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Introduction. Previous survey research (Spanish setting) identified five dimensions of customers' perceived service quality in rural tourism: Standard of rooms and equipmentSurroundings and locationLeisure choice and servicesPersonal ambience and treatEasy and secure booking processThese dimen
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1. EXPECTATIONS AND MARKET SEGMENTATION RESULTS OF THE ONLINE SURVEY 2007 JOSÉ MANUEL ORTEGA EGEA
University of Almería (Spain)
2. Introduction Previous survey research (Spanish setting) identified five dimensions of customers’ perceived service quality in rural tourism:
Standard of rooms and equipment
Surroundings and location
Leisure choice and services
Personal ambience and treat
Easy and secure booking process
These dimensions have been applied for market segmentation of Spanish and European customers of rural tourism services:
Cluster analysis based on perceptions and expectations (Likert-scale variables).
Conjoint analysis (segmentation) ? More different segments.
NEED FOR STRONGER EVIDENCE ON SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS
3. Theoretical Framework SERVQUAL (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1985, 1988) & SERVPERF (Cronin y Taylor, 1992):
Tangibles
Reliability
Responsiveness
Security
Empathy.
SERVQUAL & SERVPERF have been adapted to the rural tourism sector (Román, Recio & Martín, 2000) :
Standard of rooms and equipment
Surroundings and location
Leisure choice and services
Personal ambience and treat
Easy and secure booking process
4. Main purposes Validation and reliability analysis of service quality dimensions in rural tourism
Segmentation of European customers, based on Individual Service Quality items and the identified Factors
Characterization of segments, based on:
Country
Age
Income
Accompanying person
Number of children
Education level
Number of holidays
Domestic or International Survey
Preferred Booking Methods and Information Sources on R.T.
Importance of Quality Ratings & Certifications
Experience with R.T. in Home Country / Abroad
5. Research methodology Questionnaire development
Service quality expectations in rural tourism
Five-point likert scales
Pretest
Factor analysis (SPSS v14.0)
Latent class Cluster analysis (Latent Gold v4.0)
6. Sample
7. Results - Exploratory Factor Analysis
8. Results - Exploratory Factor Analysis
9. Results - Exploratory Factor Analysis
10. Results - Exploratory Factor Analysis
11. Results – Exploratory Factor Analysis Factor 1: Basic Benefit (Security, Reliability of staff & Location)
Reliability – Internal Consistency: 0.943
Factor 2: Personal contact
Reliability – Internal Consistency: 0.779
Factor 3: Modern services
Reliability – Internal Consistency: 0.758
Factor 4: Standard of rooms and equipment
Reliability – Internal Consistency: 0.778
Factor 5: Leisure choice and services
Reliability – Internal Consistency: 0.734
12. Results - Segmentation
16. Results - Segmentation
17. Results - Segmentation
18. Results - Segmentation
19. Results - Segmentation
20. Results - Segmentation
21. Results - Segmentation
22. Results - Segmentation
23. Results - Segmentation
24. Results - Segmentation
25. Results - Segmentation
26. Results - Segmentation
27. Results - Segmentation
28. Results - Segmentation
29. Conclusions These results confirm the five-dimensional structure of Perceived Service Quality among surveyed European rural tourists
Three segments have been identified:
Clusters 1 & 2 show quite similar profiles with regard to their Expectations about Service Quality elements,
… account for aprox. 96% of repondents,
… which suggests that marketing strategies targeted jointly at both segments may be feasible.
The validated SQ dimensions will be applied in future conjoint research designs (latent class choice statistical methodology)
Identification of more different segments
Analysis of respondents “trade-offs” in more realistic purchase situations
Representative national samples will enable comparisons between European countries