Service Quality Assessments of Cultural Heritage Sites by Residents and Tourists: Application of Four Complementary IPA Techniques

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite growing calls to include important stakeholder groups in order to ensure the sustainable management and marketing of tourism, there has been little concurrent research on residents and tourists’ perceptions of cultural heritage sites. This study aims to compare tourists’ and residents’ perceptions for tourism attributes in Shandiz, one of northeastern Iran’s most popular tourist destinations. Our study isbased on four different approaches: Importance-Satisfaction Analysis [ISA] (itself a revised version of IPA); service quality gap analysis; Impact Range Satisfaction Analysis (IRSA); and Impact Asymmetry Analysis (IAA). Due to asymmetrical relationships between visitor perceptions of importance and performance, revealing influencing factors on those perceptions requires using new approaches. This study’s findings provide insights into the current debate around the best methods for service quality assessment and the identification and reconciliation of areas of agreement and disagreement between resident and tourist perceptions of cultural heritage sites.