Service quality of travel agents: the case of travel agents in Hong Kong

Abstract Travel agents in Hong Kong have faced difficult times in recent years because of increasing customer demands and internal competition in the industry. A Hong Kong Consumer Council report (1998) stated that complaints against travel agencies had increased by 12.4% for the year 1996/97, as compared with the previous year. Looking at the nature of the complaints, there was room for improvement in terms of service quality. The purpose of the study was to assess customers’ expectations and perceptions of service provided by travel agents, and to explore how the service factors derived from the factor analysis were related to overall customer satisfaction. The results showed that customers’ perceptions of service quality fell short of their expectations, with the reliability dimension having the largest gap. Five factors were derived from the factor analysis of 26 service attributes, and the result of regression analysis showed that overall customer satisfaction was related to these five factors.