Tourism Service Quality: A Dimension-specific Assessment of SERVQUAL^*

Abstract

In the ever more competitive nature-based tourism market, service providers must maintain every edge to remain competitive. Owing to the customer-oriented service endeavours, tourism enterprises, either private or public, need to improve their service offerings so as to retain or improve their market share. To help service providers identify their strengths and weaknesses, the most widely accepted measurement scale for service quality is the SERVQUAL instrument. One of the criticisms levelled against the SERVQUAL scale is its inappropriateness as a generic measure for all service settings. Empirical research as to the dimensionality of service quality within a professional service environment, in particular, tourism sector, is scant and this study, therefore, is aimed to extend the line of research in service quality measurement. Based on data gathered from 320 tourists, the study brought to light four interpretable service quality dimensions for tourism services: Assurance, Tangibility, Responsiveness and Reliability. The overall quality of tourism services as provided by the Kashmir Valley to its tourists is slightly satisfactory. However, management has to improve upon Reliability and Responsiveness where the SERVQUAL scores were relatively low to improve the overall quality of tourism services.

Tourist Satisfaction in Kashmir: An Empirical Assessment

“…Results have confirmed that out of four tourism service dimensions, Assurance dimension is a significant contributor of overall tourist satisfaction. The present study supports the findings of Bhat (2012) who suggested improvement in Reliability and Responsiveness dimension to improve overall quality of tourism services. Similarly, it is put forwarded that management must pay attention to these two dimensions where the SERVPERF scores are relatively low so as to improve the overall tourist satisfaction and achieve overall tourism competitiveness.…”

Riding High: Quality and Customer Satisfaction in Equestrian Tourism in Iceland

“…The SERVQUAL model has been criticized for not being sufficient to meet service quality measurements needs (see, e.g. in Bhat, 2012). Despite criticism, the model has been widely used and it has been a foundation for development of several measurement tools for service quality in various industries.…”

A Self-Evaluation System of Quality Planning for Tourist Attractions in Taiwan: An Integrated AHP-Delphi Approach from Career Professionals

“…In this dimension, it generally looks at a variety of tourism related services, and their quality standards provided by both public and private owned entities at the tourist attractions. Literature reviewed has indicated broad investigation into different themes of service quality in the tourism industry and they include: tourist satisfaction [88,89], human resources [90,91], destination competitiveness [92,93], organizational and financial performance [94,95], and measurement [96,97]. Accordingly, service quality can be evaluated through two broad sub-dimensions: (1) tourism services; and (2) recreation services.…”