Measuring Tourists Satisfaction

Measuring Tourists Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a critical concept for enterprises to consider. This situation arises because it plays a fundamental role in encouraging a client to repurchase a product or service or develop loyalty to a brand. In the tourism business, measuring customer satisfaction requires stakeholders to examine the overall feelings and attitudes regarding the services that they receive in various tourist establishments (Castro et al., 2017). Therefore, as the president of the San Diego Tourism Authority, I utilize this premise to evaluate the level of satisfaction of tourists visiting the region.

Tourist satisfaction is a variable that continually shifts depending on the perceptions held by a client regarding the alignment of the services offered by a region with their different expectations. Hence, the endeavor to evaluate their satisfaction levels requires the industry to aim to interrogate individual tourists to ascertain whether the service they received matched these expectations. In this regard, I find that the SERVQUAL model would be an adequate satisfaction technique in measuring the level of satisfaction among tourists in San Diego.

The SERVQUAL model is a service quality framework. The model aims to measure the expectations and perceptions of a client regarding the service they receive using five critical dimensions (Al-Ababneh, 2013). They include assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibility. The assurance domain of the SERVQUAL model assesses consumers’ perceptions regarding the knowledge and courtesy of staff when rendering service. As for empathy, it gauges the feeling of clients regarding the individualized attention that the employees accorded them. The reliability domain, on its part, assesses their attitude regarding the ability of the service provided to match their expectations. As for responsiveness, it denotes the rate of service provision while tangibility examines their opinions regarding the physical environment in which the service was rendered.

In applying the SERVQUAL model to evaluate the level of satisfaction among tourists in San Diego, the authority could design questionnaires using the frameworks proposed by the tool to help in interrogating tourists. Mainly, the questions should premise on capturing the perceptions of the tourists on the assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibility of the services they received (Al-Ababneh, 2013). For instance, in gauging assurance, the questionnaire could ask tourists to give their impression on the knowledge and courteousness of the staff they interacted with during their visit to the various tourist attractions in San Diego. The questionnaire could also ask tourists to report their perceptions regarding the pace of the staff in responding to their questions or needs, and if this response made them feel valued. Of notable importance, however, would be capturing their feedback regarding the tangibility and reliability of service.

San Diego is a beautiful region. However, for the authority to know if the tourists also feel the same, they could include questions in the questionnaire that ask the tourists to comment elements such as the connectivity of the road networks, the reliability of the weather, as well as the cleanliness and attractiveness of the beaches. They could also extend these questions to highlight the tourists’ perceptions regarding the appeal of the sites they visited as well as the establishments in which they stayed.

Finally, to assess reliability, the survey could invite tourists to share general information regarding their expectations of the tourism services San Diego and if they felt that the region met or exceeded these expectations. In concluding the survey, the instrument will request them to provide their contact information, which it would utilize to reach them upon their departure for any additional comments. Also, it will give them links to the department’s portal where they could publish their comments regarding their experiences and suggestions for improvement. This situation will enable the authority to gather feedback on what went right or wrong, and the actions they could take to improve future outcomes.

Understandably, the capturing of comprehensive guest feedback would require the authority to allocate ample spaces in each section to enable participants to make detailed comments regarding their expectations and experiences. Also, in encouraging tourists to partake in the survey, the authority could entice them with designed coupons tailored to give discounts on critical products or services in appreciation of their participation. Overall, the survey would be useful in evaluating levels of satisfaction. However, it is crucial to the authority to recognize that the tourists’ responses could tend to be more subjective due to their individual beliefs, preferences,  and values. The notions could also premise from the attitude or impression that the tourists’ form regarding the people they encounter in areas out of the scope of tourist facilities. This endeavor will enable them to recognize that tourists complain seldom emerges due to their satisfaction with a location. Instead, other factors arising from their personality or inter-relations with people within the establishment and out of its scope could also influence these perceptions.

References

Al-Ababneh, M. (2013). Service quality and its impact on tourist satisfaction. Interdisciplinary Journal of contemporary research in business, 4(12), 164-177.

Castro, J. C., Quisimalin, M., de Pablos, C., Gancino, V., & Jerez, J. (2017). Tourism Marketing:

Measuring Tourist Satisfaction. Journal of Service Science and Management, 10(03), 280.