements studied such as atmosphere, helpful server,
attentive server, menu variety, waiting time, consistent food and tasty food had a
significant influence to diners’ intent to return to the restaurant. However the
elements had different importance scored that varied based on patrons’ type of dining
occasions. Pleasure diners were less sensitive to the dining time but cared about menu
variety, while business diners’ were sensitive of menu variety but cared about waiting
time like the guest who dines at airport restaurant. However, attentive food, attentive
service, atmosphere were ranked with high importance whether the patron were
dining for business or leisure occasion.
Matilla (2001) study indicated that the top three reasons the respondent gave for
patronizing their target restaurant were food quality, service and atmosphere.
Furthermore, value for money and convenient location were also important
motivation to the respondent. According to a study by Pettijohn, Pettijohn and Luke
(1997) as cited by McLlroy (2000), they determined which restaurant attributes were
most importance, followed by cleanliness and value. Menu variety and store
atmosphere were ranked at least important. These findings were significant because
they helped fast food restaurant manager use their resources to make improvements
on the store elements considered most influential in determining customer
satisfaction. As service quality continues to be major service quality and research its
effectiveness.
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2.1.1
Development of Low Cost Carrier Terminal
LCCT is the first low cost carrier terminal airport that was built in Sepang, Selangor,
Malaysia. It was built in June 2005 and fully operational date was on 23rd March
2006. It managed by Malaysia Airport Holding Berhad, capable to handle 10 million
passengers a year and planning to increase the number up to 15 million in the near
future. Existed of Air Asia flight with low fare rate success to cater number of
passengers who love to fly with low budget and increasing demand on the flight
service at LCCT.
This RM108 million worth terminal is completed with infrastructure such as parking
space, surface access, curbside road, car parks, wash rooms, retail outlets, prayer
room, foreign exchange counter, payphones, auto teller machines, car rental service,
taxi service and the most crucial part for this study are those eighteen (18) eating
outlets located either at the concourse area, departure and arrival area for both
domestic and international flights and it was built on 35,290 square feet size of
terminal.
This terminal is also designed and built to suit the low cost carrier business model that
requires only basic terminal amenities. In order to offer lower landing fees, handling
fees and airport taxes, it cuts back on amenities such as aerobridges, rail connectivity,
elaborate physical structures and decorations in the passenger terminal building.
There is no transfer facility to the main terminal. Passengers who need to make
transfers need to clear immigration, collect their luggage, clear customs, make their
way to the main terminal and re-check in with the respective airline.(Sources: www.
Klia.com.my)
However, the current Low Cost Carrier Terminal is a temporary solution for the
increasing demand of no-frills airline passengers. Therefore, Malaysia Airports
Holding Berhad has incorporated the plans to build a new permanent LCC terminal
which can accommodate 30 million passengers per year. In the mean time, the airport
operator decided to expand the current terminal to keep up with the increasing
demand. The new arrival hall was first open on 15 December 2008. This airport was
the first airport to have separation between normal carriers and low cost carrier. The
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terminal is due to be replaced by the new low cost carriers terminal, KLIA2 when the
terminal comes online on April 2013.
With an increasing number of passengers using the 'Low Cost Carrier Terminal
'(LCCT), MAHB approved an expansion beginning early 2007 to accommodate more
passengers as the current LCCT is nearly at full capacity. The expansion of LCCT
also shows the support for launch of Malaysia's first long haul low cost carrier,
AirAsia X by making the terminal able to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft that are
used by AirAsia X. However, the Low Cost Carrier Terminal is a temporary solution
for budget travellers, MAHB submitted a proposal to the Transport Ministry to build a
new, permanent LCC hub in between the main terminal building and satellite building
A to replace the present Low Cost Carrier terminal.
The airport operator has announced that the construction works for the extension of
LCCT will begin in March 2008 and expected to complete by December 2008. The
capacity for the LCCT will increase from 10 million passengers a year to 15 million
passengers a year. A proposal for a more permanent building to house a new LCCT
has been submitted and expected to have a capacity for 30 million passengers a year.
It is also expected that the new LCCT will be completed by April 2012. It is expected
that the current LCCT will be converted in to a cargo hub once the new terminal is
completed. The RM124 million LCCT expansion project tender was won by Fajarbaru
Builder Group Bhd and construction work is expected to begin March 2008. The new
international arrival hall was opened on 15 December 2008 with expectation that the
rest of the wing will be fully operational by March 2009. The international departure
hall was finally open on 18 March 2009 which expanded the handling capacity from
600 passengers at one time to 3200 passengers.
In the prior stage to do this study, the researcher found out there are only fourteen
(14) restaurants and eating outlets operated in LCCT compound and nowadays the
number increased to eighteen (18) restaurants and eating outlets included in all four
(4) area: Public Concourse Area, Domestic Departure, International Departure and
International Arrival. Tabulation of restaurants and eating outlets in LCCT with the
seating capacity shown below:
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No.
Name of Food Outlet
Seating Capacity
Type/Category
1.
1) Starbucks Coffee
35
Bistro/ Café
2.
2) Old Town White Coffee
52
Bistro/ Café
3.
3) The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
42
Bistro/ Café
4.
4) Theobroma Chocolate Lounge
30
Bistro/ Café
5.
5) Asia Kitchen
48
Casual Dining
6.
6) Mc Donald’s
78
QSR
7.
7) Kentucky Fried Chicken
60
QSR
8.
8) Food Garden at LCCT
124
Food Court
9.
9) Café Espresso
32
Bistro/Café
10.
10) Marrybrown
40
QSR
11.
11) Champion Sports Bar
20
Bistro / Café
12.
12) Buy & Fly Kiosk
-
Kiosk
13.
13) Dunkin Donuts Kiosk - PCA
-
Kiosk
14.
14) Lagenda café
45
Coffee House
15.
15) Boost Juice Bar
28
Café
16.
16) Prima Café
56
Coffee House
17.
17) Snack Attack
-
Kiosk
18.
18) Dunkin Donuts Kiosk - DD
-
Kiosk
Table 1: The list of food outlets at LCCT, in year 2012
As shown in Table 1 the tabulation of the restaurants and eating outlets in LCCT with
the seating capacity and the type of restaurants.
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2.1.2
Customer Satisfaction
Yuksel and Yuksel (2002) study about tourist satisfaction with restaurant service
found that customer satisfaction is the most important topic for both researchers and
managers. It is because the high level of customer satisfaction will lead to an increase
in repeat customers. Being able to judge customers’ level satisfaction and to apply
that knowledge is critical thinking point for ascertaining and maintaining long term
customer retention and competitiveness. Morever Yuksel and Yuksel (2002)
mentioned that the majority of satisfaction theory state that satisfaction is relative
concept, always judged in relation to standard.
According to Oh and Jeong (1996), even though the notable progress in customer
satisfaction research has been made and there is significant demand for research from
the industry, customer satisfaction has remain seriously under research in the
hospitality industry. Furthermore studies applying customer satisfaction model are
rarely found in the foodservice industry. Thus, in developing the hospitality customer
satisfaction research, more tests and applications of the customer satisfaction model
seem appropriate.
From the slides presented pertaining to the Statistic of financial report presented by
Board of MAHB Managers, slides 19 to 21 (Refer Appendix 3) shown that Food and
Beverage rental outlets contributed higher in number of revenue to MAHB for third
quarter of the year 2011 compared to the previous quarter of the year 2011.
2.2
Relationship between Restaurant Attributes and Customer Satisfaction
2.2.1
Food Quality
Some studies have found that customer satisfaction with a restaurant food quality is a
powerful predictor of customer intent to return to a given restaurant (Oh & Jeong,
1996; Qu, 1997; Pettijohn Pettijohn and Luke, 1997). Qu, 1997 in his study found out
that food quality was the most important dimension in determining satisfaction. This
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element is significantly more important than any other dimension such as cleanliness,
value, price and convenience, which ranked from second to fifth.
Soriano (2002) study mentioned that quality of food and fresh ingredients were the
reason why the customers return to the restaurant. Soriano also found that quality of
food was the most significance than any other attributes. This result is consistent with
the traditional concept that quality of food still the most important reason for the most
general population of the restaurant. Clark and Wood (1996) in their study were asked
respondent to choose five of the factors that lead to their satisfaction and they chosen
food, quality of food, price of food, atmosphere and speed of service. In service
setting such as hotel and restaurant, the atmosphere in which the services take places
may be crucial in determining customers’ perception and satisfaction with the service
encounter (Bitner, 1992). Soriano (2002), mentioned that the important of
comfortable atmosphere will continue to increase with time. Therefore, the most
important thing is design and concept.
Customer satisfaction is often used as indicator of whether customer will return to a
restaurant. Numerous factors can be identified as the reason as to why there are
satisfied and come back. Among all possible determinants, studies have found that
food quality is rated as the most powerful variables which lead to customer
satisfaction in restaurant. For that reason, it is not surprise to see most of restaurant
performance exceeded the following customer expectation including the feeling of
comfort when eating there and cleanliness, freshness of food, temperature of food,
taste and appearance of food served are beyond expectation of customers (Kivela et
al., 2000).
2.2.2
Price
In restaurant setting, service quality has been found to be important in determining
customer satisfaction and return intention as well (Steven, Knutson & Patton, 1995).
Qu (1997) in his study at Chinese Restaurant found that the service a courtesy
dimension was second only to the food environment dimension in determining
customer probability of returning to a given restaurant. The majority of customers
tend to visit restaurant not only because of the food, quality service and pleasant
service environment, but also because they feel the price they are paying represent
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