_Summary

The present work is the result of a study carried out in an important tourist center whose main objective is aimed at the design and validation of an instrument that allows to measure reliably and efficiently the perceived quality in a Sun and Beach destination. Numerous techniques were used that served as support to achieve the results obtained and comply with the objectives set, among which are: Pareto diagram, service cycle, affinity diagram, Delphi method, Importance - Adequacy, Holsat, Servqual, survey (questionnaires and interviews). The collection and analysis of the information is carried out by means of the SPSS statistical processor. With the evaluation of the results obtained and the application of the recommendations suggested in the work,It will be possible to increase the efficiency in terms of the quality of tourist services with an integrative and destination approach, achieving greater customer satisfaction in a tourist destination of Sun and Beach.

Abstract

The present work is the result of a study carried out in a tourist important pole whose fundamental objective is guided to the design and validation of an instrument that permits of reliable and efficient manner the quality perceived in a destination of Sun and sand. Numerous techniques were utilized that they were used as support in order to achieve the gotten outputs and give execution to the traced objectives, between those that meet: diagram of Pareto, cycle of the services, diagram of likeness, Delphi method, Importance.Performance, Holsat, Servqual, survey (survey and interviews). The summary and analysis of the information is carried out statistical SPSS by means of the processor. With the valuation of the gotten outputs and the application of the recommendations suggested in the work,one will elevate the efficiency as for the quality of the tourist services with a focus integral and of destination, achieving an old satisfaction of the clients in a tourist destination of Sun and Beach.

Introduction

In recent years, the tourism industry has established itself as one of the main in the world and future projections pointed to this industry occupying the first position, both for being a potential source of income and for its possibilities to boost other economic activities. of the countries that develop this branch.

The unexpected events of September 11, 2001 in the US, without a doubt, shocked the world, provoking immediate reactions in consumers, and therefore affecting the economy of all companies (mainly those related to travel and tourism) that they depended directly or indirectly on these consumers.

The UNWTO, for its part, considers the most likely scenario to be one where tourism growth in 2002 is zero, with a possible recovery expected at the end of the year. The airlines will operate in very difficult conditions, decreasing their sales volumes by up to 25%, forecasting a 15% decrease for 2003, and the key variable in this decrease is fear of flying. The trend towards mergers and acquisitions will continue as part of the neoliberal globalization process.

It is really important to take into account the dynamics of tourism products, their life cycle. Unorganized trips, business trips and seniors, are in full growth phase, with incentive, active tourism and adventure tourism approaching maturity. They are just entering that same phase, with very accelerated growth, organized trips that are at the peak of their maturity, however, symptoms of the aging of the Sun and Beach product are already showing, making it necessary to incorporate new attributes that enrich and differentiate.

Along the way of differentiating the Sol y Playa product, the main enriching complements appear as: recreational and sports activities, improving the quality of life, nature and culture.

One of the main objectives of the Development Policy for tourist regions and entities is to obtain competitive advantages through the differentiation of their products, both internally with respect to the other regions, and those offered by external competition.

Development

Quality in a general sense has become the main strategy for tourism companies, a differentiating element within the acute competitive environment that prevails in the sector. For some years now, the tourism sector has been immersed in a process of change that has made quality one of the elements most appreciated by both tourists and tourism organizations.

In the course of the last decades, the massive production of standardized tourist packages has led to the organization of tourism to very broad layers of society and the development of large tourist centers. However, as a consequence of changes in the tastes and needs of tourists, the incorporation of new technologies, the intensification of competition and the concern for the deterioration of the environment; Among other factors, the supply of a rigid and massive product does not fully satisfy the demand, which shows a growing interest in the provision of an individualized and above all quality service.

Faced with the need to serve an increasingly demanding and segmented market, increasing the level of quality of service perceived by visitors and diversifying the tourist offer leads to a priority line of action that, in order to achieve this goal, it is first necessary to be able to measure correctly the level of quality of service provided by each organization.

Quality is important in the tourism industry through the following factors:

• Intense national and international competitiveness in the leisure time market.

• Progressive consumerism and high media attention to quality issues in the tourism industry.

• Progressive satisfaction of consumer markets.

• The repetition of events and the effects of word-of-mouth recommendation.

1.1. Conceptualization of the Term Quality.

There are many authors who have addressed the issue of quality and it has generally been defined as "how suitable is it for use"; some of these definitions are as shown below:

• Quality is the result of comparison of expectations and perceptions according to.

• Quality is about meeting customer demands.

• Quality is the set of characteristics that satisfy the needs of the consumer..

• Eduard W. Deming states that quality is about exceeding the needs and expectations of customers throughout the life of the product.

In all the aforementioned definitions, the fact that quality is a function of customer perception is highlighted in one way or another. Experience shows that customers perceive quality in a much broader way than the simple fact of perceiving quality in the purchased product, hence the urgent need for companies to define quality in the same way that customers do..

The quality of service and tourist satisfaction are concepts that are closely related since a higher quality of service will lead to increased consumer satisfaction, that is, the former should be treated as an antecedent of satisfaction

Perceived Quality is the consumer's judgment on the excellence or superiority of an entity as a whole, it is a form of attitude, similar but not equivalent to satisfaction and resulting from the comparison between expectations and perceptions. (Prasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1985) We assume the concept of perceived quality as the psychic process through which the different elements that intervene in the service are reflected in the form of concrete and immediate images and manifested through consumer judgments about excellence of an organization where your needs or wants are met, whether or not they exceed. This definition highlights three important conceptual aspects of service quality:

1- Objective quality and perceived quality: the following concept distinguishes between mechanical and humanistic quality. The first has to do with objective aspects. The second, the humanistic or perceived, refers to the subjective response of people with respect to objects and is, therefore, a totally relative phenomenon that defines between value judgments.

2-Quality as attitude: Quality of Service is an overall evaluation, similar to attitude.

Parasuraman, A; Zeithamd, V; and Berry, L (1985) support this idea based on the result of a study whereby consumers use basically the same general criteria to make an evaluative judgment of the quality of the service.

3- Quality as satisfaction: Satisfaction is defined as a psychological state resulting from the equation that unconfirmed expectations give rise to, accompanied by an a priori sentiment of the consumer about consumption expectations, satisfaction is an assessment of a specific transaction, whereas quality is a global assessment, therefore, on the basis of this distinction, an accumulation of transaction assessments, specifically leads to a global assessment.

According to Huete, the satisfaction of a client is the result of the impressions received throughout the creation of the service minus the expectations that the client brought when coming into contact with the service activity.

According to Coine, customer satisfaction states can be:

Satisfaction: Expectations have been matched, but not exceeded. The transaction went perfectly and the level of effort was as expected.

Irritation: The transaction has happened happily, but the behavior of the supplier has not been appropriate.

Dissatisfaction: The transaction has not been successful, despite a required effort.

Angry: The transaction was unsuccessful, despite a significantly higher customer effort than expected due to a vendor error that could have prevented it.

Excitement: The customer is pleasantly surprised because the expectations of success were low, or the expected level of effort high, or the transaction has been redefined upside.

The perceived quality depends on factors such as:

• External communications.

• The provision of services itself, which in turn depends on:

The perception or sensitivity of the management regarding consumer expectations, which in turn should be conditioned by prior inquiry into what the customer expects.

Furthermore, quality is not always perceived in the same way. Each person determines at each moment what is their necessary quality. This is the great challenge of quality, that is, to match the best attributes at the moment that our clients demand products and services, wherever they are to satisfy the needs of those moments and in those circumstances. Quality is evident in each person when whoever enjoys the product or service finds it extraordinary, as it fulfills what they expected.

Perception is the way in which each client collects, processes and interprets the information that comes from the environment, it is a subjective representation of the real world.

Experience shows that customers perceive quality as a broader concept than the simple fact of perceiving the quality of a service or product purchased.

1.2. Quality assessment.

Quality assessment is a process that consists of two fundamental activities: measurement and comparison; This, like Quality Management, has evolved over time, differing by two very well defined periods, depending on the market relations and the role of the client.

A first stage that includes the years prior to the 1950s, characterized by methods developed in production and based on internal criteria and the company's own, without taking into consideration the customer's criteria. This stage was developed under a demand - supply relationship, favorable to demand (D> O), determining the little importance of the customer's criteria.

The second stage begins in the 1960s and remains in force today. This is characterized by a demand-supply relationship that is very favorable to supply, where the customer plays a decisive role and the external approach to quality management is significant. Coincidentally, in this period the service companies are booming and many of the models used for quality evaluation make direct reference to these companies.

If the weight of the quality assessment process is analyzed, in relation to the activities described in the quality function, it can be seen that it represents only 8% of it. However, due to: the decisive role of the client, the emphasis on the external approach to quality and its primary nature to undertake management; This process is extremely important. Because an incorrect or mediated quality assessment would cause poor quality management in any organization.

At present there are two criteria or schools related to the way in which customers perceive or evaluate quality, these are:

The European school, led by (Grönrros, Brogowiez, Denle and Lith, 1990), who distinguish three basic dimensions of quality: technical, functional and image. As can be seen from the three elements of this theoretical model, only the image has external features, it is projected outwards; but from within the organization. Both the what (technical quality) and the how (functional quality) constitute internal elements of the organization. They conceptualize the quality of service as an attitude, which must be measured solely based on performance, result or perception.

The North American school led by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988), who consider the client as the only judge of quality; stating that the perceived quality is the judgment that the client makes about the superiority or global excellence of the product, that it is an attitude, related but not equivalent to satisfaction and that it is described as the degree and direction of the discrepancies between the consumer perceptions and expectations.

Both schools have created a series of models for the evaluation of quality, where the most applied to tourism are, among others:

• Servqual (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988)

Servperf (Cronin and Taylor 1992)

Hotelqual (Becerra, Grande, 1998)

• Servqual (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988) is a powerful in-depth commercial research technique that allows a measurement of the quality level of any service company. Know what expectations our clients have and how they appreciate our service; it also makes a global diagnosis of the service process under study.

Servperf (Cronin and Taylor 1992) Through an empirical study carried out in 8 service companies (, Cronin and Taylor 1992, 1994) they deduce that the SERVQUAL model of (Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry 1988) is not the most adequate to measure the Quality of Service, and propose a new model called SERVPERF. So Cronin & Taylor develop and test an alternative performance-based model. They carry out their research based on a series of questionnaires that contrast the quality measurement carried out by means of the discrepancy between expectations and consumer perceptions and another carried out only with their perceptions or attitudes. For the elaboration of the questionnaires. They are based on the 22 items proposed by SERVQUAL and suggest,on the one hand, apply the SERVQUAL model and, on the other, measure quality only with the perceptions test proposed by SERVQUAL. Discussed in the review of the literature and according to the tests practiced by Cronin and Taylor, the SERVPERF scale seems to more closely shape the implications of the literature on attitudes and satisfaction. In this way, they propose that the SERVPERF model will have a better acceptance since the measurement only of performance is more

Hotelqual (Becerra, Grande, 1998) This model takes the SERVQUAL instrument as a reference. It is an adaptation to the hotel industry of this tool and presents a great similarity to the LOGQUAL model. This study is representative only for the Autonomous Community of Madrid and suggests that the best way to measure quality in the hotel sector is through the study of perceptions of customers who make contact with hotel entities.

All these models are applicable at the operational level to evaluate the quality in specific aspects of the different tourist processes or facilities, but their fundamental limitation is that they are not efficient in the evaluation at the strategic level.

1.3. Steps for designing the RESORTQUAL model.

To properly implement the investigation, the following steps are carried out:

1. Characterization of the destination and specifically the tourist pole in terms of the elements that compose it: tour operators, chains that operate, characteristics, etc.

2. Definition of the object of study: destination, tour operators, issuing countries.

3. Analysis of instruments that measure other constructs related to perceived quality

4. Simulate the most probable service cycle of a client in a Sun and Beach tourist destination.

5. Definition of items according to the different moments of truth that appear in the service cycle.

6. Reduction and grouping of items according to the affinity diagram.

7. Application of the Delphi method to select the questions that truly describe the reality of the tourist destination and contribute to a correct measurement of quality, the proper writing of the items and the way of asking.

8. The segmentation variables and control questions are defined.

9. Given the bibliographic review carried out, it was decided to use the direct or differential scale to compose the questionnaire.

10. Pilot or preliminary sampling of the proposed questionnaire.

11. Processing of the data obtained in the pilot sampling and validation.

12. The technical sheet of the commercial investigation is made.

13. The analysis of the Discriminant and Convergent Reliability and Validity of the scale is carried out using Crombach's alpha coefficient, Multiple regression and Student's t test.

14. Confirmatory factor analysis is performed, with Varimax rotation, to check the grouping of the construct items.

15. Evaluation of quality by means of the customer satisfaction value obtained, general and by dimensions.

16. Analysis of the relative importance given by clients to the attributes of the RESORTQUAL questionnaire.

18. Evaluation of the RESORTQUAL attributes most affected and the most favorable by market segment.

19. Analysis of the detected problem relating it to the elements of destiny and its reality.

20. Implementation of differences # 1 and 4 of the Servqual model, to evaluate the projection of senior management towards the client and the coordination of the different elements of the destination, respectively.

21. Setting the sample size and application

22. Validate the designed model through statistical tests in all theoretical aspects, and from a practical point of view.

2. 3.. Analyze the relationship between Perceived Quality and customer satisfaction through the use of structural equations.

1.4. Data sheet.

Methodological Procedure: Surveys through questionnaires with closed questions.

Universe: people of both sexes, from 18 to 65 years of age who stay in hotel facilities in the tourist center.

Scope: tourist destination.

Contact form: personal, in the common areas of the tourist center.

Sampling Points: Points of departure from the tourist pole.

Representative level: Tourist pole.

Defined sample: 923 surveys.

Sampling procedure: Multi-stage, by quotas.

Date of the Pilot Test: March-April 2002.

Fieldwork Date: May 2002.

Sampling error: 4%, for a confidence level of 95% and in the assumption of maximum variability (P = Q).

1.5. Preparation of the questionnaire

To determine the attributes and items to be measured in the study:

• An analysis of instruments is performed (such as Servqual, Importance - Adequacy, Holsat, etc.), which use the measurement of other constructs related to perceived quality

• The attributes or dimensions to be measured in the questionnaire are defined, according to the different moments of truth in the service cycle of a client at the destination. These are: Airport and Transportation, Hotel, Non-Hotel Services, Environmental Quality and General Elements.

Of a total of 65 items with which the investigation begins, it is possible to reduce to 45, with the application of the Affinity Diagram, being grouped into the 5 attributes that make up the cycle of services.

To select the characteristics that truly describe the reality of the tourist destination and contribute to a correct measurement of quality, the proper wording of the items and the way of asking, the Delphi Method is applied. 9 experts are selected (experienced professionals who work in the facilities under study and researchers from the UMCC), obtaining the following results:

For not fulfilling the condition: 1 - (Vn / Vt)> 0.8, 4 items are eliminated.

Where:

Vn: Negative votes

Vt: Total votes

The scale to be used is defined, which is the differential, because it requires a single administration; psychosocial variables, as well as control questions, to check the validity of the measurement made. In this case, the following are selected: country, sex, age, travel agency or tour operator contacted, profession, hotel crash, modality, (as variables to define segments) and the overall assessment of the service; Also the return and recommendation to friends and family to the destination as control questions.

In this way, the proposal to be tested is prepared, which is called Resortqual (Annex # 1), with which the preliminary sampling is carried out, in order to study the reliability and validity of the instrument, assess the grouping of items in the projected dimensions and the removal of some of them. The sampling frame is broad, consisting of 204 valid surveys, which makes it possible to cover this objective, detect and reduce possible non-sampling errors, analyzing questions that may be difficult, due to their wording, missing values, and return of questionnaires. in addition, formulate hypotheses about possible behaviors of the population under study.

1.6. Processing and analysis of the questionnaire.

Once the data is collected, it is processed through the statistical processor SPSS Version 10.0 for Windows. For this, the variables are defined according to their characteristics and the ordinal scale and interval variables are recoded.

The database is represented in the form of a rectangular matrix X, with n rows, which are the clients or information elements and p columns, as many as there are variables in the study. The matrix made up of this sample has 923 individuals and 65 variables.

First, several statistical tests must be carried out to verify the reliability and validity of the survey, and confirm that the scale used to assess the perceived quality of the customer at the destination is free from random and systematic errors.

1.7. Reliability and Validity Analysis of the RESORTQUAL questionnaire.

The degree of reliability required, reflected in Cronbach's alpha coefficient, varies depending on the type of study. In exploratory studies, this is required to reach a value of 0.6, while the rest of the studies are considered a reliable scale if Crombach's alpha is between 0.8 and 0.9. In this case it takes a value of 0.958, which is considered very good. An analysis of variance is carried out, which allows rejecting the null hypothesis of equality of means, which confirms the assumption of reliability.

Validity, for its part, refers to the degree to which the measurement process is free of errors, both systematic and random.

Regarding the construct validity analysis, the value of the coefficient of determination of the multiple regression R2 is 0.86, which is considered good. In the analysis of variance of the multiple regression, there is a null hypothesis that the coefficient R2 is equal to zero, in this case the Signif F coefficient is significant, yielding a value of 0.00, and allows rejecting the null hypothesis. Based on these issues, it can be said that the survey used has a convergent type of construct validity, that is, that the survey measures quality, which is what we want to measure.

To analyze the discriminant validity, the statistical student's t test is carried out to confirm if there are significant differences between the means of the clients who recommend and those who do not recommend and those who promise or do not return. In this case, in the student's t-test, the coefficient P is less than 0.05, for the first case (p = 0.011), while for the second case it is not (p = 0.404), which indicates that there are significant differences when it comes to recommending, that is, customers who recommend think differently than those who don't; on the contrary, those who promise to return do not think differently from those who do not intend to.

When this assumption is made that the client who promises to return should think differently from the one who would not, only the influence of this determination on client satisfaction was sought, but in this situation it is appropriate to emphasize that, rather than this dilemma, the trend The current tourist is given in reducing the average stay and looking for new experiences; Furthermore, Sun and Beach tourism is in its stage of decline and product diversification is imposed.

Given these results, it can be concluded that there is discriminant validity, in the case of the recommendation, which is why it is confirmed that the results obtained are valid. these means must be significantly different for this assumption to hold. In this case, in the student's t-test performed, the P coefficients are less than 0.05, which shows that there are significant differences, that is, clients who recommend think differently from those who do not. Given these results, it can be concluded that there is discriminant validity.

1.8. Factorial grouping of the scale.

Factor analysis is a type of multivariate analysis technique developed for the analysis of double-entry tables. This type of analysis seeks to reduce and group the dimensions of the information provided. This analysis starts from a matrix of initial data of individuals and variables, with which the correlations between the different variables are calculated. The absence of correlations between the variables would truncate the factor analysis process, since the dimensions cannot be reduced if they are independent of each other.

To verify that the correlation matrix is ​​significantly different from the identity matrix, the value of the determinant of the correlation matrix can be calculated. This determinant is an indicator of the degree of interconnections of the variables, if it is very low it indicates that there are variables with very high interconnections. The value of the determinant must be different from zero, if this does not happen the data is not valid. The collected sample has a determinant value of 5,405 E-15, very close to zero but different from it, so the matrix formed by the data is not an identity matrix.

To indicate the validity of the factor analysis, the indicator used is the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkim, which compares the simple correlation coefficients with the partial correlation coefficients, that is, the correlations between two variables when the rest of the variables influence the correlations, eliminating the influence of other variables. In this case, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkim sample adequacy measure takes a value of 0.94812, which is in the very good range.

1.9. Adequacy of the structural model.

In order to determine the model to measure the quality of the sun and beach destination, a statistical analysis of the structure of the model is carried out. This study is implemented through the application of the structural equations procedure of the LISREL program of the statistical software package LISREL 8.3 in its version for students.

It can be seen that the model is given by a system of causal relationships with an appropriate level of significance for the magnitude of C2, the significance exceeds the level 0.05, and equal to 0.39, which allows rejecting the null hypothesis, (H0: There is no relationship between the attributes).

Conclusions

1. The scale used for this study shows high reliability, validity and adjustment of the structural model, represented by a Crombrach alpha value of 0.9582, a multiple regression coefficient of determination of 0.86 and a C² value equal to 0.39.

2. Through factorial analysis it was determined that the instrument was restructured into six factors: Airport, Communication, Hotel, Extra-hotel Network, Environmental Quality and General Elements.

3. The discriminant validity analysis confirms that there are significant differences regarding the criteria of clients who recommend and do not recommend; since the coefficients p are greater than 0.05.

4. It was found that perceived quality is an antecedent of customer satisfaction

5. With the application of the model, it was determined that the total quality level of the attributes is 0.145, which indicates that customers perceive a product that equals or exceeds their levels of expectations. The values ​​with the lowest scores are centered on the attributes Airport (0.144) and Extra-Hotel Network (0.068) and the most favorable ones in Environmental Quality (0.159) and Hotel (0.257).

6. The items best valued by clients for the Sun and Beach destination are: beauty of the landscape, good weather, courteous and friendly workers and people, hotel security, beach quality, destination security and essentially pleasant appearance of the hotel..

7. The application of GAP -1 and 4 made it possible to determine that the managers of the different elements that make up the Destination are unaware of customer expectations and that there are problems with horizontal communication between these elements.-

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Berry, L. (1993). "Marketing in service companies: Compete through quality." Colombia: Editorial Norma.

2. Becerra Grande, A; Falces Delagado, C; Sierra Dial, B; Briñol Turnes P (1999): “Hotelqual: A scale to measure perceived quality in accommodation services”. Tourist Studies, No 139, pp 95-109

3. Berry, LL & Parasuraman, A. (1991): Service Marketing: Quality as a Goal, Free Press, New York.

4. Bigné, E. (1999) Territorial Planning and tourism marketing. Publications of the University of Jaume I DL. 2000, pages 113-133

5. Cronin, J., Y Taylor, S. (1994): "SERVPERF versus SERVQUAL: reconciling performance-based and perceptions-minus-expectations measurement of service quality", Journal of Marketing, vol. 58, January, pp. 125-131.

6. Crosby Lehtinen, J. (1983). Customer-oriented service company. Espoo. Finland

7. Deming, E (1990) Four-day Dr Deming Seminar, Jan 30-Feb 2 1990, Washington, DC

8. Juran., J (1994) Quality Control Manual. Fourth Edition, pp 19.1-19.27

9. Kotler, P (1991) Marketing Management. Analysis Planning and control. Spain.ED Prentice.. Seventh edition, pp 323-326, 525- 527.

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ANNEX # 1. RESORTQUAL Questionnaire

We would like to know what level of importance you attribute to each of the dimensions that evaluate the quality of the Varadero destination. Please distribute a total of 100 points among the five, according to the importance of each of them to you (the more important that dimension is to you, the more points you will assign).

I would visit the tourist destination Varadero again Yes _____ No _____

Would you recommend Varadero tourist destination to your friends and family? Yes _____ No _____

Demographic variables:

Country: ______________ Age: _______ Sex: __ Male __ Female

Profession:

__ Worker.

__Student.

__Housewife.

__Merchant.

__Doctor / Teacher

__ Middle command

__Office worker

__ Top Command

__Retired

__Unemployed

__ Public sector employee

Education level:

__ No studies __ Primary studies. __Bachiller __Universitarios Medios __Univ. Superiors.

Starlight of the hotel you stayed in: 2 ☆ 3 ☆ 4 ☆ 5 ☆

Modality:

__Only accommodation __Accommodation and breakfast. __Accommodation and half board.

__Accommodation and full board. __All inclusive.

*** Thank you so much ***