Title: The concept and measurement of service quality in the hotel sector: the case of Split, Croatia

Authors: Mario Pepur, Smiljana Pivcevic

Addresses: Faculty of Economics, University of Split, Matice Hrvatske 31, 21000, Split, Croatia. ' Faculty of Economics, University of Split, Matice Hrvatske 31, 21000, Split, Croatia

Abstract: Tourism, the fastest growing industry, is characterised by an ever increasing competition. It makes it ever harder for tourism service providers to acquire customers, keep them satisfied and thus, gain their loyalty. Therefore, the quality of services provided becomes a necessary element of successful business in tourism. This article will investigate the concept and the measurement of quality of tourism services. It will present results of research conducted with the purpose of determining the guests| perception of the quality of hotel services in the City of Split. The map |importance-performance| will be used for two purposes. It will reveal which of the five elementary dimensions of quality are important for hotel guests and secondly, demonstrate the usefulness and relative simplicity of this model for measurement of services quality in the tourism sector. The results will not only reveal how the hotel guests perceive the quality of services provided but also which dimensions of quality they find more or less important. The research may be of importance for all providers of hotel services. It offers them an instrument which can help them reveal the |black spots| in their business.

Keywords: service quality; quality of service; QoS; hotels; SERQUAL; importance-performance grid; guest perceptions; Croatia; leisure; tourism; consumer loyalty; customer satisfaction; performance measurement; hotel services.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2009.021990

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2009 Vol.1 No.1, pp.44 - 57

Published online: 15 Dec 2008 *

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