Quality in Hospitality and Tourism Services

The aim of this presentation is to review academic research on service quality and customer satisfaction that has been successfully integrated into the practice in hospitality and tourism operations and to identify the areas that warrant further research in the future.

Today’s travel and tourism industry environment is more complex, volatile, and competitive than ever before. Shifts in the world’s demographics and tourists’ psychographics, the changing tourism economy and travelers’ tourism consumption patterns create both new challenges and opportunities to the world’s tourism industry. Growing complexity in the management infrastructure of the tourism industry, is evidenced by the fact that travel and hospitality service providers establish various forms of strategic alliances and pursue non-conventional strategies that are aimed at increasing their fair market shares.

A notable change occurring in the tourism industry is the consumer’s growing orientation towards an emphasis and demand for `quality of experience.’ More than ever before, operators in the tourism industry recognize that it is the `high quality service experience’ that makes a tourist patronise a particular establishment in the tourism business. Consequently, the industry is becoming more competitive in the `race for a higher level of service.’ As one industry executive has put it forcefully;

`The race for service has no finish line. As the race progresses, the finish line moves further away. Those who do not run fast enough will fall behind.’