IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS ON TOURIST SATISFACTION (CASE STUDY ON PASSIKUDA HOTELS)

Tourism and Hospitality Management

The tourism sector has the potential to make a major contribution to Sri Lanka's economic growth. Even after number of crises in the country, Sri Lanka has a great opportunity to grow tourism industry, and many visitors from all over the world visit Sri Lanka to spend their vacations. Hotels therefore play a significant role in the tourism industry. The hotel should therefore provide its guests with outstanding service quality. Hence, relatively few studies have addressed to service quality and tourist satisfaction towards to hotel industry in Passikuda area. The purpose of this study was to investigate to fulfil the research gap in order to explore the current Sri Lankan context related to service quality and tourist satisfaction towards hotels in Passikuda. The study empirically evaluated five service quality dimensions; tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy and their impact on tourist satisfaction and the service quality measured by SERVQUAL model. A survey design which was quantitative in nature was based on an empirical study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from tourist who came to major hotels in Passikuda. The sample of 100 respondents was selected using a convenience sampling method. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21 statistical software. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics applied to examine the variables. Findings of the study revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between service quality and tourist satisfaction and all the service quality dimensions have scored higher value with existing service quality. However, Reliability and Empathy are the key factors that influence mostly on tourist satisfaction in hotel industry in Passikuda. Further, this study provides valuable insight for service quality improvements, innovation strategies and consequently improving tourist satisfaction of hotel industries.

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