Khóa luận tốt nghiệp tiếng anh: A Study on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Hanoi’s tourism

TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENT iii LIST OF FIGURE v LIST OF TABLE vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Research background 1 1.2. Research motives 1 1.3. Research objective 3 1.4. Research questions 3 1.5. Research procedure 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5 2.1. Service and tourist product 5 2.1.1. Service definition 5 2.1.2. Tourist product 6 2.2. Service quality and tourist destination quality 8 2.2.1. Service quality 8 2.2.2. Tourist destination quality 11 2.3. Service quality models 12 2.3.1. Perceived service quality model 12 2.3.2. SERVQUAL Model 13 2.3.3. SERVPERF Model 14 2.3.4. HOLSAT Model 15 2.3.5. Model of Narayan, Rajendran Gopalan for measuring service quality in tourism 17 2.4. Customer satisfaction 18 2.4.1. Customer satisfaction in general 18 2.4.2. Customer satisfaction in tourism 20 2.5. Studies on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction 22 2.5.1. Overview of studies in various industries 22 2.5.2. Studies in the tourism industry 24 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25 3.1. Research model and hypotheses 25 3.2. Measurement 28 3.3. Data collection and analysis method 32 CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 36 4.1. Demographic analysis 36 4.2. Descriptive statistical analysis 39 4.2.1. Reliability analysis 39 4.2.2. Descriptive Analysis 44 4.2.3. ANOVA analysis 45 4.3. Pearson Correlation 50 4.4. Hypothesis testing 52 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59 5.1. Conclusions 59 5.2. Recommendations 60 5.3. Limitations of the study 61 REFERENCES 63 Appendix 69 Survey on service quality and customer satisfaction 69 of Hanoi’s tourism 69 LIST OF FIGURE No Figure title Page 1 Figure 2.1: Framework of tourism offering by Lumsdon, 1997 8 2 Figure 2.2: Perceived service quality model 12 3 Figure 2.3: SERVQUAL model 14 4 Figure 2.4: The SERVPERF model 15 5 Figure 2.5: Holsat Model 16 6 Figure 2.6: Model of Narayan, Rajendran Gopalan for measuring service quality in tourism 17 7 Figure 2.7: Source of tourist’s dissatisfaction 21 8 Figure 2.8: Customer’s perception of service quality and customer satisfaction 23 9 Figure 3.1: Research model 27 LIST OF TABLE No Table’s title Page 1 Table 2.1: Some studies of the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction 23 2 Table 3.1: Level of customers’ satisfaction with service quality 32 3 Table 3.2: Number of foreign visitors to Hanoi from 2008 to 2012 33 4 Table 3.3: Number of estimated foreign visitors to Hanoi in 2013 (only visitors who stay in hotel) 33 5 Table 4.1: Demographic information of respondents 36 6 Table 4.2: Nationality of respondents 38 7 Table 4.3: Cronbach’s Alpha of valiables 39 8 Table 4.4: Reliability score of the core tourism experience dimension 40 9 Table 4.5: Reliability score of the information dimension 41 10 Table 4.6: Reliability score of the hospitality dimension 41 11 Table 4.7: Reliability score of the fairness of price dimension 41 12 Table 4.8: Reliability score of the hygiene dimension 42 13 Table 4.9: Reliability score of the amenities dimension 42 14 Table 4.10: Reliability score of the value for money dimension 43 15 Table 4.11: Reliability score of the logistics dimension 43 16 Table 4.12: Reliability score of the food dimension 43 17 Table 4.13: Reliability score of the security dimension 44 18 Table 4.14: Descriptive Statistics 45 19 Table 4.15: Test of Homogeneity of Variances between age groups 46 20 Table 4.16: ANOVA between age groups 46 21 Table 4.17: Test of homogeneity of variance of gender groups 47 22 Table 4.18: ANOVA between gender groups 48 23 Table 4.19: Descriptive means between genders 49 24 Table 4.20: Pearson Correlation data 51 25 Table 4.21: Model Summary 52 26 Table 4.22: ANOVAb analysis 53 27 Table 4.23: Estimated Coefficientsa 53 28 Table 4.24: Hypothesis testing results 54 29 Table 4.25: Adjusted Model Summary 56 30 Table 4.26: ANOVAb analysis of Adjusted Model 57 31 Table 4.27: Estimated Coefficienta of Adjusted Model 57 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Research background Nowadays, tourism market is more competitive than in the past. Because of the emergence of new tourist destinations and the increasingly role that tourists play, tourism industry has been turning to one of the fastest growing economic sectors in recent years. With the increased competition in tourism, tourist destinations need to create new strategies to gain a better competitive position and to increase the attractiveness related to other destinations. As many scholars pointed out, improving quality of tourist products, leading to higher customer satisfaction, is an important strategy that can attract more tourists to a destination. Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) define service quality as a global judgment or attitude relating to the superiority of a service. In determining the quality delivered to customers through the product or service and the accompanying services, customer satisfaction is the leading criteria that has been researched by many scholars (Vavra, 1997). According to Baker and Crompton (2000), satisfaction is the psychological and emotional conditions of personal experiences. Sweenty and Soutar (2001) regard consumer satisfaction as an emotional reaction to specific transactions which depended on the achievement of the expected products or services, on the consistency between the anticipatory reactions and the actual results. Based on the researches of many scholars in term of service quality, customer satisfaction at many tourist destinations in the world, many useful recommendations and solutions have been adopted and proved to have positive effect in increasing tourist service quality of these destinations.

Shu - Te University College of Management Graduate School of Business Administration

Master

A Study on the relationship between service quality and

customer satisfaction in Hanoi’s tourism

Student: Tran Hong Hanh

Advisors: Dr Jau-Shyong Wang

Dr Sheng-Jung Li Co-advisor: Dr Dao Thi Thu Giang

A Study on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in

Hanoi’s tourism

Student: Tran Hong Hanh Advisor: Dr Jau-Shyong Wang

Dr Sheng-Jung Li Co-Advisor: Dr Dao Thi Thu Giang

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of Business Administration

College of Management Shu-Te University

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Master in Business Administration

May, 2014

Graduate Student of Shu-Te University Recommendation Letter from Thesis Adviser

This Student Tran Hong Hanh, whose thesis entitled “A Study on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Hanoi’s tourism”, is under my advisory and agree to submit for examination.

Graduate School of Business Administration, Shu-Te University

A Study on the relationship between service quality and

customer satisfaction in Hanoi’s tourism

Student: Tran Hong Hanh

Adviser: Dr Jau-Shyong Wang

“value for money” has biggest impact intensity, next is the factor “security”, “fairness ofprice” and the last is the factor “core tourism experience” Moreover, the research resultsalso show conclusion, limitations as well as directions for further researches in the future Keywords: Customer Satisfaction, tourist satisfaction, tourist destination, SERVQUAL,SERVPERF

During the implementation of this thesis, I have received much help from the peoplewho have helped me Without them I could not have completed this thesis, so I wanted toexpress my deep gratitude to those who helped me

First, I would like to express our gratitude to the teachers of the University SHU-TEand the University of Foreign Trade who taught me and helped me throughout the course.Special thanks to Dr Jau-Shyong Wang, Dr Sheng-Jung Li, University of SHU-TE and Dr.Dao Thi Thu Giang, Vice President of Foreign Trade University who provided constantguidance and very useful advice for me to complete this thesis

Next, I would like to thank to my classmates who share and help me during the study atthe University of SHU-TE I also thank the colleagues in Department of Culture, Sports andTourism who have helped me in the process of surveying and data collection in this thesis.Finally I really thank my family and friends who have shared, encouraged me duringthe learning process and the implementation of this thesis

Thank you very much

Tran Hong Hanh

MBA student, Shu-Te University

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

TABLE OF CONTENT iii

LIST OF FIGURE v

LIST OF TABLE vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Research motives 1

1.3 Research objective 3

1.4 Research questions 3

1.5 Research procedure 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Service and tourist product 5

2.1.1 Service definition 5

2.1.2 Tourist product 6

2.2 Service quality and tourist destination quality 8

2.2.1 Service quality 8

2.2.2 Tourist destination quality 11

2.3 Service quality models 12

2.3.1 Perceived service quality model 12

2.3.2 SERVQUAL Model 13

2.3.3 SERVPERF Model 14

2.3.4 HOLSAT Model 15

2.3.5 Model of Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan for measuring service quality in tourism 17

2.4 Customer satisfaction 18

2.4.1 Customer satisfaction in general 18

2.4.2 Customer satisfaction in tourism 20

2.5 Studies on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction 22

2.5.1 Overview of studies in various industries 22

2.5.2 Studies in the tourism industry 24

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25

3.1 Research model and hypotheses 25

3.2 Measurement 28

3.3 Data collection and analysis method 32

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 36

4.1 Demographic analysis 36

4.2 Descriptive statistical analysis 39

4.2.1 Reliability analysis 39

4.2.2 Descriptive Analysis 44

4.2.3 ANOVA analysis 45

4.3 Pearson Correlation 50

4.4 Hypothesis testing 52

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 59

5.1 Conclusions 59

5.2 Recommendations 60

5.3 Limitations of the study 61

REFERENCES 63

Appendix 69

Survey on service quality and customer satisfaction 69

of Hanoi’s tourism 69

LIST OF FIGURE

1 Figure 2.1: Framework of tourism offering by Lumsdon, 1997 8

6 Figure 2.6: Model of Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan for

8 Figure 2.8: Customer’s perception of service quality and customer

LIST OF TABLE

1 Table 2.1: Some studies of the relationship between service quality and

2 Table 3.1: Level of customers’ satisfaction with service quality 32

3 Table 3.2: Number of foreign visitors to Hanoi from 2008 to 2012 33

4 Table 3.3: Number of estimated foreign visitors to Hanoi in 2013

5 Table 4.1: Demographic information of respondents 36

8 Table 4.4: Reliability score of the core tourism experience dimension 40

9 Table 4.5: Reliability score of the information dimension 41

10 Table 4.6: Reliability score of the hospitality dimension 41

11 Table 4.7: Reliability score of the fairness of price dimension 41

12 Table 4.8: Reliability score of the hygiene dimension 42

13 Table 4.9: Reliability score of the amenities dimension 42

14 Table 4.10: Reliability score of the value for money dimension 43

15 Table 4.11: Reliability score of the logistics dimension 43

16 Table 4.12: Reliability score of the food dimension 43

17 Table 4.13: Reliability score of the security dimension 44

19 Table 4.15: Test of Homogeneity of Variances between age groups 46

21 Table 4.17: Test of homogeneity of variance of gender groups 47

30 Table 4.26: ANOVAb analysis of Adjusted Model 57

31 Table 4.27: Estimated Coefficienta of Adjusted Model 57

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research background

Nowadays, tourism market is more competitive than in the past Because of the emergence

of new tourist destinations and the increasingly role that tourists play, tourism industry hasbeen turning to one of the fastest growing economic sectors in recent years With theincreased competition in tourism, tourist destinations need to create new strategies to gain abetter competitive position and to increase the attractiveness related to other destinations

As many scholars pointed out, improving quality of tourist products, leading to highercustomer satisfaction, is an important strategy that can attract more tourists to a destination.Zeithaml and Bitner (2003) define service quality as a global judgment or attitude relating

to the superiority of a service In determining the quality delivered to customers through theproduct or service and the accompanying services, customer satisfaction is the leadingcriteria that has been researched by many scholars (Vavra, 1997) According to Baker andCrompton (2000), satisfaction is the psychological and emotional conditions of personalexperiences Sweenty and Soutar (2001) regard consumer satisfaction as an emotionalreaction to specific transactions which depended on the achievement of the expectedproducts or services, on the consistency between the anticipatory reactions and the actualresults Based on the researches of many scholars in term of service quality, customersatisfaction at many tourist destinations in the world, many useful recommendations andsolutions have been adopted and proved to have positive effect in increasing tourist servicequality of these destinations

1.2 Research motives

As the heart of Vietnam with the cultivation of thousands of year history, Hanoi hasbecome a tourist destination of the country with many attractions including natural

landscapes, long-standing historical sites as well as the intangible cultural heritage, etc Theoutstanding tourism resource of Hanoi is human culture tourism Hanoi has, so far, 5,175historical cultural relics of which 1,050 relics are ranked at national level, making up nearly20% with the highest density of relics nationwide (Department of Culture, Sports andTourism) According to the statistics of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, inthe first quarter of 2013, Hanoi received 5.12 million visitors, up 17 per cent year on year,including 615,000 international arrivals and more than 4.5 million domestic visitors Inrecent time, Hanoi tourism has developed significantly with variety of service packages,which are the result of country’s innovation It is said that Hanoi is the hub of internationaltourists to Vietnam and is a favorite tourist destination in the world as the number ofdomestic and international arrivals to Hanoi increases every year Although the tourismindustry of the city has improved over the years and turned into the fast-paced sector, it has

to dealing with many issues such as poor transportation system, traffic chaos, seriousenvironmental pollution due to rapid urbanization, food hygiene and safety, etc Appealing

to tourists is a key target of strategies in the tourism industry, and planning products thatsatisfy tourist requirements is a principle approach in attracting tourists to Hanoi The need

to explore the perceptions of tourists to Hanoi tourist products quality so that servicequality can satisfy the customer demands is thus a major research motivation of this study.Discussing the correlations between service quality and tourist satisfaction is anotherimportant motivation for this study

From the demand of the current situation, I would like to conduct a research on “A study

on the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Hanoi’s tourism” with a hope to give some assessment on the satisfaction and feeling of

international customers about the service quality of Hanoi tourism, thereby makingproposals to improve the service quality and tourist satisfaction in order to create animpressive image of Hanoi in the international customers’ heart

The study is set to be significant to policy makers in building policies and plans to supportfor the development of tourism industry This will also deliver some implications for manycompanies which are doing business in tourism field to improving their service quality andmay be a reference material to those whom are going to conduct a further of similarresearch about tourist satisfaction

1.3 Research objective

The followings are the research objectives of this study:

 To determine the level of service quality, customer satisfaction of foreign tourists in Hanoi

 To investigate the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction of foreigntourist in Hanoi

 To provide some recommendations to improve the service quality and customer satisfaction

of Hanoi’s tourism

1.4 Research questions

This study is conducted to find out the answers to the dialectical relationship betweenservice quality and customer satisfaction of foreign tourists in Hanoi

Based on the research objectives above, I outline some research questions as follows:

 What are the levels of service quality and customer satisfaction of foreign tourist in Hanoi?

 What are the relationships between service quality components and customer satisfaction offoreign tourists in Hanoi?

 How to improve the service quality and customer satisfaction of Hanoi’s tourism?

(3) Choose the research model and research methodology

(4) Deliver questionnaires and collect data

(5) Analyze data by using statistic software SPSS to verify the parameters and test thehypotheses

(6) Give recommendations based on empirical results

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Service and tourist product

2.1.1 Service definition

Service is a popular concept in marketing and economic fields Zeithaml and Bitner (1996)define service as attitudes, processes and functions Lehtinen (1982) states that service is

“an activity or a series of activities which take place in interaction with a contact person or

a physical machine and which provide customer satisfaction” Koler and Armstrong (2009)delivered a definition of service that consider service as “any activity or benefit that oneparty can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership

of anything”

As specified in many definitions mentioned above, service is a special product which hasits own features that make it different from goods According to Kotler and Keller (2007),there are four characteristics of service which are intangibility, inseparability, variabilityand perishability Service’s intangibility means that a service cannot be touched, seen,heard, smelled, weighted or counted precisely Customers can only evaluate service qualitywhen they use or consume it Inseparability means that people cannot divide service in twoclear stages: production stage and consumption stage as in fact the two stages happen at thesame time Service variability means that a service is heterogeneous or unique The servicequality varies because the performance of services is diverse as it depends on serviceproviders, how, where, when and two whom it is provided Service is also perishable goods

as it cannot be stored for later use or sale

Jacobs, Chase and Aquilano (2009) describe five essential characteristics of services:intangible, interaction with the customer for it to be a service, heterogeneous, perishableand time dependent and lastly, the specifications of a service are defined and evaluated as a

package of features that affect the five senses These features are including: supporting

facility, such as location, decoration, layout, supporting equipment, etc.; facilitating goods,

like the quantity of physical goods that go with the service (the food items that accompany

a meal service), variety, consistency; explicit services, such as training of service personnel,

consistency of service performance, availability and access to the service, and

comprehensiveness of the service; implicit services, for example, attitude of the servers,

atmosphere, waiting time, status, privacy and security, and convenience, etc…

2.1.2 Tourist product

As Institute of Tourism in Britain (1976) defines, tourism is the temporary short-termmovement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work,and activities during their stay at these destinations (Holloway, 2006) This is service sectorwith a particularly complex product which depends on an extremely fragmented supply The term “tourist product” was introduced by Middleton in 1989 He suggests that “fromthe standpoint of a potential customer considering any form of tourist visit, the product may

be defined as a bundle or package of tangible and intangible components base on activities

at a destination”(Middleton & Clarke, 2001, p124-p125) A tourist product is a servicerather than a tangible good When a tourist buys a package tour, they are buying more than

a simple collection of service, such as an airline seat, hotel room, food and the opportunity

to sit on a beach; they are also buying the temporary use of a strange environment and otherintangible benefits such as service, atmosphere and hospitality (Holloway, 2006)

Middleton & Clarke (2001) state that there are two levels of tourist product, including thetotal level and specific level The total level is the complex experience of tourist during thetime one stay at the destination The other refers to a discrete product offered by a singlebusiness

According to Middleton & Clarke (2001), a tourist product contains three components

which are the core product, the formal product and the augment product The core product

is defined as the essential service or benefit which satisfy the identified needs of target

customer segments The formal product or tangible product is the specific offer for sale

which contains the facilitating products, the services and goods that must be present for the

guest to use the core product as well as some extra supporting products The augmented

product contains added value producers in all forms built into the formal product which

makes them more attractive Kotler et.al (1999) propose that accessibility, atmosphere,customer interaction with the service organization and customer participation arecomponents of the augmented product (Komppula, 2001)

Smith (1994) suggests the five level of tourist product are: physical plant, services,hospitality, freedom of choice and involvement (cited from Komppula, 2001)

water, infrastructure

front desk operations at a hotel, food and beverages provisions etc

- Hospitality: the fulfilled expectation of the tourist

order for experience to be satisfactory

successful participation by consumers in producing tourist products is the combination of

an acceptable physical plant, good service, hospitality and freedom of choice

Limsdon (1997) had a different point of view since he places the service offering withintourism as a central component of tourist product

Figure 2.1: Framework of tourism offering by Lumsdon, 1997

(Source: Komppula, 2001, p6)Based on above studies, tourist product is all state as service which includes many differentvarious service and physical factor that serves the customer needs All of the dimensions oftourist product will affect tourist satisfaction and should be taken into consideration in thedevelopment process every tourist destinations

2.2 Service quality and tourist destination quality

2.2.1 Service quality

Each organization is trying to provide the best quality to its customers Althoughresearchers have studied the concept of service for many years, they have not had the

agreement on service quality concept According to Abari, Yarmohammadian and Esteki(2011), service quality is a stable criterion that indicates how the presented services’correspond with the customers’ expectation Taylor and Baker (1994) refer service qualitydefinition as the consumer’s overall impression of relative inferiority superiority of theorganization and its service.

The present business world has turned into the era as “Quality era” (Peeler, 1996), so theperceived quality of the product is becoming the most important competition factor in thatworld As a result, service marketers and researchers have called service quality the mostpowerful competition weapon or the organization’s life-giving blood (cited in Mosahab,Mahamad, Ramayah, 2010) They have seen that quality is a multi-dimensionalphenomenon So that it is impossible to reach to service quality without distinguishing theimportant aspects of quality

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) propose a popular definition that is acceptedwidely They defined service quality as the discrepancy between a customers’ expectation

of a service and the customers’ perception of the service offering (cited from Saraei, Amini,2012) According to this definition, service quality is related to the satisfaction but notequal to that in a sense that it is attained via the difference between the customers’expectations from the services and his/her perception of service attaining This definition isacceptable in the tourism industry in which the service quality is based on the level it meetscustomers’ need or expectation Some quality researchers believe that service quality canonly be measured by the functioning of the services and it is not necessary to evaluatecustomers’ expectations They believe that the concept of service quality can only bemeasured by perception without any regards for expectations (Abari, Yarmohammadian,Esteki, 2011)

In order to measure service quality, many researchers have also detected components ofservice quality According to Haywood (1988), there are three components of service

quality, called the 3 “P” of service quality, which are: physical facilities, processes andprocedures; personal behavior on the part of serving staff and professional judgment on thepart of serving staff but to get good quality service Haywood claims that the three elementsmust be mixed in an appropriate and carefully balanced way, which will be determined bythe relative degrees of labor intensity, service process customization and interactionbetween the customer and the service process.

Parasuraman et al.,(1985), point out 10 dimensions of service quality, including tangibles,reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, credibility, security, accessibility,communication and understanding the customer Later in 1988, the authors’ research hasconcentrated on five dimensions only They are tangibility, reliability, responsiveness,assurance, and empathy, as follows:

- Tangibility: the physical aspect of service firm (such as accommodation, equipment,facilities, personnel and so on)

- Reliability: the ability of service providers to fulfill their commitments continuously andaccurately

- Responsiveness: the willingness and accountability of the service providers to support theirclients

- Assurance: the competence and skill of the staff of an organization to give confidence andtrust to the clients

- Empathy: the intimacy with the clients and understanding of their individuals’ feelings andproblems

Inheriting the theory on service quality of Paresuraman et al, Johnston and Silvestro (1990)introduce five different components of service quality which are: helpfulness, care,commitment, functionality, integrity In 1990, Gronroos also gave six elements of servicequality including: professionalism and skills, attitude and behavior, accessibility andflexibility, reliability and trustworthiness, reputation and credibility, recovery

In general, previous researchers have some common criteria in identifying components ofservice quality, as all of them state that service quality of a service firm has to be easy toassess, have good attitude to customers Thus, these components are still numerous anddefined variously based on the research field

2.2.2 Tourist destination quality

Tourist destinations are noted to be the central element of the tourism system According toMill and Morrison (1992), a tourist destination is composed of four dimensions which areattractions, infrastructure, transportation and hospitality Law (1995) states that there aretwo features of tourist destination: primary features (climate, ecology, culture andtraditional architecture) and secondary features (hotels, catering, transport andentertainment) (cited from Kozak & Remmington, 1999)

According to Blázquez, Molina & Esteban (2012), many authors have claimed thatdestination quality is very important for the competitiveness in tourism, becoming apotential source of competitive advantage Kandampully (2000) argures that quality must

be the main tourist driving force of organization to gain future competitive challenges.Baker and Crompton, (2000); Tam, (2000); Kozak, (2001); Alegre and Cladera, (2006)pointed out that improving quality is identified as one of the best competitive strategies todestinations, as it has strong effects on tourist satisfaction and the creation of positiveattitudes and loyalty towards destination (Blázquez, Molina & Esteban, 2012)

Tourist destinations are considered extremely complex products which include sum oftangible and intangible resources (Blázquez, Molina & Esteban, 2012) One of the firstscale developed to identified factors of tourist satisfaction about quality was suggested byPizam, Neuman & Reichel (1978) which included 8 factors: beach opportunities, cost,hospitality, eating and drinking facilities, accommodation facilities, environment and extent

of commercialization Prabaharan, Arulraj & Rajapopal (2008) suggests a 6 dimensionmodel that similar to the dimensions of Parasuraman to measure service quality of tourism,

which include: assurance, responsiveness, reliability, service responsibility, tangibility,service product

Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan (2009) study the dimensions which best describe tourismquality of a destination After summarizing many previous researches, they suggest 10dimensions of service quality in in tourism, including: core-tourism experience,information, hospitality, fairness of price, hygiene, amenities, value for money, logistic,food and security

2.3 Service quality models

2.3.1 Perceived service quality model

Perceived service quality model which considered service quality as client – oriented targetwas introduced by Gronroos in 1982 With this model, Gronroos claimed that servicequality which is perceived by the customer is the outcome gained by comparing thecustomer’s expectation and their real experiences If the experienced quality exceedscustomer’s expectation, the total perceived service quality is positive; and if theexperienced quality cannot reach the expectation the total perceived quality is low

Figure 2.2: Perceived service quality model

(Source: Gronroos, 2000)The experienced service quality is influenced by 3 factors: functional quality (how theservice is delivered), technical quality (what customer gets through using s service) andcorporate image (the general feeling or impression of customer about a firm Additionally,the expected service quality is a function of number of factors, including: traditionalmarketing, sales, communication, word of mouth, customer needs, public relation,

2.3.2 SERVQUAL Model

SERVQUAL Model is a very famous and widely applied model in measuring servicequality The SERVQUAL instrument was proposed by Parasuraman et al (1985) and thenfurther developed for the next eight years by the same authors As Adil et al pointed out intheir paper, SERVQUAL dimensions have been used by many researcher as basic for theirresearch and consequently this model has “undoubtedly had a major impact on the businessand academic communities”

The first SERVQUAL model included 10 dimensions of service quality, and it reduced to 5dimensions because some of them were overlapping This 5 dimension include: reliability(5 items) which is the ability to perform the service in an accurate and in dependablemanner; tangibles (4 items) which refers to the appearance of physical factors such asequipment, facilities and personnel; empathy (5 items) which involves providing individualattention and care to customers; responsiveness (4 items) is the willingness to provided helpand prompt service to customers; and assurance (4 items) refers to the knowledge andcourtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence Each of the 22 itemsabove was approached by the same two questions: what an excellent service should provideand what service was actually provided Then gap scores based on the difference betweenexpectation and perception of service delivery will be calculated and analyzed

Figure 2.3: SERVQUAL model

(Source: Parasuraman et al, 1985)Although have been used widely, SERVQUAL model as some problems Firstly, thequestionare may be repeated in some content as respondents have to answer the samequestion in two different criteria: expected service and perceived service Secondly, manyresearcher (Bhat, 2012) point out that measurement of expectation in SERVQUAL isproblematic because expectations are dynamic in nature and they can change according tocustomers’ experiences and some specific situations (Yilmaz, 2009); as a result, the gapcalculated later may be not described the real different between expected service andperceived service In addition, Babakus and Boller (1992) also figure out that the fivedimensions were not enough and varied depending on the kind of service

2.3.3 SERVPERF Model

Cronin and Taylor (1992) propose a model that controverted to the framework ofParasuraman et al The model, called SERVPERF model was designed by dropping theexpectation and accessing service quality perceptions just by apprasing the customer’sattitude toward a service

Figure 2.4: The SERVPERF model

(source: Cronin and Talor, 1992)Using performance as the only determinant to measure service quality is simpler but alsohas problem The researcher implicated that higher perceived performance leads to higherquality service; however, with the fast changes market, customers can change theirbehaviors that do not meet organizational performance and sometimes customers have thecomparison between expectation and experience

2.3.4 HOLSAT Model

HOLSAT is a new model that addresses the complexity of measuring satisfaction with adestination (Truong and Foster, 2005) Tribe and Snaith developed HOLSAT model in

1998 to overcome some of the limitations of other models when satisfaction is measured for

a destination rather than a specific service According to them, HOLSAT measures

satisfaction as the relationship between performance and prior expectation rather thanperformance alone (SERVPERF model), or performance relative to excellent quality(SERVQUAL model) This demonstrated that the author consider service quality ascustomer satisfaction as Parasurama et al stated that practitioners and popular press often

use the term service quality and customer satisfaction interchangeably.

In their research in 1998, Tribe and Snaith designed a survey about tourist satisfaction ofVaradero, Cuba, with many attributes placed into 6 following dimensions:

 The physical resort and facilities;

Figure 2.5: Holsat Model

This model has been applied later in studies of Truong and Foster (2005) in evaluatingtourist satisfaction of Australian holidaymakers in Vietnam; Vo and Nguyen (2010) inevaluating international tourists satisfaction with tourism service in Danang; Quach (2013)

in measuring tourist satisfaction with Hanoi’s tourism service

However, Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan (2009) point out, the limitation of the study isthat it is fails to comprehensively measure the service quality as some important attributesare not covered in the model, such as money exchange facility, internet connectivity,…These attributes are highly appreciated by western travellers

2.3.5 Model of Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan for measuring service quality in tourism

Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan first introduced their model to measure tourism productquality in 2009 In their study, they also use Servperf paradism to measure, but 10dimensions which are more relevant and suitable for tourism product are used instead of 5dimensions of Servperf model

Figure 2.6: Model of Narayan, Rajendran & Gopalan for

measuring service quality in tourism

2.4 Customer satisfaction

2.4.1 Customer satisfaction in general

Customer satisfaction is an important theoretical as well as practical issue for mostmarketers and customer researchers It is defined as a customer’s overall evaluation of theperformance of an offering to date (Johnson and Fornell, 1991, cited by Gustafsson,Johnson, and Roos, 2005) This has strong positive effect on customer loyalty intensionsacross a variety of products and services In a service context, overall satisfaction is similar

to overall evaluations of service quality Levesque and McDougall (1996) claim that arelationship between customer and service provider would be set up when customer use aservice, then customer satisfaction will appear as an outcome of the interactions betweenthese parties For that reason, customer satisfaction can be referred as customer attitudestoward the service provider after using the service

Helgesen (2007) studies the perceived customer satisfaction as being an important factor oflong-term relationships between suppliers and customers This also has positive effect tocustomer loyalty and profitability When suppliers meet customers’ needs, desires andrequests, resulting in the increasing of customer satisfaction level, they can expect apositive effect in long term regarding the profitability of the business (Ames, 1970, cited inHelgesen)

Moreover, Kim and Lee (2009) indicate that customer satisfaction is a compelling issuebecause in the service industry customer retention is more important than attracting newcustomers They show that retaining customers has a stronger impact on company profitthan attracting the new ones They determine that maximizing company’s profits bystriving for zero defection through customer satisfaction

Accorded to Flint, Blocker, and Boutin Jr (2011), while customers’ feelings respond to aparticular product or service encounter, satisfaction accumulates across a series ofencounters and is a more fundamental indicator of a supplier’s overall performance through

time So that exploring factors that contribute to customer satisfaction has been critical toany business

Bailey et al (1983) identify 38 factors that affect the customer satisfaction on computersare quality of product, flexibility, reliability, priorities determination, security andexpectations In online education structure, there are 2 more factors of transparency andcommunication influencing students’ satisfaction and enhancing the learning process (cited

in Daniel and Berinyuy, 2010)

Lin (2006) refers that industries are different in target market segmentation, someasurement of customer satisfaction varies depending on the characteristics of individualindustries He indicates three dimensions for empirical research on measurement ofcustomer satisfaction, including first, operation dimension (availability, delivery on time,price, credibility); secondly, service dimension (sales service, technical support, productline); lastly, product dimension (technical value, reliability, design) Parasuraman,Zeithaml, and Berry (1985) also point out that encounter and feasibility as key dimensions

of customer satisfaction (cited in Lin, 2006)

Matzler et al (2002) classify three factors affecting to customers’ satisfaction They are asfollowings:

- Basic factors: the minimum requirements of a product to prevent customer from beingdissatisfied They are not necessary to cause satisfaction but lead to dissatisfaction ifabsent They constitute the basic attributes of the product or service to fulfill the basicrequirements of that product or service

- Performance factors, that lead to satisfaction if fulfilled or dissatisfaction if not fulfilled.They include reliability and friendliness

- Excitement factors which increase customers’ satisfaction if fulfilled but does not causedissatisfaction if not fulfilled

Mosahab, Mahamad and Ramayah (2010) show another group of factor known as neutralfactors Experience is not needed for evaluating service quality A service can be evaluated

on the basis of knowledge about service provider, while satisfaction is an inner view,resulted from customer’s own experience from the service

2.4.2 Customer satisfaction in tourism

In term of tourism field, Moutinho (1987) notes that customer satisfaction in of tourismservice is a post-purchase construct of pre-travel expectations and travel experiences.Truong and Foster (2005, p843) considered tourist satisfaction as the outcome of thecomparison between expectations and experiences, the difference between expectation andperceived performance, and the “fit” between tourist expectations and host destinationattributes The tourist is satisfied if the total experience compared to the expectation results

in gratification feeling; and he is dissatisfied if the comparison results in the feeling ofdispleasure (Pizam et al, 1978) According to Ahmad and Mohammad (2011), customersatisfaction is significant to achieve loyalty in tourism context when visitors intend torevisit the same destination or another within the same country

Figure 2.7: Source of tourist’s dissatisfaction

(Source: Bowie & Chang, 2005, p 304)

Bowie & Chang (2005) list some sources that lead to the dissatisfaction of tourists, whichinclude: failure of accommodation service, performance of service staff, unfamiliarcustoms and food, difficulties over money, transport delays, problems with foreignlanguages, personal safety and health, and relationship with fellow tourist In order toreduce the dissatisfaction level of tourist, it is believed that all of these factors should behandled.

2.5 Studies on the relationship between service quality and customer

satisfaction

2.5.1 Overview of studies in various industries

The construct of relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction is still adebated issue as many marketing researchers consider the separation of those two factors isproblematic to define Some authors suggest that service quality and satisfaction ofcustomer are distinct constructs and there is a causal link between them (Dmitrovic´,Cvelbar, Kolar, Brencˇicˇ, Ograjensˇek and Zˇ abkar, 2009)

As Cronin & Taylor (1992) note in their study that customer satisfaction is the customer’sexperience on a particular service, service quality which comes from outcomes of theservice is considered to be a determinant of customer satisfaction Many researchers havefound empirical supports for the view point of Oliver (1993) that suggest service qualitywould be antecedent to customer satisfaction (Bowie & Chang, 2005)

In deeply studying of the relation between customer satisfaction and service quality, themeaning and measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction was preciselyresearched Many scholars point out that satisfaction and service quality have certainthings in common, but satisfaction generally is a broader concept, whereas service qualityfocuses specifically on dimensions of service (Wilson et al., 2008, p 78) Although it is

stated that customer satisfaction can be affected by factors such as price and productquality, they are also influenced by perceived service quality (Zeithaml et al 2006).

Figure 2.8: Customer’s perception of service quality and customer satisfaction

(Source: Wilson et al, 2008, p 79)

In line with the research of Parasuraman et al., (1985) which proposed that when perceivedservice quality is high, then it will lead to increase in customer satisfaction; others considercustomer satisfaction is based upon the service quality’s level

The table below shows the list of some of the studies that confirm the antecedentrelationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in various sectors:

Table 2.1: Some studies of the relationship between service quality and customer

satisfaction

1 Sivadas &

Baker-Prewitt

2 Wang & Hing-Po 2002 Telecom Mobile phone market in

China

in Taiwan

4 Bennett & Barkensjo 2005 Charitable service Charitable organizations

Bank

Umea University, ICAÅlidhem Centrum, ForexBank

2.5.2 Studies in the tourism industry

Many studies regarding the relationship between tourism service quality and customersatisfaction in tourism industry are conducted and almost of them have similar conclusion.They conclude that service quality perceptions influence or are a cause of touristsatisfaction If customers perceive that the service quality of a destination is high, they arewill satisfy with these service and if they think the service quality level of this destination islower than expected, tourists will dissatisfy

Some studies claim that tourist with past experience of a destination have highersatisfaction levels than travellers that have not come to visit this place (Kozak &Rimmington, 2000) Surat (2012) also agrees that satisfaction from prior experience has apositive effect with the satisfaction of the current visit to the same destination, and then thefeeling of satisfaction in the current visit affect intention to revisit in the future

A recent study by Zabkar et al (2010) find out the complex relationship between mainconstructs and behavioral intention modeled as destination attributes affect perceivedquality which then affect satisfaction, these later tow affect repeat visit intention

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research model and hypotheses

Research model

In this thesis, I use the research model based on the study of Narayan, Rajendran &Gopalan (2009) Those scholars conducted a research in 2009 to identify dimensions ofservice quality and their corresponding measurement variables in the tourism industry byfocusing on India In my opinion, this is the most relevant model for this thesis’ topic onHanoi’s tourism The dimensions and the measurement variables have been identifiedthrough a detailed review of literature and exploratory research and then have been testedfor a developing country - India The model’s authors suggest 10 dimensions to measureservice quality in tourism industry which are: core-tourism experience, information,hospitality, fairness of price, hygiene, amenities, value for money, logistics, food andsecurity They are highly relevant and also measurable for the context of Hanoi’s tourism in

my thesis

The 10 key dimensions in the analytical model are defined as follows:

1) Core-tourism experience: the primary item that tourists want to get

2) Information: information required by tourists

3) Hospitality: the courteousness, friendliness, trustworthiness, and reliability of hotel staffand local people

4) Fairness of price: the fairness of products’ cost at tourist spots and shops as well as localconveyances

5) Hygiene: the cleanliness and hygiene of a place to stay, tourist spots and restaurants,streets, and food

6) Amenities: the availability of internet, telecommunication services and money exchangefacilities.

7) Value for money: the value for money with respect to the tour package, accommodation,food at restaurants, local conveyance, and also at shopping spots

8) Logistics: the accessibility of tourist spots as well as conditions of infrastructure

9) Food: The taste of local food and availability of food

10) Security: free from terrorist attacks or feeling safe at the hotel and tourist spots

The above dimensions were also applied by Surat in his research in 2012 about therelationship between service quality and revisit intention to Pattaya, a famous touristdestination in Thailand Surat uses the same dimensions but some modifications are appliedwhen measuring each dimension

The reason why I choose to apply this model is that the above dimensions can cover manyaspects of tourist destination service quality while five dimensions of Parasuraman(reliability, tangibles, empathy, responsiveness, assurance) are suitable for measuringservice quality of an organization only This model is also relevant for the research since ithas been developed for India, which has a similar social-cultural background with Vietnam

Figure 3.1: Research model

Research hypotheses

Based on the literature reviewed in the previous chapter about the relationship betweenservice quality, tourist satisfaction and also on the current situation of Hanoi’s tourism, Ipropose two main hypotheses to test as followings:

H1: There are positive relationships between dimensions of service quality and touristsatisfaction.

To supporting for this hypothesis, I propose 10 sub-hypotheses as follow:

H1- a: There are positive relationships between core tourism experience and tourist satisfaction.

H1- b: There are positive relationships between information and tourist satisfaction H1 - c: There are positive relationships between hospitality and tourist satisfaction.

H1 - d: There are positive relationships between fairness of price and tourist satisfaction H1 - e: There are positive relationships between hygiene and tourist satisfaction.

H1 - f: There are positive relationships between amenities and tourist satisfaction.

H1 - g: There are positive relationships between value for money and tourist satisfaction H1 - h: There are positive relationships between logistics and tourist satisfaction.

H1 - i: There are positive relationships between food and tourist satisfaction.

H1 - j: There are positive relationships between security and tourist satisfaction.

3.2 Measurement

The questionnaire consists of 3 independent parts including measurement scales designed

to assess the constructs of this study and demographic information

Demographic Variables

In the first section of the questionnaire there are demographic variables such as gender, age,nationality, occupation, purpose of the trip and if they had visited Hanoi before to gaingeneral information about the respondents.

Measurement of Service Quality in tourism

I use 10 dimensions of tourist satisfaction about tourist quality of Narayan, Rajendran &Gopalan (2009), including: core-tourism experience, information, hospitality, fairness ofprice, hygiene, amenities, value for money, logistic, food and security to measure servicequality SERVPERF paradism will be adopted when measuring service quality as it iscalculated by the perceived experience

Core-tourism experience:

 Natural beauty

 Climate

 Ambience for having a relaxed leisure time

 Sightseeing and leisure/recreational facilities at tourist spot

Information

 Availability of tourist information center at airport

 Availability of tourist information center at place of stay

 Availability of tourist information center at tourist spot

 Ease of communicating with people in a language that both you and local people arecomfortable with

Hospitality

 Courtesy of staff at place of stay

 Trustworthy of staff at place of stay