The symphony of service: How consumers evaluate multi-stakeholder travel contexts

This study examines how traveler motivations shape evaluations of two core actors in the air-travel journey, airports and airlines, and consumer review cue diagnosticity, using a mixed-methods analysis of online reviews. We first use text mining to identify the service attributes most salient in passenger narratives and then test whether traveler segments exhibit distinct multivariate profiles across service-quality dimensions and global evaluation outcomes. Drawing on a heuristic-processing perspective, we argue that travelers rely on different diagnostic cues depending on their goals (efficiency, comfort, predictability), and we use SERVQUAL dimensions as an organizing taxonomy to compare evaluation patterns across service contexts. Results indicate that segment differences are statistically reliable but concentrated in specific dimensions and contrasts, with several attributes showing limited variation across segments. These findings clarify which service cues become most diagnostic for different traveler types and provide actionable priorities for airports and airlines seeking to improve passenger experience in a multi-actor journey context.