From beans to bonds

: motivations, loyalty, and product purchases in coffee ecotourism

Abstract

In recent decades, ecotourism on coffee farms in Costa Rica has experienced increasing demand. Motivation and loyalty are the cornerstones of studies focussing on ecotourism, and this research seeks to delve deeper into these concepts throughout the three phases of the coffee farm visit: namely the pre-experience, the active experience and the post-experience. Thus, 30 travellers who have participated in this type of ecotourism experiences at the coffee farm of Café Monteverde in Costa Rica were the subject of this study. The findings of the interviews were analysed using Leximancer 5.0 software and then integrated into a map showing the customer journey. The results indicate that the pre-experience phase has little impact on the purchase of coffee products, since travellers look for experiences rather than products when they visit coffee farms. The active experience phase, with its sensorially appealing tour, tastings and shop assortment, has the greatest influence on customer loyalty. However, the results reveal that the post-experience phase presents the greatest challenges in terms of customer loyalty when it comes to coffee product purchases. The main barriers include missing consideration of the farm as an online coffee supplier, uncertainty about shipping and difficulties related to repeat purchase options. This study contributes to the literature by adding loyalty to the customer journey map in the post-trip period related to coffee farm ecotourism.

Date of Award	29 Jan 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Helena Rodrigues (Supervisor)