IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i17p7245-d1462151.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Perceived Quality of Service in Tourist Transportation in the City of Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador

Author

Listed:
  • Rommel Velastegui-Hernández

    (Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador)

  • Diego Melo-Fiallos

    (Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador)

  • María Mayorga-Ases

    (Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador)

  • Segundo Hernández-Del-Salto

    (Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador)

  • Eduardo Manobanda-Tenelema

    (Faculty of Human Sciences and Education, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador)

  • Marcelo V. Garcia

    (Faculty of Systems, Electronics and Industrial Engineering, Universidad Tecnica de Ambato, Ambato 180206, Ecuador
    Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, University of the Basque Country, EHU/UPV, 48013 Bilbao, Spain)

Abstract

This study investigates the perceived quality of tourist transportation services in Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador, utilizing the SERVQUAL model to assess service quality. Through an examination of the gap between tourists’ expectations and their actual experiences, the research aims to evaluate service quality. A survey of 203 tourists who utilized the “Chivas” tourist ground transportation service forms the basis of the analysis. The findings reveal significant negative gaps across all dimensions of service quality, indicating a shortfall in meeting tourists’ expectations. Notably, the reliability dimension exhibits the most pronounced gap, highlighting the importance of fulfilling service commitments to cultivate trust. The study underscores the crucial role of service quality in the tourism sector and proposes targeted improvements, including enhancing facility modernity, providing staff training, and enhancing service responsiveness and reliability. Addressing these gaps has the potential to enrich the tourist experience, bolster the positive image of transportation services, and enhance the city’s appeal.

Suggested Citation

  • Rommel Velastegui-Hernández & Diego Melo-Fiallos & María Mayorga-Ases & Segundo Hernández-Del-Salto & Eduardo Manobanda-Tenelema & Marcelo V. Garcia, 2024. "Perceived Quality of Service in Tourist Transportation in the City of Baños de Agua Santa, Ecuador," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-26, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:17:p:7245-:d:1462151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/17/7245/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/17/7245/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mels Gerhard & BOSHOFF CHRIST0 & NEL DEON, 1997. "The Dimensions of Service Quality: The Original European Perspective Revisited," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 173-189, January.
    2. Mohammed Al Awadh, 2023. "Assessing the Quality of Sustainable Airline Services Utilizing the Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Basiony, Abd Elazim & abd alla, Ghada & shaker El Sayed, Alaa, 2014. "Evaluating Tourism Service Quality Provided to the European Tourist “Applied on the British tourist"," MPRA Paper 57164, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2014.
    2. Carvalho, Cláudia & Brito, Carlos, 2009. "Innovative Public Service Delivery: How to assess the new relationship between public agencies and society?," Working Papers 8/2009, Universidade Portucalense, Centro de Investigação em Gestão e Economia (CIGE).
    3. Kim, Dohun & Lim, Chaehwan & Ha, Hun-Koo, 2024. "Comparative analysis of changes in passenger's perception for airline companies' service quality before and during COVID-19 using topic modeling," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    4. Tsuen-Ho Hsu & Sen-Tien Her & Jia-Jeng Hou, 2021. "Developing Universally Applicable Service Quality Assessment Model Based on the Theory of Consumption Values, and Using Fuzzy Linguistic Preference Relations to Empirically Test Three Industries," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(20), pages 1-32, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:17:p:7245-:d:1462151. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.