2. INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY SERVICE
MANAGEMENT IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
An establishments’ ability to sustain its competitive lead is vital for the
stability of the business in today’s highly competitive market, and quality is one
of the important factors for keeping the company in a competitive advantage. It
is the extent of how well a service provider can meet or exceed its customers'’
needs and expectations.
Market competition tends to be high to achieve customer satisfaction which
is very important because of the following reasons:
• The offered products or services are similar if not identical;
• Prices are not easy to change; and
• The cost to change to another service is measured as low;
Due to the above; we can say that Quality Management and continuous
improvement are closely associated concepts, so customer satisfaction and
recalling loyalty are very important to any hospitality organization because of
the strong market competition within this industry.
3. What is Quality Service Management?
It is the continual process of detecting and reducing or eliminating
errors in manufacturing, streamlining supply management, Improving the
customer experience, and ensuring that employees are up to speed with
training. Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the
production process accountable for the overall quality of the final product
or service.
In recent years, tourism and hospitality sectors had seen greater growth
on the consumption habits of consumers and guests relating to travel,
food, accommodation and leisure making it one of the fastest growing
sectors. With such, increasing attention has been given to management,
marketing and technology advancement of industries in these areas.
Although total quality management is applied in the service sector,
majority of the applications, methodologies being discussed are more
suitable to that of manufacturing. A different approach must be
implemented in determining the quality of outputs (services) in tourism
and hospitality than that of physical goods.
Formal Definitions of Quality:
Transcendent Perspective:
excellence
Product Perspective:
quantities of product attributes
fitness for intended use
User Perspective:
fitness for intended use
Value Perspective:
quality vs. price
Manufacturing Perspective:
conformance to specifications
Customer Perspective:
meeting or exceeding customer
expectations
4. ◦ Quality is uniquely positioned to accelerate organizational growth through
better execution and alignment
◦ Quality provides the voice of the customer critical to developing innovative
products and services.
◦ Quality can provide an organization with a competitive edge “No quality, no
sales. No sales, no profit. No profit, no jobs.”
◦ Why Quality?
Reasons for quality becoming a cardinal priority for most organizations:
◦ Competition – Today’s market demand high quality products at low cost.
Having high quality’ reputation is not enough! Internal cost of maintaining
the reputation should be less.
◦ Changing customer – The new customer is not only commanding priority
based on volume but is more demanding about the “quality system.”
◦ Changing product mix – The shift from low volume, high price to high
volume, low price have resulted in a need to reduce the internal cost of poor
quality.
Quality Levels
At organizational level, we
need to ask following
questions:
Which products and services
meet your expectations?
Which products and services
you need that you are not
currently receiving?
At process level, we need to
ask:
What products and services
are most important to the
external customer?
What processes produce those
products and services?
What are the key inputs to
those processes?
Which processes have most
significant effects on the
organization’s performance
standards?
Importance of Quality Service
Management
5. What is Tourism and Hospitality?
Tourism
Tourism is a practice of travelling for
recreational or leisure purpose. The word
tourism is derived from French word
“Turisme” meaning is to tour or travel.
While the suffix “ism” and “ist” refers to
the movement around circle by the
people.
Tourism has become a popular global
leisure activity. It involves an overnight
stay away from the normal place of
residence which “travel” and “stay” in the
place outside the usual environment. It
consists transportation, accommodation
and entertainment.
Hospitality
Hospitality means receiving and
entertaining guests in a way that makes
them feel well taken care of. It leverages
ambiance, service and products or amenities
to provide guests with the best experience
possible.
The goal of the hospitality industry is to
provide customers with an enjoyable
experience. Whether that enjoyment comes
from eating a good meal, relaxing in a
luxurious spa, or getting a good night’s rest
away from home, making sure each
individual guest is taken care of is
paramount.
6. Importance of Tourism and Hospitality
Tourism
◦ Economic progress - the industry aids and supports the
foreign exchange reserves which benefits our country in
generating foreign currency.
◦ Source of Income – it is a continual source of income for the
public and private income. The public income is generated
through the taxes on which the government charges to
tourist. While the private income is the profit earned by a
seller by selling local artifacts, or services to tourists.
◦ Development of Infrastructure – it aids and encourages
infrastructure development by making way for dams, roads,
connectivity, airport improvements, and any other activitythat
helps a tourist in visiting a place in more convenient way.
◦ Societal Progress – it encourages societal progress as tourists
learn to show respect, tolerance and love for each other
when they visit new places.
◦ Cultural Heritage - it helps explain beauty, art, history and
culture of each country or place.
Hospitality
◦ It helps you build better relationships with people – being
hospitable connects people through the act of kindness it
bestows upon others.
◦ Helps you see a different perspective – people are
wondrously different. Everyone has their own flavor to
how they see the world. By practicing hospitality, you may
start to enlarge your own opinions and way of thinking.
◦ Reminds you of what you have to offer - Sometimes we
forget the things that we have to offer. For example, a
customer doesn’t know the menu but marvels at the
knowledge you gave him as help.
◦ Lets others know they are important - It says “You are
important enough that I want to serve you. I want to get
to know you better so I can serve you better.”
◦ Provides a way for you to set a good example - Not
everyone has good role models. By being hospitable you
have a fantastic opportunity to set a good example for
people that would not otherwise see it.
7. Disadvantages of Tourism and
Hospitality
Tourism
◦ Huge expenditure
◦ Time-consuming
◦ Stress and health related problems
◦ Environmental Hazards
◦ Water and Electricity
◦ Overcrowding
◦ Damage to wildlife
◦ Pollution (disposal issues)
◦ Socio-cultural effect
Hospitality
◦ It can involve long working hours - The fact that
most facilities need to be available for their guests
on a permanent basis means that you may be
working longer hours than in other industries.
◦ It usually comprises a high-pressure environment -
Constantly making sure that every guest is receiving
the best possible care and swiftly resolving any
issue can lead to high amounts of stress, especially
if you work in a highly rated hospitality venue.
◦ It may involve extensive physical work - Most entry-
level hospitality roles tend to require constant
physical activity, like climbing stairs, carrying
luggage, walking for long distances and other
related activities.
8. The following five’ A’ factors represent the essential requirements for
successful tourism:
• Attractions
A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for
its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or
built beauty, or amusement opportunities. Some examples include
historical places, monuments, zoos, museums and art galleries, botanical
gardens, buildings and structures (e.g., castles, libraries, former prisons,
skyscrapers, bridges), national parks and forests, theme parks and
carnivals, ethnic enclave communities, historic trains and cultural events.
Many tourist attractions are also landmarks. Tourist attractions are also
created to capitalize on unexplained phenomena such as the UFO Crash
Site in Roswell, New Mexico. Ethnic communities may become tourist
attractions, such as San Francisco’s Chinatown, Paris’s Latin Quarter and
New Orleans’s French Quarter.
Five A’s of Tourism
9. •Access
Transport is needed to physically move tourists from where they
live to where they are visiting. Globally, air transport dominates the
movement of international visitors. In Australia roads and private
motor vehicles serve as significant forms of access. Sealed roads
offer greater opportunities for vehicle access. A healthy ground
touring sector, either day or extended coach tours, is also required
to serve the needs of tourists who prefer not to transport
themselves.
•Accommodation
All destinations need accommodation nearby otherwise tourists will
will have nowhere to sleep. This seems basic enough, but investors
will only invest in accommodation infrastructure if there is sufficient
sufficient economic return. Many areas of Australia are blessed with
excellent attractions and are readily accessible but (for a whole
range of reasons) lack tourist accommodation. In recent years the
market has seen a proliferation of accommodation types.
10. •Amenities
Amenities are the services that are required to meet the needs of
tourists while they are away from home. They include public toilets,
signage, retail shopping, restaurants and cafes, visitor centres,
telecommunications and emergency services. Because many of the
amenities are government services delivered by local, state and
national agencies, a high degree of co- operation is needed,
particularly where tourist services may be seen to be competing with
the needs of residents.
•Awareness
Having the best attractions, access, accommodation, and amenities in
the world is totally useless if the awareness factor is missing.
Awareness in this sense has 3 meanings. First is that local population
must have a positive attitude in tourism. Secondly, those in front line
of tourism must have strong, positive attitude toward tourists. The last
is market awareness. The destination or more importantly, the
destination’s image must be strong, positive one and firmly implanted
in tourist’s mind.
