Assessing the effects of service quality and customers satisfaction a study of hotels in Arusha as a tourism destination

Tourist's choice of destination is a challenge to both the tourist and destination provider of tourism services. Although there have been researches on tourist expectations and perceptions of service quality in many parts of the world, very little has been conducted in Tanzania's hospitality and tourism industry. Tanzania's tourists’ destinations are well-endowed with a lot of natural beauty. This paper reports the findings of a study conducted to assess the effects of service quality and customer satisfaction of hotels in Arusha as a tourism destination. From the findings tourists’ stress the urgency of quality performance and improvement. The Five-Gap Model of Service Quality was used and revealed that the gaps in the hotel service do exist. The study concludes by discussing and recommending some strategic issues to be implemented in order to raise positively the level of customers/tourists perceptions.

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