The Importance-Performance Analysis: an Evaluation of Tourist Satisfaction with the Destination Attributes

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1 The Importance-Performance Analysis: an Evaluation of Tourist Satisfaction with the Destination Attributes by Maria Johann, Ph.D. Warsaw School of Economics Abstract. The paper presents the results of a primary data analysis examining tourists perceptions of Poland as a tourist destination. The researcher analyzed the data collected in 2013 regarding tourists satisfaction with the package holidays in Poland. The aim of the research study was to analyze tourists opinions concerning the most important destination attributes crucial for travelers in terms of their importance for tourists as well as their performance. The researcher distinguished two groups of tourism product attributes: package holiday services (internal tourism product attributes) and other destination attributes (external tourism product attributes) influencing tourists holiday experience. The Importance-Performance Analysis was used to evaluate the distinguished tourism product attributes. The surveyed sample of tourists spent their holiday on the coach tours in Poland. The total sample volume was 463 travelers. The conclusions of the study are concerned with the recommendations regarding the tourism product development process and the necessity of developing cooperation between tour operators and local authorities, tourism organizations as well as other entities offering tourist services. Key words: Importance-Performance Analysis, tourism product attributes, destination attributes, customer satisfaction JEL classification: M39 1 Introduction The travel and tourism industry has developed into one of the largest businesses in the world over the last decades. Investments in tourism infrastructure, increasing number of products and services available for tourists, development of the promotional programs aimed at building the attractive image of destinations as well as intensifying price competition are the characteristics of the today s tourism market. As a result of these trends, competition among tourist destinations, tour operators, and other entities offering tourist services has become more global, faster and much more intense. Tourist services providers are challenged with the constant need to adjust market offering to more and more sophisticated needs and wishes of customers. Therefore, proper identification of tourism product attributes crucial for travelers as well as the ability to meet tourists expectations with regard to those attributes are the main challenges for tourism managers nowadays. In order to meet these challenges, it is necessary to conduct customer satisfaction surveys and take into account tourists opinions and suggestions when developing new tourism products. The paper presents the results of a quantitative analysis examining visitors perceptions of Poland as a tourist destination. The aim of the analysis was to identify tourists opinions regarding the importance and performance of tourism product attributes, including the package holiday services and other destination attributes crucial for travelers. Another important goal of this analysis was to compare the mean tourists assessments regarding the importance and performance of the distinguished tourism product attributes. The implications of the research findings are discussed with regard to tour operators, tourist services providers and other entities involved in tourism development. 2. Literature review The traditional view of a tourism product is based upon the framework of exchange. However, the contemporary approach recognizes the importance of relationships and the co-creation of value. Moreover, due to the 572

2 complex and multifaceted nature of tourism products, they can be viewed as a bundle of tangible and intangible attributes offered as an activity experience to the tourists (Gilbert, 1990). It is possible to disaggregate the tourism product into stages from anticipation and planning to booking, travel and evaluation. Another approach suggests that a tourism product is composed of destination elements including tourist attractions and supporting services such as accommodation, food and drink, and transportation (Cooper et al, 2005). Thus, tourism product refers to the overall holiday experience consisting of various components including transportation, accommodation, meals, image as well as other attributes important for tourists (Mehmetoglu and Normann, 2013). Numerous research studies link this set of tourism product components to the tourist quality perception (Blazquez et al, 2012). As customers perceptions are generally considered relatively to expectations, it is important to use appropriate measurement tools to assess customer satisfaction. Furthermore, expectations are dynamic and the evaluations may shift over time (Zeithaml et al, 2013), so it is necessary to conduct customer satisfaction surveys regularly. There are numerous tools measuring service quality and customer satisfaction. Among the most commonly used analytical instruments are: SERVQUAL, SERVPERF and IPA. SERVQUAL (Parasuraman et al, 1988) is a measure of service quality, which is used to measure customers expectations and perceptions with regard to five service quality dimensions such as reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. SERVPERF (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) is based only on the perception component, while IPA (Martilla and James, 1977) measures the importance and performance of various product attributes. Since customer satisfaction is viewed as a broader concept than service quality, IPA can be considered a better analytical instrument to measure satisfaction since it is not limited to five service quality dimensions and enables to assess the importance and performance of various elements, such as product and service features, quality, price, and other factors. Due to its simplicity and ease of application IPA has been used in the numerous research studies regarding tourism and hospitality industry (Evans and Chon, 1989; Chu and Choi, 2000; Deng, 2007). 3. Research methodology The research study was concerned with the measurement of tourists evaluations regarding the most important tourism product attributes. The researcher assumed that tourist satisfaction depends on various elements, including package holiday services and other destination attributes crucial for travelers. Thus, two groups of tourism product attributes were distinguished: controlled by the tour operator (internal tourism product attributes) and those beyond the tour operator control (external tourism product attributes). The internal tourism product attributes comprised of: attractiveness of the program, organization, hotels, restaurants and meals, standard of the bus, tour escort, and price/quality relationship. The external destination attributes referred to the cultural, natural, social, economic, functional and other factors influencing tourists experience. The latter group included: climate and atmosphere of the visit, tourist attractions, nature and countryside, shopping opportunities, safety, opportunity to meet new people, weather, cleanliness, reasonable prices, tourist information, kindness towards foreigners, possibility to communicate in English, and handicapped facilities. In order to analyze tourist satisfaction with the distinguished tourism product attributes the Importance-Performance Analysis was applied. The Importance-Performance Analysis proposed by Martilla and James (1977) was applied to compare the mean tourists assessments regarding the importance and performance of the distinguished tourism product attributes. Instead of using graphical 573

3 quadrants in the original study, the current study just makes a comparison of means and uses a paired sample t-test. Each tourism product attribute was evaluated on the 1-5 Likert scale in terms of its importance and performance. In addition to the paired sample t-test, a Wilcoxon test was used, since the Kolomogorov-Smirnov test did not reveal the normal distribution of responses. The results of the Wilcoxon test confirm the results of the paired sample t-test, thus they are not included in the paper. 4. Sample characteristics The surveyed sample of tourists spent their summer holidays on the coach tours in Poland. Package holidays were organized and sold by tour operators and agents in the USA, Canada, and Australia. Mazurkas Travel, Polish Incoming Tour Operator, was a local partner. The program of the tours included the major Polish cities and the most important tourist attractions. The questionnaires were distributed among tourists in the end of each tour. The total sample volume was 463 travelers. According to the survey results presented in Table 1, 59.8% of tourists were females and 40.2% males. 69.1% of respondents were over 60, 15.3% were within the age bracket of 51-60, 6.1% were between ages of 20-30, 5.4% between 41-50, 2.4 % between and 1.7% were under 20. Considering the country of residence, 83.8% of tourists were from the USA, 8.7% from Canada, 4.7% from Australia, and 2.9% from other countries. The majority of travelers were the US residents over 60. Table 1 Sample characteristics Description Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Gender Valid Female Male Total Missing System Total Age Valid under over Total Missing System Total Country of residence Valid USA Canada Australia Other countries Total Missing System Total Findings The results of the paired samples statistics with regard to the internal product attributes are presented in Table 2 and the paired samples test in Table 3. In the case of attractiveness of program, hotels, standard of the bus and price/quality relationship the significance level is below In the case of organization, restaurants and meals, and tour escort the significance level is above Thus, there is a statistically significant difference in the mean 574

4 assessments between importance and performance of such internal tourism product attributes as: attractiveness of the program, hotels, standard of the bus, and price/quality relationship. The performance of attractiveness of the program and standard of the bus were evaluated higher than the importance of those tourism product attributes, whereas hotels and price/quality relationship were evaluated higher in terms of their importance relatively to their performance. In the case of such internal tourism product attributes as organization, restaurants and meals and tour escort, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean assessments between importance and performance of those tourism product attributes, which means that they generally met tourists expectations. Table 2 The paired samples statistics the internal tourism product attributes (importance vs performance) Pairs Tourism product attributes N 1 Attractiveness of the program Attractiveness of the program Organization Organization Hotels Hotels Restaurants and meals Restaurants and meals Standard of the bus Standard of the bus Tour escort Tour escort 7 Price/quality relationship Price/quality relationship Error Table 3 The paired samples test the internal tourism product attributes Paired Differences Pairs Tourism product attributes 1 Attractiveness of the program - Attractiveness of the program 2 Organization - Organization 3 Hotels Hotels 4 Restaurants and meals - Restaurants and meals 5 Standard of the bus - Standard of the bus 6 Tour escort - Tour escort 7 Price/quality relationship - Price/quality relationship Error 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper t df Sig. 2 tailed

5 The results of the paired samples statistics with regard to the external tourism product attributes are presented in Table 4 and the paired samples test is in Table 5. In the case of such tourism product attributes as: climate and atmosphere of the visit, nature and countryside, shopping opportunities, opportunity to meet new people, reasonable prices, and possibility to communicate in English, the significance level is below In the case of other tourism product attributes including: tourist attractions, safety, weather, cleanliness, tourist information, kindness towards foreigners, and handicapped facilities, the significance level is above Thus, there is a statistically significant difference in the mean assessments between importance and performance of such external tourism product attributes as: climate and atmosphere of the visit, nature and countryside, shopping opportunities, opportunity to meet new people, reasonable prices, and possibility to communicate in English. In all of those cases besides reasonable prices, tourists evaluations indicated higher level of performance than the relative level of importance. In the case of tourist attractions, safety, weather, cleanliness, tourist information, kindness towards foreigners, and handicapped facilities, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean assessments between importance and performance of those tourism product attributes, which means that the tourists expectations were met with regard to those tourism product attributes. Table 4 The paired samples statistics the external tourism product attributes (importance vs performance) Pairs Tourism product attributes N 1 Climate, atmosphere of your stay Climate, atmosphere of your stay Tourist attractions (culture, monuments) Tourist attractions (culture, monuments) Nature (countryside, parks) Nature (countryside, parks) Shopping opportunities Shopping opportunities Safety Safety Opportunity to meet new people Opportunity to meet new people Weather Weather Cleanliness Cleanliness Reasonable prices Reasonable prices Tourist information Tourist information Kindness towards foreigners Kindness towards foreigners Possibility to communicate in English Possibility to communicate in English 13 Handicapped facilities Handicapped facilities Error

6 Table 5 The paired samples test the external tourism product attributes Paired Differences Pairs Tourism product attributes Error 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper t df Sig. 2 tailed 1 Climate, atmosphere of your stay Climate, atmosphere of your stay 2 Tourist attractions Tourist attractions 3 Nature, countryside Nature, countryside 4 Shopping opportunities- Shopping opportunities 5 Safety - Safety 6 Opportunity to meet new people Opportunity to meet new people 7 Weather - Weather 8 Cleanliness Cleanliness 9 Reasonable prices - Reasonable prices 10 Tourist information- Tourist information 11 Kindness towards foreigners- Kindness towards foreigners 12 Possibility to communicate in English Posssibility to communicate in English 13 Handicapped facilities- Handicapped facilities Conclusions The analysis of the tourists assessments regarding the importance and performance of the distinguished tourism product attributes enables to draw a number of conclusions. First of all, the results of the study indicates that the importance of all the distinguished tourism product attributes is relatively high for tourists. Thus, tourist satisfaction depends on the quality of package holiday services (internal tourism product attributes) as well as other destination attributes (external tourism product attributes). This implies the necessity of considering the external factors while designing tourism products such as package holidays. Moreover, the development of the competitive tourism products requires cooperation among all tourist services providers as well as other entities involved in the tourism development. The assessments of the internal tourism product attributes were high, which means that the services provided by tour operators were on the high quality level. The only noticeable quality gap refers to the hotels, thus this product attribute requires thorough analysis. The 577

7 assessments of the external tourism product attributes were also high, which shows that generally tourists expectations were met and they were even exceeded in some cases. Thus, it can be concluded that Poland is perceived as an attractive tourist destination and the quality of tourist services offered in Poland is high. Another conclusion refers to the effectiveness of the applied research method. The Importance-Performance Analysis can be used as one of the managerial tools, which enables to specify the importance of the selected product attributes to target customers and define the quality gaps and the areas of customer discontent. However, it cannot be used as the only research tool. Other measurement instruments such as open-ended questions should be also applied in order to gather detailed information on the areas of customer dissatisfaction and possible ways to increase product quality and improve customer satisfaction. References Blazquez, J.J., Molina, A., Esteban, A. (2012), Key quality attributes according to the tourist product. European Journal of Tourism Research, 5(2): Chu, R.K.S, Choi, T. (2000), An importance-performance analysis of hotel selection factors in the Hong Kong hotel industry: a comparison of business and leisure travelers, Tourism Management, 21(4): Cooper, C., Scott N., Kester J. (2005), New and Emerging Markets in D. Buhalis and C. Costa (Eds.), Tourism Business Frontiers, (pp ). Oxford Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann. Cronin, G., Taylor, S.A. (1992), Measuring service quality: a re-examination and extension, Journal of Marketing, 56(3): Deng W. (2007), Using a Revised Importance- Performance Analysis Approach: The Case of Taiwanese Hot Spring Tourism, Tourism Management, 28(5): Evans, M.R, Chon K.S, (1989), Formulating and Evaluating Tourism Policy Using Importance- Performance Analysis, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 13 (3): Gilbert, D. (1990), Strategic Marketing Planning for National Tourism. Tourism Review, 45(1): Martilla J.A., James, J.C. (1977), Importance Performance Analysis, Journal of Marketing, 41(1): Mehmetoglu, M., Normann, H. (2013), What influences tourists overall holiday experience? Tourism company products versus destination products, European Journal of Tourism Research, 6 (2): Parasuramann, A., Berry, L.L, Zeithaml, V.A. (1988), SERVQUAL: a Multiple-Item Scale for Measuring Customer Perceptions of Service Quality, Journal of Reatailing, 67 (Winter): Zeithaml, V.A., Bitner, M.J., Gremler, D.D. (2013), Services Marketing. Integrating Customer Focus Across the Firm, McGrawHill. Maria Johann, Ph.D., Her research interests include: tourism marketing, marketing strategies, and consumer behavior. She is an author of about 50 publications, including books, such as Marketing Strategies in Tourism, monographs, academic textbooks, and articles. She was a deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Marketing in Practice. She was a Visiting Professor in the University of Richmond, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University, Batumi Georgian-American University of Technologies, and the University Institute in Lisbon. 578