Cultural Differences of Service Quality and Behavioral Intention in Tourist Hotels

Abstract

ABSTRACT There is very little experimental evidence about whether or not tourists' perceptions of service quality and behavioral intention are alike regardless of culture. To investigate this issue, 282 tourists were administered a questionnaire soliciting their opinions on service quality and behavioral intentions from 26 countries. The results of this empirical study suggested that there was a significant perceived difference toward all dimensions of service quality among three cultural groups. The English Heritage group perceived better service quality than the Asian and European groups. The behavioral intentions on which the significantly different perceptions turned up included “loyalty,” “pay more,” and “external response.” Differences in the behavioral intention variables of “switch” and “internal response,” were not significant across cultures. Then, the relationship between service quality and behavioral intention among three cultural groups was tested by LISREL. The results indicated that tourists from English heritage cultures perceived better service quality than either the Asian and European groups in the dimensions of tangibles, reliability, and empathy, but only perceived better than the Asian group in the dimensions of responsiveness and assurance. Managerial implications of these findings, and recommendations for practitioners and marketers, could be used to allocate managerial resources and develop marketing strategies for dealing with culturally diverse clientele populations.