Exploring Service Quality in Homestay Tourism

• 발행기관: 세계문화관광학회
• 저자명: Anizah Hj. Zainuddin Kalsom Abu Bakar
• 간행물 정보: 『Conference Proceedings』9th International Joint World Cultural Tourism Conference 2008, 417~427쪽, 전체 11쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 관광학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2008.11.30

영문 초록

One of the new tourism products in Malaysia is Homestay, a combination of tourism and recreation. Tourists will experience the daily life of ordinary people operated by small-time farmers and villagers, monitored and assisted by the Federal Government of Malaysia, via the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Tourism and normally operated under minimal fund. Literally the Homestay services are a holiday concept that started in Europe in the late 70's. Homestay is where tourist gets to stay with a selected family from a different background and culture for duration of time. Additionally, tourists will experience the daily life of locals. Meaning to say, when tourist go for vacation or holiday to one place, instead of staying in the hotel, tourist can choose to stay with foster families nearby tourist visited sites. The impact of the Homestay service industry's activities in Malaysia are tremendous where the business generated an income of more than RM200,000 in the first seven months of 2006, which involving 5,519 tourists of which 1,736 of the tourist were the foreigners coming from Europe, Japan and Korea. Due to that reason, it is important for the Homestay providers to focus on their customers' need and requirements while staying and experiencing Homestay programme. Thus, this paper investigates the perceptions of performance from a variety of Homestays available in Malaysia specifically in Selangor from the tourist's perspective. Four well-known Homestay operators were chosen which are Banghuris, Dorani, Sungai Sireh and Kuala Langat Homestay. A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed and analysed. The questionnaire comprises three sections. The first section is to measure the respondents' expectations of the service quality that they received in any Homestay programme. The second section is to measure the respondents' expectation of the service quality that they received in any Homestay program. And finally, section three is the demographic profile of the respondents. The respondents were asked to rate the service quality on a seven Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) for section one and also ranging from 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied) for section two. This questionnaire was constructed based on five dimensions of SERVQUAL which are tangibles (9 questions), empathy (5 questions), assurance (5 questions), responsiveness (5 questions) and reliability (6 questions). The results suggest that for attribute tangible, empathy and assurance, the performance equals perceived expectation. For attributes, responsiveness and reliability, the performance is below perceived expectation. Dorani's Homestay was voted the highest therefore considered the Homestay provider is able to meet with the expectations of the tourist on the variables or attributes identified. This obviously requires Hornestay providers' commitment to invest in relevant human capital in order to provide the highest standard of service to consumers.

목차

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Theoretical Structure for Service Quality Dimension

The Servqual Instrument and Its Use in the Hospitality Industry

Methodology

Results

Conclusions and Implications

References(Full references will be furnished upon request)

키워드

Service Quality Homestay Malaysia