Tourism Service Quality: A Dimension

Specific Assessment of SERVQUAL

Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat,

Professor, Department of Commerce,
University of Kashmir, Srinagar, 190006.
E-mail: mb@kashmiruniversity.ac.in
NEED FOR THE STUDY

1. Forces:
 Deregulation
 Competition

2
 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

• To make dimension-specific assessment of the

SERVQUAL instrument in tourism sector.
• To study quality of Tourism services in Kashmir
Valley.

3
 The Sample (320)
No. of
Demographic Characteristics Respondents %age
20-30 Years 137 42.8
31-40 Years 131 40.9
Age
41-50 Years 39 12.2
Above 51 Years 13 4.1
Male 194 60.6
Gender
Female 126 39.4
Up to secondary level 73 22.8
Level of education Graduation 162 50.6
Post-graduation 85 26.6
Up to Rs: 15,000 82 25.6
Level of Income 16,000-30,000 91 28.4
(per month) 31,000-45,000 112 35.0
Above 46,000 35 10.9
Indian 230 71.8
Nationality
Foreigner 90 28.1
Business 13 4.1
Pilgrimage 31 9.7
Purpose of visit Sport 21 6.6
Leisure/holiday 234 73.1
Visiting friends/relatives 21 6.6
Table 1: Service Quality Dimensions: Factor Analysis Results and Reliability Coefficients

Q. No. Factor 1 Factor 2 Factor 3 Factor 4

Assurance
23 Employees are credible and courteous with tourists. .712
24 Experienced and competent tour and hotel escorts. .644
17 Willingness to help tourists and advice on how to use free .582
time. .561
21
The behaviour of employees’ reinforces tourists’ confidence .553
22
Tourists are being served by appropriate personnel. .518
25
Fluent and understandable communication with tourists.
Tangibles
4
Destinations are visually aesthetically attractive. .739
1
Modern and technologically relevant vehicles. .681
5
Overall cleanliness of the destination. .648
3
Unspoiled nature. .576
2
Appealing accommodation facilities. .561
6
Personal safety and security. .561
8
Physical appearance of tour and hotel escorts (tidiness etc.) .429
9
High-quality meals. .423
Responsiveness
18 Provision of information on local events/ entertainment .623
16 The staff responds to tourists’ requests quickly. .577
26 Cultivation of friendly relationship with tourists. .474
19 Sincere interest in problem-solving of tourist’s. .451
20 Sponsors act on participant’s suggestions .405
Table 1: Service Quality Dimensions: Factor Analysis Results and Reliability Coefficients

12 Reliability
Insisting on error-free service. .720
10 .699
11 Performing the service/s at the promised time.
Performing the service/s right the first time. .647
13 .569
14 Meeting the tour schedule.
No sudden increase in tour cost. .482

Eigenvalues 8.963 1.698 1.539 1.280

Percentage of Total Variance 32.012 7.494 6.926 6.001
Cumulative Percentage of Variance 32.012 39.506 46.432 52.430
Cronbach’s Alpha 0.799 0.812 0.768 0.729
Number of Items Per Factor 06 08 05 05

* Significance at 1% level

KMO and Bartlett’s Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy 0.875
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (Approx. Chi-Square) 3533.010*
Cronbach’s Alpha 0.895
 Tourism SERVQUAL Scores Averaged on all Dimensions

Mean Score
Service Quality Dimension
Expectation Perception Service Quality

Assurance 4.45 4.20 -0.25

Tangibility 4.40 4.20 -0.20

Responsiveness 4.30 4.00 -0.30

Reliability 4.25 3.76 -0.49

Over-all Service Quality 4.35 4.04 -0.31

 Mean Scores
Assurance
E P SQ
Employees are credible and courteous with tourists. 4.36 4.39 0.03

Experienced and competent tour and hotel escorts. 4.42 4.35 -0.07

Willingness to help tourists and advice on how to use 4.65 3.99 -0.66
free time.

The behaviour of employees’ reinforces tourists’ 4.55 4.42 -0.13

confidence

Tourists are being served by appropriate personnel. 4.38 4.35 -0.03

Fluent and understandable communication with 4.39 3.75 -0.64

tourists.

Total 4.45 4.20 -0.25

Tangibility E P SQ
Destinations are visually aesthetically attractive. 4.55 4.77 0.22

Modern and technologically relevant vehicles. 4.18 3.95 -0.23

Overall cleanliness of the destination. 4.73 4.48 -0.25

Unspoiled nature. 4.35 4.50 0.15

Appealing accommodation facilities. 4.49 4.58 0.09

Personal safety and security. 4.19 3.98 -0.21

Physical appearance of tour and hotel escorts 4.36 3.44 -0.92

(tidiness etc.)
High-quality meals. 4.40 3.95 -0.45

Total 4.40 4.20 -0.20

Responsiveness E P SQ
Provision of information on local events/ 4.09 3.20 -0.89
entertainment

The staff responds to tourists’ requests quickly. 4.62 3.95 -0.67

Cultivation of friendly relationship with tourists. 4.34 4.60 0.26

Sincere interest in problem-solving of tourist’s. 4.27 4.38 0.11

Sponsors act on participant’s suggestions 4.22 3.90 -0.32

Total 4.30 4.00 -0.30

Reliability E P SQ
Insisting on error-free service. 4.19 3.90 -0.29

Performing the service/s at the promised time. 4.22 3.32 -0.90

Performing the service/s right the first time. 4.20 4.11 -0.09

Meeting the tour schedule. 4.36 3.40 -0.96

No sudden increase in tour cost. 4.29 4.10 -0.19

Total 4.25 3.76 -0.49

Conclusion
• Present study has re-grounded gap theory and service quality
construct for the tourism sector.
• A modified SERVQUAL instrument was empirically tested in the
study and brought to light four interpretable service quality
dimensions for tourism services as: Assurance, Tangibility,
Responsiveness and, Reliability.
• That result, which is due to various differences in the
environmental settings of this study, makes sense in light of
Babakus and Boller’s (1992) suggestion that the dimensions of
the model might vary depending on the type of service sector
under investigation. In this study, different service context
would be the main reason that four dimensions were found in
the Study.
 Conclusion (Contd…)
• Present study is in line with Crompton, et. al., (1991) who
stated that the context of different service industries should be
considered in future studies, as SERVQUAL is not “one size fits
all.”
• The major limitation of the present study, however, is that
different characteristics of the places where the survey takes
place may influence an analysis of service quality and,
therefore, the information derived from local data has to be
used with great care for any future research.
Conclusion (Contd…)
• The over-all quality of tourism services as provided by
Kashmir Valley to its tourists is marginally satisfactory (Table
3). Low SERVQUAL score (-0.31) clearly shows that tourism
services fall slightly below the expectations of tourists.
Specifically, management must take care of Reliability and
Responsiveness (dimensions of tourism services) where the
SERVQUAL scores were relatively low to improve the over-all
quality of tourism services.