The Customers’ Perception of Service Quality for Spa Establishments in the Active Beach Tourism Cluster, Thailand
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Abstract
The objective of this study is to assess the level of customers’ perception in: service quality, perceived value, service encounter, and customer satisfaction of spa customers. The study focused on foreign customers using spa services in the Active Beach Tourism Cluster, Thailand. The sampling technique used multi-stage sampling; cluster sampling, quota sampling and convenience sampling. This study employed a questionnaire survey to collect data. The result indicated that the level of actual service was higher than the level the customer expected, producing positive gap scores. The level of perceived value was moderately high for almost all factors. In-use value, redemption value and affective value were considered high, while acquisition value, tradeoff value, epistemic value and symbolic value were moderately high. Regarding the service encounter, dimensions were moderately high for both face-to-face encounters and remote encounters. Both disconfirmation of expectation and service satisfaction were rated moderately high for the level of satisfaction. As well, the service quality development guidelines exhibited in section of result discussion as its contribution for spa establishments were proposed.
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