Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 21, Issue 5, October 2000, Pages 451-459
Tourism Management

Rural tourism in Israel: service quality and orientation

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(99)00099-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Rural tourism in Israel is a growing trend, augmented by declining agricultural income. The concept of service quality and service orientation in rural tourism establishments (B&B's) in Israel is investigated. Utilizing Grönroos's model of perceived service quality, an exploratory empirical study of 206 guests and 23 entrepreneurs revealed gaps between expected and experienced service dimensions. Based on these findings, management and marketing implications for service quality improvements are discussed along with the acute need for appropriate training.

Introduction

The rural tourism industry in Israel is currently experiencing a major upturn. Started basically as a “grassroots” phenomenon aimed at supplementing the declining agricultural business, by 1994 it had flourished to 3507 accommodation units, offering 12,572 beds in 444 geographical sites. The decline in agricultural business has had a greater impact on the peripheral areas of the country because of the few industrial real-estate opportunities available compared to those of the central areas. In addition, tourism businesses are probably not the most attractive alternatives since they are service rather than manufacturing orientated. It should be recalled that the rural agricultural communities and their residents were once perceived as pioneers or “bread and butter” of the country, thus it required a major change of attitude in order to offer services as a way of living. Rural tourism has also been viewed as a suitable solution to the shortage in low-to-medium-priced accommodation in Israel (Fleischer & Pizam, 1997). The ever-increasing construction rate of luxury hotels in urban locations and tourist centers has left a void in terms of catering to the thrifty and nature-loving markets.

Unfortunately, rural tourism in Israel suffers from two major problems: inconsistent service quality and lack of appropriate service orientation. The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of quality of service in rural tourism, to study gaps in expected versus experienced service, to explore the service orientation of rural tourism entrepreneurs as well as to provide marketing management strategies that will narrow these gaps. The approach taken here emphasizes the importance of the qualitative conceptual dimensions of the service gap analysis. This was undertaken by conducting an exploratory study of both tourists and entrepreneurs in rural Israel.

Section snippets

The significance of rural tourism

According to the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), rural tourism is defined as tourism taking place in the countryside. “Rurality is the central and unique selling point in the rural tourism package” (OECD, 1994, p. 15). Thus, rural tourism should be located in rural areas, built upon a rural world's special features, small-scale enterprise, open space and sustainability. Bramwell and Lane (1994) describe rural tourism as a multi-faceted activity rather than

Service quality assessment

While it is relatively easy to define and assess product quality, the quality of service concept often constitutes a challenge in terms of definition and evaluation. Products are concrete and can be relatively easily measured. Services, however, are noted for the intangible characteristics of separability (produced and consumed at the same time) perishability (cannot be stored), and high degree of variability (Kotler, 1997).

Within the definition of rural tourism, service quality includes the

The study of service gap and service orientation

Grönroos (1990) emphasized the importance of the difference between expected quality of service and the actual quality of service experienced. By comparing customers’ expected service with customer's experienced service, the organization is able to determine whether the service standard exceeds, meets, or falls below customer expectations (Qu & Tsang, 1998). In essence, satisfaction occurs whenever the difference between expected and experienced tends to be small. Dissatisfaction occurs when

Data collection and analysis

A questionnaire, which was distributed to the guests upon their arrival and again as they departed the site, was used to collect relevant data for the study. This “pre-test” and “post-test”, or performance-based methodology (Cronin & Taylor, 1992), enabled us to determine the expected level of service versus the level that was experienced. As an exploratory study, about 250 guests were interviewed in 23 rural tourism sites (B&B's). A total of 206 valid pre- and post-responses were collected

Managerial skills

An additional problem we will now discuss that is clearly associated with rural tourism in Israel is the lack of appropriate management and marketing skills. If one explores the development of the industry, it is obvious that most entrepreneurs do not have the appropriate skills to run an effective and efficient business since most of the operators are small-scale farmers who are simply looking for supplementary income, given the decline of small-unit agriculture in Israel (Fleischer & Pizam,

Marketing implications

When analyzing possible marketing implications, the distinction between functional and operational services should be made. In other words, a separation between objective and subjective dimensions of service can add greater insight into the understanding of customers’ perceptions of service. Specifically, the difference in customers’ perceptions of the dimensions can aid in constructing an effective marketing communication strategy and indicate potential areas for improvement. In order to carry

Possible solutions and summary

Three major strategies are available to ensure acceptable levels of satisfaction: adjustment of expectations, raising service levels or utilizing both strategies simultaneously. The adjustment of expectations is closely related to the management-marketing issue presented earlier. Entrepreneurs should ensure that the expectations of the guests are realistic through the use of two major channels: mass media and person-to-person communication. It should be noted that mass media in this context

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