Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality: an Exploratory Study among Tourism Stakeholders

Abstract

Quality in the tourism and hospitality industry involves consistent delivery of products and guest servicesaccording to expected standards. Delivering quality service is one of the major challenges the hospitality managers will befacing in the following years as it is an essential condition for success in the emerging, keenly competitive, global hospitalitymarkets. There are various tools that measure and improve quality service, as well as mechanisms for quality recognition inthe tourism and hospitality industry. The managers should identify, record and weigh up the impacts of cost-profit and be ina position to prioritise towards a quality improvement process for their own property. The present study shows that tourismstakeholders perceive quality service in a hotel as value for money, a comfortable room, friendly staff and tasty food.Moreover, the survey shows that there is always room for further improvement of the hospitality services. Other results of the survey reveal that the most important factors for a hotel’s future are guest satisfaction, guest re tention and word of mouthadvertising. Aiming at excellence and profitability, the outcomes of the survey suggest focus on quality service; retention of existing guests by exceeding their expectations; continuous quality improvement; employment, regular training andempowerment of service-oriented staff; search for best practices through benchmarking; and, finally, pursuit of qualityaccreditation through the various schemes, such as the eco-labels, ISO and the EU Foundation for Quality Management