An Adaptation of SERVQUAL for Events Evaluation: An Environmental Sustainability Addon

Andromeda Menezes,André Luiz Aquere,Rui M Lima,Marlene Amorim

doi:10.3390/su12187408

Abstract

The events sector is continuously growing, driven by economic development and increased spending on leisure. As events may generate a large amount of waste, an environmental impact assessment is increasingly important for any event. The importance and necessity of this has recently become more significant not only from an environmental preservation perspective, but also from a social responsibility perspective, and from a marketing and public relations perspective. This paper presents a study carried out with the objective of creating a model adapted from the ServQual to evaluate the quality of the service provided with events, complementing the model with an environmental sustainability add on. Based on an action-research approach, a model was built that was developed and applied to small events in a Brazilian municipality. As the main result of this work, this approach allowed to create a way to measure the event quality, considering the gaps between expectations and perceptions of the client, adapting the ServQual Model to an event-type service. Moreover, it allowed the inclusion of an environmental sustainability dimension to ServQual. This adaptation of the model introduced new managerial analysis and was considered relevant by event managers. This study extends the application of service management tools to the specific domain of events, building on the perspective that event management shares a great deal of characteristics of services.

Highlights

In recent years we have observed a growing concern with the sustainability of human practices across all sectors of activity [1]
The authors argue that event tourism must encourage sustainable travel, and that festival organizers should consider a wide range of factors that are unique to festivals and their geographic locations, whereas: (1) there is a need for sustainable tourism development due to the growth of the tourism industry worldwide and the adverse effects of tourism on social structure, natural resources, and cultural values; (2) sustainable tourism allows us to reduce the environmental impact and maximize the social and economic advantages of tourist destinations; and (3) sustainability must consider both the development and the preservation of the tourism industry
In order to assess the inclusion of the new dimension of environmental sustainability in ServQual, the second step was the creation of a Focus Group with four event managers in the Municipality of Vitoria, State of Espírito Santo, Brazil

Summary

Introduction

In recent years we have observed a growing concern with the sustainability of human practices across all sectors of activity [1]. Few studies have yet been carried out in this context Another approach that has shown a concern regarding the environmental impacts of events is the increase in the number of festivals that directly influence the increase in event tourism [4]. The authors argue that event tourism must encourage sustainable travel, and that festival organizers should consider a wide range of factors that are unique to festivals and their geographic locations, whereas: (1) there is a need for sustainable tourism development due to the growth of the tourism industry worldwide and the adverse effects of tourism on social structure, natural resources, and cultural values; (2) sustainable tourism allows us to reduce the environmental impact and maximize the social and economic advantages of tourist destinations; and (3) sustainability must consider both the development and the preservation of the tourism industry. The author brings a strategic approach to the development of sustainable tourism in destinations, presented through the application of the A’WOT (AHP-SWOT) hybrid method, developed in combination with SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and the AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion