Evaluation of perceived service quality provided by tourism establishments in Egypt

Abstract

The tourism industry has recently become one of the most important components of developing economies and a main contributor toward their growth. As a multidimensional industry, it consists of several sectors including accommodation, transport, attractions, etc. Hence, the tourism product represents a complex of tangible and intangible elements, which are mutually, spatially and functionally integrated as a whole, apparent as a range of services arising from the needs, desires and demands of tourists. Recently, the fierce competitive business environment worldwide has made quality one of the most important sources of competitive advantage for tourism enterprises. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of international tourists concerning the service quality provided by three of the main tourism establishments in Egypt, including airlines, hotels and travel agencies, depending on the Service-Performance model. There were two main findings in this exploration. First, tourists had in general good perceptions as regards the services provided by the tourism establishments investigated; and hence, they were overall satisfied with their quality. However, there are some weak aspects that need improvement. Second, the five dimensions of the Service-Performance model had a significant effect on tourists’ overall satisfaction.

Keywords

Egyptian tourism establishments service quality SERVPERF model tourists’ perceptions tourists’ satisfaction

Introduction

Service is an activity or series of activities of more or less intangible nature (Shahin, 2006), whereas quality is a multidimensional complex term, consisting of several elements and criteria (Gržinić, 2007). Request for better quality of services is one of the most important strategic priorities faced by the various tourism establishments. Service quality is of paramount importance for retaining tourists and is a critical indicator of future economic activity (Blešić et al., 2011). Besides, it is an approach that leads to an increased competitiveness, effectiveness, and flexibility of the entire company (Eraqi, 2006). Gilbert and Wong (2003) indicate that conveying an excellent service quality is a requirement for success and survival in today’s competitive business environment. Furthermore, all indicators of success of any tourism establishment such as market share, return on investments, property turnover coefficient, show significantly more value in those establishments that offer a high level of goods and services (Gržinić, 2007). According to Cronin and Taylor (1992), service quality is directly related to tourists’ satisfaction, which leads to loyalty, a successful business, repeated tourists’ visits and a positive image of the country. This is hard to achieve and can be easily lost (Ingram and Daskalakis, 1999; Martin, 2002; Nightingale, 1985).

Tourism in Egypt is a major engine of its economic development. It currently represents 11.3% of the country’s gross domestic product (Egypt State Information Service, Your Gateway to Egypt, 2014). This suggests the need for its various tourism establishments to improve their offerings and provide quality service to tourists by determining their needs.

Within this context, this paper aims at evaluating tourists’ perceptions as regards the service quality provided by three of the Egyptian tourism establishments including airlines, travel agencies, and hotels, as well as, tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services offered. Furthermore, it aspires to provide a further contribution for improvement to tourism establishments’ managers to maintain the positive aspects and reduce the weak features in their operations. By enhancing the quality of services offered to tourists, Egypt could become a remarkable tourism destination.

Research background and problem

In the competitive market of tourism, one of the most important tenets of a service organization is the maintenance of a permanent relationship with its customers in order to protect its long-term interests (Power and Barrow, 2006). Hence, there is a need for service providers to plan strategies that will differentiate them from others. This can be only achieved through the delivery of superior service quality (Ford and Heaton, 2000). Although, many papers were provided concerning the evaluation of service quality, most of them focused on evaluating tourists’ expectations and/or perceptions, depending on the SERVQUAL model (Bojanic and Rosen, 1994; Knutson et al., 1995; Lam and Zhang, 1999; Le Blanc, 1992; Luk et al., 1993; McCleary et al., 1993; Parasuraman et al., 1991; Saraei and Amini, 2012; Tolpa, 2012), or the Service-Performance model (SERVPERF), the performance-only measurement model. In addition, all studies focused on only one tourism establishment, an airline (Wu and Cheng, 2013) or a travel agency (Kobylanski, 2012) or a hotel (Renganathan, 2011). None of the studies have combined the assessment of tourists’ perceptions in various tourism establishments, using the SERVPERF model, which is a further contribution in that field, especially for Egyptian tourism managers.

On the other hand, Egypt has recently faced several instable political circumstances, which has adversely affected the entire tourism industry. Therefore, the need has arisen for exerting efforts to re-encourage international tourism to Egypt through the provision of an excellent service to tourists. In order to ensure and keep the quality perceived by tourists, continuous research for discovering tourists’ demands, as well as, the establishments’ capabilities is essential (Gržinić, 2007). Moreover, tourism managers often could not find out whether they have delivered a satisfactory service experience.

The above-mentioned issues have raised the following questions for the research:

Research Question 1: Is the current level of service quality provided by travel agencies, airlines and hotels satisfactory for the tourists coming to Egypt?

Research Question 2: What are the pros and cons of services provided by the tourism establishments in Egypt?

Research Question 3: Could the current status of service quality provision be improved, so that Egypt can gain a competitive position worldwide?

Literature review

Service quality definitions

The prominence of managing quality has become the main concern of most tourism enterprises worldwide. This is due the changing style of service offering, the technological developments, the increase in international markets’ competition and the emergence of new quality conscious tourists with increasingly diverse needs (Gržinić, 2007; Kapiki, 2012).

Quality in tourism implies the satisfaction of product and service needs, as well as, requirements and expectations of the consumer, at an acceptable price, according to mutually accepted contractual conditions and the underlying quality determinants such as safety and security, hygiene, and so on. (WTO, 2003). Furthermore, it was defined by Eraqi (2006: 472) “as a philosophy overwhelmed the organization management and a continuous improvement in order to retain customers and realize their satisfaction which is the essential determinant of tourism establishments' success.” As regards service quality, Zeithaml et al. (1996) argued that service quality is consumer’s overall impression of the organization’s efficiency and its services. Whereas, Kleynhans, and Zhou (2012: 11343) stated that “it is the consumer's rating of the overall excellence or superiority of the service offered.” Within this context, several models have been used to evaluate service quality offered by tourism businesses.

Service quality evaluation models

For services, the assessment of quality is carried out during the service delivery process (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006). The SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1985) has been one of the most widely used and applied scales for the measurement of perceived service quality in recent years (Bigne et al., 2003). The SERVQUAL scale is composed of five dimensions: tangibles (physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of personnel), reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to instigate trust and confidence), responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), and empathy (care and attention that the establishment provides to its customers including access, communication and understanding; Parasuraman et al., 1988), consisting of 22 pairs of items to identify and measure the gaps between customers’ expectations and perceptions of service quality. Therefore, the service quality score can be measured by subtracting customer’s perception score from customer’s expectation score (Adetunji et al., 2013; Asubonteng et al., 1996).

The five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model have been tested through numerous empirical studies in various industries by many researchers (Aydin and Yildirim, 2012). With regard to service quality in the tourism and hospitality industry, most authors have modified the SERVQUAL model and adapted it to the characteristics of services provided (Blešić et al., 2011). It was used in a range of service settings, including travel agencies (Lam and Zhang, 1999; Mohamed, 2007), airlines (Bozorgi, 2007; Tolpa, 2012; Zainol and Romle, 2007), and hotels (Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor, 2011). However, Aydin and Yildirim (2012) argued that the SERVQUAL presents general dimensions for service industries and it does not include specific dimensions for each service sector. In addition, it was criticized by a number of academics including Johns et al. (2004), Gaur and Agrawal (2006), Padma et al. (2009), Blešić et al. (2011), Movafegh and Movafegh (2013) and brief reviews of the main criticisms against SERVQUAL and its various adaptations are found in Buttle (1996) and Ladhari (2008). Nonetheless, its application is still pervasive (Adetunji et al., 2013) and there is general agreement that SERVQUAL items are reliable predictors of overall service quality (Khan, 2003). Due to the criticisms and disagreements toward the SERVUAL model, Cronin and Taylor (1992) developed a performance-based model to measure service quality, which named SERVPERF. By testing the model on four service industries namely, banking, pest control, dry cleaning, and fast food, the results revealed that the SERVPERF model provides better and more effective results compared to other service quality measurements, has greater predictive power and explains more of the variation in the global measure of service quality. These results were interpreted as additional support for the superiority of the SERVPERF approach to the measurement of service quality (Cronin and Taylor, 1992, 1994). Hughes (1991) highlighted that tourists may be satisfied even though their experiences did not meet their expectations.

Several studies adopted the performance-only approach, including studies of Choi and Chu (2001), Cunningham et al. (2004), Juwaheer (2004), Poon and Lock-Teng Low (2005), Mey and Mohamed (2010), Al Khattab and Aldehayyat, (2011), Adetunji et al. (2013), and Oña et al. (2014).

Service quality perceptions

The perceived service quality is said to be a reflection of the organization’s performance, as by experiencing the service provided, the tourists form an attitude toward service quality (Al Khattab and Aldehayyat, 2011). Experienced or perceived service is the result of a series of internal decisions and activities (Gržinić, 2007). Edvardsson (2005) indicated that service quality perceptions are formed during the production, delivery and consumption process. On the other hand, others argued that service perception is generated through an actual service experience and is shaped during or after the act of purchase and consumption (Parasuraman et al. 1991).

Edvarson (1996) mentioned that the service should be considered from the tourists’ point of view based on their perception of the outcome. Shahin and Debestani (2010) stated that the perceived service quality is essential to the success of any service organization. According to Zeithaml et al. (1990), perceived service quality is the extent to which a company successfully serves the needs of customers, who determine the perceived value of service based on the experience with the service delivered (Marković and Raspor, 2010).

Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued that performance is the measure that best explains customer’ perceptions of service quality and the measurement of service quality based only on perception is enough. Therefore, this article has adopted this viewpoint.

Methodology

This research is of descriptive analytical nature. To realize its objectives, primary and secondary data were used. Secondary data were collected from websites and various journals and theses, which gave more insight concerning the topic being investigated. In addition, they provided a valid scale that was used by this paper. Primary data were gathered by preparing three different questionnaires, in order to obtain conclusive descriptive data that were analyzed to evaluate the perceptions of tourists concerning the service quality provided by three of the Egyptian establishments including airlines, hotels and travel agencies.

Depending on the literature reviewed, this paper adopted the SERVPERF model, supporting the argument that the performance-only (SERVPERF) model is superior in measuring of the quality of service performance from tourists’ perspective (Boulding et al., 1993; Cronin and Taylor, 1992). Furthermore, it was previously empirically tested, which assures the validity of the measure.

Each questionnaire consisted of five dimensions and 22-service attributes as the SERVQUAL, but the expectation components were excluded. This makes data collection for SERVPERF about 50% easier of what is required for the SERVQUAL (Adetunji et al., 2013).

The attributes used in each questionnaire depended on pervious articles that used the SERVPERF model. They were investigated, adapted, and modified to suit the specific features and kind of each tourism establishment, after consulting a panel of experts in the field of tourism to ensure the validity of the measure. The variables were measured according a 5-point Likert-type scale, starting from “very bad” that represents the score 1, to “very good” that represents the score 5.

Furthermore, the demographic data were excluded from the three questionnaires as it was regarded as insignificant for realizing the paper objectives.

Research population and sample

The population of this research included all tourists who are users of the Egyptian airline company, those who deal with the Egyptian travel agencies (Category A), as well as, those who are customers of the five-star hotels in Egypt throughout 2013/2014. Due to research aims, it depended on the convenience and simple random sampling techniques. As the population is variable and difficult to define, a large sample of 1200 international tourists was targeted. Four hundred questionnaires were distributed randomly in each kind of tourism establishment including the Egyptian airline company (only one in Egypt but has a lot of branches all over the country), travel agencies that are specified in inbound tourism (Category A), and five-star hotels distributed in Alexandria and Cairo. Then the questionnaires were collected after completion.

Pretest of the questionnaires

A pilot study was first conducted, where 20 questionnaires were handed out in each kind of tourism establishment to be answered. After the questionnaires were returned back to the researcher, they were revised according to the comments of the respondents. Some questions were changed in terms of wording, content and sequence and others were eliminated.

Testing the reliability of the questionnaires

To test the reliability of the questionnaires, Cronbach’s α coefficients were calculated to investigate the internal consistency of the scale by determining the correlation between the five SERVQUAL dimensions.

Data analysis methods

Descriptive statistical analysis was performed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16.0.

Moreover, the variance analysis test (N-way analysis of variance [ANOVA]) was carried out at a significance level of .05, to investigate the effect of “N” of independent variables (the five SERVPERF dimensions) on tourists’ overall satisfaction (independent variable) by testing the following statistical hypotheses:

Hypothesis 0: There isn’t any significant effect of the five service quality dimensions (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and tangibility (on tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided by Egyptian airlines, hotels and travel agencies.

Hypothesis 1: There is a significant effect of the five service quality dimensions (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and tangibility) on tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided by Egyptian airlines, hotels and travel agencies.

Results

The results of the research are presented as follows: First, the response rates of the returned questionnaires, followed by the reliability scores, then the descriptive analysis of tourists’ perceptions after the application of the SERVPERF model, as well as, tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided in each tourism establishment and last, the results of the N-variance test.

Response rates

From airline companies, 210 questionnaires were completed, representing a response rate of 52.5%, from travel agencies, 201 questionnaires were returned back, representing a response rate of 50.3% and finally, from the five-star hotels, 205 questionnaires were found to be satisfactory for analysis, representing a response rate of 51.3 %. Thus, the average response rate was 51.4%.

Reliability analysis

The obtained results showed that Cronbach’s α coefficients calculated for the five SERVPERF dimensions in the three kinds of tourism establishments, ranged from .73 to .97. That is well above the minimum value of 0.60 that is considered acceptable as an indication of scales’ reliability (Hair et al., 2006) and a high level of internal consistency within each of the scales used. These results are depicted by (Table 1).

Table 1.

Results of reliability analysis of the five SERVPERF dimensions in the Egyptian airline, five-stars hotels, and travel agencies.

Dimensions		No. of attributes	Cronbach’s α
Egyptian airline
1.	Responsiveness	5	0.97
2.	Reliability	6	0.82
3.	Empathy	5	0.82
4.	Assurance	3	0.90
5.	Tangibility	7	0.83
Egyptian five-star hotels
1.	Responsiveness	5	0.97
2.	Reliability	5	0.81
3.	Empathy	5	0.73
4.	Assurance	10	0.88
5.	Tangibility	14	0.82
Egyptian travel agencies
1.	Responsiveness	6	0.93
2.	Reliability	6	0.80
3.	Empathy	5	0.75
4.	Resources and corporate image	3	0.89
5.	Tangibility	4	0.82

Descriptive analysis and discussion

Airlines

(Table 2) highlighted that concerning the first dimension of responsiveness, tourists’ perceptions were neutral concerning four out of five service attributes, these are as follows: employees’ response to emergency situations, which agrees with the results of Bozorgi (2007), the helpfulness and courtesy of check-in personnel, which contradicts with that of Venkatesh and Nargundkar (2006); and the availability of remedial procedures for cancelled or delayed flights/baggage. However, tourists had good perceptions concerning the response to their requests or complaints, which contradicts the results of (Bozorgi, 2007). The neutral perceptions of tourists suggest that more effort should be exerted to improve the quality of service offered in that dimension.

Table 2.

Results of tourists’ perceptions concerning the services provided by the Egyptian airline.

Dimensions		Mean	Median	SD	Perception
1. Responsiveness service attributes
1.1	Responding to emergency situations	3.4	3	0.99	Neutral
1.2	Responding to passengers requests or complaints	3.75	4	1.03	Good
1.3	Availability of remedial procedures for cancelled or delayed flights	2.8	2	1.3	Neutral
1.4	Helpfulness and courtesy of check-in personnel	3.2	3	1.17	Neutral
1.5	Availability of remedial procedures for delayed or missing baggage	2.57	2	1.28	Neutral
2. Reliability service attributes
2.1	Availability of information on ticket prices, flight schedule, etc.	3.2	4	0.78	Neutral
2.2	Availability of preflight services: early baggage check-in, etc.	3.49	3	1.14	Good
2.3	Accuracy and speed of reservation and ticketing	3.89	4	0.87	Good
2.4	On-time performance of scheduled flights departures and arrivals	3.57	4	1.29	Good
2.5	Performing services right from the first time	3.78	4	0.97	Good
2.6	Informing passengers in advance in the case of a delay	3.76	4	0.99	Good
3. Empathy service attributes
3.1	Offering real benefits to frequent fliers	3.30	3	0.93	Neutral
3.2	Helpfulness and courtesy of employees during the flight	3.75	4	1.11	Good
3.3	Having understanding and attention to specific passengers’ needs	3.62	4	1.13	Good
3.4	Following up every customer individually	3.03	3	1.13	Neutral
3.5	Sincerity and patience of employees in resolving passenger problems	3.07	3	1.17	Neutral
4. Assurance service attributes
4.1	Safe airline performance	3.42	3	1.0	Neutral
4.2	Pilot technological knowledge and skills	4.7	4	0.82	Very Good
4.3	Probability of flight breakdowns	3.6	3	0.87	Good
5. Tangibility service attributes
5.1	Appearance, attitudes, and uniforms of employee	4.03	4	0.88	Good
5.2	In-flight modern and clean facilities	3.68	4	1.21	Good
5.3	Variety and quality of in-flight meals and beverages	3.39	4	1.27	Neutral
5.4	In-flight entertainment—news papers, magazines, etc.	3.48	4	1.09	Good
5.5	Noise level of aircraft	3.36	3	1.27	Neutral
5.6	Comfort of facilities and seats	3.37	4	1.37	Neutral
Tourists’ overall satisfaction of service		3.63	4	1.14	Good

As regards the second dimension, the results revealed that the perceptions of tourists were neutral as regards only one attribute, i.e. the availability of information on ticket prices, flight schedule, etc. On the other hand, they had good perceptions concerning the other five attributes including preflight services; accuracy and speed of reservation and ticketing, which is in line with the results of Venkatesh and Nargundkar (2006); on-time performance of scheduled flights such as departures and arrivals; performance of services right from the first time, which disagrees with (Bozorgi, 2007); and informing passengers’ in advance if there is a delay. These results indicate that the quality of service provided in the reliability dimension is satisfactory.

With regard to the empathy dimension, it was highlighted that tourists perceived employees to be very courteous and helpful during the flight, which agrees with the results mentioned in the study of Bozorgi (2007); and to have understanding and attention to their specific needs. Nevertheless, tourists’ perceptions were neutral with reference to the real benefits offered to frequent fliers, which disagrees with the findings of Venkatesh and Nargundkar (2006), the follow-up of every customer individually, which agrees with (Bozorgi, 2007) and the sincerity and patience of employees in resolving tourists’ problems. These results indicate that the preceding aspects need some improvements.

Concerning assurance, respondents perceived the pilot to acquire very good technological knowledge and skills, which is in line with the results mentioned in (Bozorgi, 2007). Besides, their perceptions concerning the safe performance of airlines were neutral and concerning the probability of flight breakdowns were good.

The analysis of respondents’ results concerning the fifth dimension of tangibility revealed, that tourists considered that the airlines’ employees had good appearance and attitudes, which agrees with the results of (Bozorgi, 2007); and there were modern and clean in-flight facilities and entertainment, which disagrees with the results of the same study. Furthermore, tourists were neutral as regards the comfort of facilities and seats, the noise level of the aircraft and the variety and quality of in-flight meals and beverages. In general, it is obvious that tourists were overall satisfied with the services provided by the Egyptian airline.

Hotels

With reference to the Egyptian five-star hotels, the results depicted by (Table 3) revealed, that respondents had positive perceptions across all attributes of the five SERVPERF dimensions, as all their mean scores are more than 4.4. These results are in line with great extent with those of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011) and those of Marković and Raspor (2010).

Table 3.

Results of tourists’ perceptions concerning the services provided in Egyptian five-star hotels.

Dimensions		Mean	Median	SD	Perception
1. Responsiveness service attributes
1.1	Providing hotel services when promised	4.48	5	0.83	Very good
1.2	Always willing to help guests	4.57	5	0.63	Very good
1.3	Always responding to guests’ requests	4.58	5	0.63	Very good
1.4	Quick check in/out	4.58	5	0.75	Very good
1.5	Responding to guests’ queries and complaints	4.52	5	0.78	Very good
2. Reliability service attributes
2.1	Providing hotel services as promised	4.41	4	0.63	Good
2.2	Function of equipment	4.25	5	0.88	Good
2.3	Match of services provided with what was publicized	4.45	5	0.72	Very good
2.4	Match of invoice with the announced prices	4.55	5	0.57	Very good
3. Empathy service attributes
3.1	Feeling comfortable and welcomed	4.7	5	0.45	Very good
3.2	Receiving individual attention	4.6	5	0.55	Very good
3.3	Paying attention to guests’ specific needs	4.65	5	0.47	Very good
3.4	Asking guests about improvement suggestions or problems encountered	4.09	5	1.04	Good
3.5	Thanking guests for choosing the hotel	4.45	5	0.78	Very Good
4. Assurance service attributes
4.1	Feeling safe and secure while staying in the hotel	4.58	5	0.72	Very good
4.2	Knowledge of staff for answering queries	4.52	5	0.72	Very good
4.3	Politeness and courtesy of staff	4.7	5	0.53	Very good
4.4	Offering competitive and affordable prices	4.40	5	0.80	Good
4.5	Property of skills to perform requested services	4.41	5	0.72	Good
4.6	Offering a variety of services	4.51	5	0.64	Very good
4.7	Offering high quality food	4.37	4	0.68	Good
4.8	Easily accessible rooms	4.15	4	0.85	Good
5. Tangibility service attributes
5.1	Neat and attractive appearance, décor, and furniture	4.52	5	0.64	Very good
5.2	Availability of clean and shiny rooms, equipment, and facilities	4.55	5	0.49	Very good
5.3	Availability of sufficient facilities for communication and business	4.56	5	0.57	Very good
5.4	Well-dressed staff and business	4.5	5	0.66	Very good
5.5	Well-functioning of everything in the room	4.62	5	0.63	Very good
5.6	Availability of secure and equipped rooms with entertainment	4.42	5	0.69	Good
5.7	Attractiveness hotel atmosphere	4.5	5	0.70	Very good
5.8	Harmony between appearance-based lighting and entrances	4.62	5	0.63	Very good
5.9	Availability of spacious and well-equipped elevators	4.56	5	0.69	Very good
Tourists’ overall satisfaction of service		4.61	5	0.48	Very good

Concerning the dimension of responsiveness, respondents had very good perceptions concerning the provision of services when promised, response to guests’ queries, complaints, and requests, quick check in/out and willingness to help guests. This is in line with the results of Kleynhans and Zhou (2012) and doesn't match with the results of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011).

Additionally, most tourists were satisfied with all service attributes in the reliability dimension. They found that hotels provide services as promised, equipment is always functioning and services and invoice match with what was announced.

Furthermore, tourists’ perceptions were almost very good about the service attributes of the third dimension, as they felt comfortable and welcomed in the hotel, which agrees with the results of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011), received individual attention to their needs, were asked about any suggestions for improvement or problems encountered, which agrees with the study of (Gržinić, 2007) and finally they were thanked for choosing the hotel.

Approximately, the same results of tourists’ perceptions can be observed in the assurance dimension. They indicated that tourists felt secure and safe during their stay in the hotel, even though the instable political circumstances that the country has recently undergone. In addition, tourists perceived the hotel staff polite, courteous, and knowledgeable to answer their queries. This perception matches with the findings of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011). Besides, they perceived that employees possess proper skills to perform the requested services, which indicates that they have one of the most crucial roles in performing high service quality. Furthermore, tourists were satisfied with the easy access to their rooms, as well as, the variety and quality of food and services offered at competitive and affordable prices, which is in line with the results of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011).

Moreover, the results depicted showed that the targeted sample of the Egyptian five-star hotels provide almost very good service quality across the service attributes of the tangibility dimension. These concerned the attractive hotel appearance, atmosphere, décor, as well as, the cleanness of rooms, furniture, equipment, and facilities, which agrees with the findings of Appaw-Agbola and AfenyoDehlor (2011) and disagrees with those of Blešić et al. (2011). Additionally, tourists were satisfied with hotel staff clothing. This result doesn't match with that of Nadiri and Hussain (2005); Al Khattab and Aldehayyat (2011) and Kleynhans and Zhou (2012). In general, tourists were overall very satisfied with all the services provided in hotels, which supports the results of Marković and Raspor (2010).

Travel agencies

According to the results analyzed in (Table 4) regarding travel agencies, service attributes that received high ratings in the responsiveness dimension concerned the employees. Tourists perceived employees helpful, which reflects the results of Johns et al. (2004), and sympathetic to their needs, which is opposed to the results of the same study. However, they were neutral regarding the prompt service provided and courtesy of employees and were unsatisfied with the response to their problems.

Table 4.

Results of tourists’ perceptions concerning the services provided in Egyptian travel agencies.

Dimensions		Mean	Median	SD	Perception
1. Responsiveness service attributes
1.1	Understanding the specific needs of customers	4.05	4	0.59	Good
1.2	Providing prompt service	3.25	3	0.70	Neutral
1.3	Helpfulness of employees	4	4	0.31	Good
1.4	Responding quickly to problems	2.4	2	0.80	Bad
1.5	Consistent courtesy of employees with customers	2.5	2	0.97	Neutral
2. Reliability service attributes
2.1	Sincere interest to solve customers’ problems	3.30	3	0.55	Neutral
2.2	Performing habitually good service	2.4	2	0.86	Bad
2.3	Informing customers when service is completed	3.9	4	0.53	Good
2.4	Providing service right from the first time	3.15	3	0.57	Neutral
2.5	Providing all promised tasks well	2.45	2	0.86	Neutral
2.6	Flexibility and convenience of working hours	2.40	2	0.97	Bad
3. Empathy service attributes
3.1	Looking for the best interests of customers	4	4	0.44	Good
3.2	Giving personal attention to customers	3.1	3	0.53	Neutral
3.3	Following up each customer individually	2.35	2	0.85	Bad
3.4	Availability of adequate capacity to satisfy customer’s needs	2.35	2	0.91	Bad
3.5	Availability of sufficient resources to offer good service	2.45	2	0.97	Neutral
4. Resources and corporate image
4.1	Sufficient knowledge about the product	2.55	2	1.02	Neutral
4.2	Availability of promotion strategies to project image	3.85	4	0.85	Good
4.3	Projecting the quality service image	3.20	3	0.67	Neutral
5. Tangibility service attributes
5.1	Appeal of office décor	4.1	4	0.43	Good
5.2	Modern- looking equipment and new technologies	4.05	4	0.38	Good
5.3	Clean and tidy looking of employees	3.30	3	0.64	Neutral
5.4	Providing visually appealing material elements about the service provided, (e.g., destination, lodging, etc).	2.45	2	0.97	Neutral
Tourists’ overall satisfaction of service		3.85	4	0.72	Good

As regards the second dimension of reliability, the results revealed that tourists were neutral concerning the sincere interest to solve their problems and the well-provision of all promised tasks and services. Besides, they were satisfied when they were informed when the service is completed and unsatisfied with the performance of service, as well as, the flexibility and convenience of working hours.

In addition, the results highlighted that tourists had good perceptions as regards only one attribute in the empathy dimension; i.e. the employees’ care for their best interests, which is opposed to the result of Johns et al. (2004). Furthermore, tourists had neutral perceptions regarding the attention given to them and the availability of sufficient resources that permit the provision of good service. Whereas, their perceptions were bad concerning their follow-up, which is in line with the results obtained by Johns et al. (2004); as well as, the required capacity to satisfy their needs.

Moreover, it was found in the resources and corporate image dimension that tourists were neutral concerning the information provided about the service and the projection of quality service image. On the other hand, they had good perceptions regarding the promotion strategies applied to project image, which agrees with the study of Mohamed (2007).

According to the results analyzed, service attributes in the tangibility dimension that received high ratings were the appeal of office décor, which disagrees with findings of Mohamed (2007) and Shahin and Janatyan (2011); as well as, the modern looking equipment and new technologies available, which is opposed to the results of Johns et al. (2004). Nevertheless, tourists were neural concerning the material elements provided, which agrees with the findings of Mohamed (2007), as well as, the employees’ appearance, which is opposed to the results of Shahin and Janatyan (2011) . Overall, tourists were satisfied with the services provided by travel agencies.

Variance analysis (N-way ANOVA test) results

According to (Table 5), there is a significant effect of the five service quality dimensions (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and reliability) on tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided by the Egyptian airline, five-star hotels and travel agencies, as p values = .000, i.e. less than .05. Thus, the alternative hypothesis (H1): there is a significant effect of the five service quality dimensions (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and tangibility) on tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided by Egyptian airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, is accepted and the null-hypothesis (H0): there isn’t any significant effect of the five service quality dimensions (responsiveness, reliability, empathy, assurance, and tangibility) on tourists’ overall satisfaction with the services provided by Egyptian airlines, hotels, and travel agencies, is rejected.

Table 5.

Results of N-way ANOVA test.

Source	Type III Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	Significance
Egyptian Airline
Corrected model	269.957	23	11.737
Intercept	1484.131	1	1484.131
Responsiveness	.000	0		.000
Reliability	.000	0		.000
Empathy	.000	1	.000	.000
Assurance	.000	0		.000
Tangibility	.000	1	.000	.000
Error	.000	184	.000
Total	3025.000	208
Corrected total	269.957	207
Egyptian five-star hotels
Corrected model	47.580	18	2.643
Intercept	1880.495	1	1880.495
Responsiveness	.000	0	.	.000
Reliability	.000	1	.000	.000
Empathy	.000	1	.000	.000
Assurance	.000	1	.000	.000
Tangibility	.000	3	.000	.000
Error	.000	181	.000
Total	4298.000	200
Corrected total	47.580	199
Egyptian travel agencies
Corrected model	105.500	5	21.100
Intercept	800.170	1	800.170
Responsiveness	.000	0		.000
Reliability	.000	0		.000
Empathy	.000	0		.000
Assurance	.000	0		.000
Tangibility	.000	0		.000
Error	.000	194	.000
Total	3070.000	200
Corrected total	105.500	199

Note: ANOVA, analysis of variance. Intercept between independent variables was ignored.

Conclusions and recommendations

Results revealed that tourists were generally satisfied with the services provided by the Egyptian airline. Out of 25 service attributes, they had very good perceptions of one attribute, good perceptions of 12 attributes and neutral perceptions of 12 attributes. The results indicated that responsiveness is the most important dimension that needs attention, as the mean of its attributes was in the fifth position (3.14), followed by empathy (3.35), tangibility (3.55), which agrees with the results of (Bozorgi, 2007), reliability (3.6) and finally, assurance, which was the best among the others (3.9).

This suggest to maintain the positive aspects that characterizes the Egyptian airline including on-time performance of scheduled flights such as departures and arrivals; courtesy, help, and appearance of employees; modern and clean facilities; availability of in-flight entertainment, which agrees with the results of (Huang, 2009), response to passengers’ requests or complaints; pilot’s technological knowledge and skills; ease, accuracy, and speed of reservation and ticketing; informing the passengers in advance if there is delay; right performance of service from the first time, and finally, employees’ understanding and attention to specific passengers’ needs. On the other hand, it is highly desirable that the Egyptian airline reduces delays and cancellation of flights, which is in line with the study of (Huang, 2009); apply remedial procedures in the case of occurrence and provide a variety of good in flight meals and beverages and assure comfort of seats and an acceptable noise level. Likewise, the airline should offer benefits to frequent fliers to retain its customers and attract new ones.

As regards the results of hotels, most of the respondents seemed to be satisfied with the various conditions prevailing in hotels. These results contradict several studies, e.g. the study of Blešić et al. (2011), which revealed that all attributes of quality, except those of empathy were negative and the study of Renganathan (2011), which revealed that hotel guests were satisfied with tangibles, reliability, and assurance and dissatisfied with responsiveness and empathy. The reason for that can be that the questionnaires were distributed in only five-star hotels, while other hotel rankings were not considered.

Additionally, several results and comments can be highlighted concerning travel agencies, which can be used as a guide for them to improve crucial quality attributes and enhance their business performance. Managers should focus on specific improvement areas related to the dimensions of empathy and reliability, which received the least mean scores among the other dimensions (2.85, 2.93) respectively, whereas tangibility was the best dimension according to tourists’ perceptions (3.48).

In general, it can be concluded that the tourists had good perceptions concerning the service quality provided by Egyptian tourism establishments including the Egyptian airline, five-star hotels and travel agencies and are overall satisfied. However, these results suggest some management approaches, through which the positive aspects could be maintained and the negative ones improved to reach perfection. Managers have to prepare sound plans to implement quality in their processes and treat their weaknesses whether they want to stay in the international tourism market and face the strong competition. Furthermore, they should study their target markets in order to recognize tourists’ needs and demands. Moreover, the staff should be trained to properly communicate with tourists, be courteous and friendly be prompt and responsive to their demands, complaints and problems, to become more knowledgeable, skilled in their job, and offer correct service and all promised tasks in a well-perfected manner. Additionally, employees’ performance should be constantly evaluated, while providing differential reward and punishments and inspected to ensure that they are not tired or under stress. Finally, additional investments should be dedicated for promotion campaigns and materials to project qualified service image.

Limitations and directions for future research

As regards the limitations, this research concentrated on only five-star hotels and questionnaires were distributed only in Alexandria and Cairo. No consideration was taken to other Egyptian hotel ratings or cities. Additionally, only the effect of the five dimensions on overall tourists’ satisfaction was tested.

For future research, it is suggested that similar studies be conducted in other Egyptian cities, taking into account other hotel ratings and tourism establishments. Furthermore, employees’ perceptions concerning service quality can be investigated and be compared with those of tourists. Likewise, this research can be followed by a study that tests the significance of difference between the five dimensions of the SERVPERF on overall tourists’ satisfaction.

Footnotes

Author Biography

Nashwa F Attallah is an Associate Professor, PhD, Department of Tourism (specialized in ecotourism), Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Egypt, where she is the professor of many subjects in the tourism field. She is a member of several academic committies in the faculty. Her research focuses on ecotourism, tourism marketing, service quality and sustainable development. Her papers have been published in international academic journals and presented at numerous conferences. She was a green member of the International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS), the reviewer of some papers for the Cornell and the Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, as well as, the supervisor of several master and PhD students.

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