AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF TOURISTS PERCEPTION

AND SATISFACTIONTOWARDS HOTELS IN AGRA

 

Presented By:Hriday Shankar Verma

MBA-I127614

INTRODUCTION

The hotel industry today has been recognized as a global industry, with producers and consumers spread around the world. The use of hotel facilities such as: room, restaurant, bar, nightclub or health club; are no longer considered a luxury.

Hotel Industry of India 3.4 billion foreigner tourist

visited in 2011-128475 million foreign exchange

earning.The hospitality industry in India is

a 3.5 trillion dollar service sector within the global economy

Hotel Industry in AgraHotel industry in Agra is highly expanded as

it is a tourism city. A large number of travellers across the world come to Agra every day to visit its heritage. Agra has gained fame for some magnificent monuments, especially Taj Mahal. Being one the “Seven Wonders of the World”, Taj Mahal attracts millions of people across the world. That’s why accommodation facilities are extremely good over here. Hotel industry in Agra is very huge and getting accommodation over here is not at all tough.

 

Significance of the study

This study traces the tourist’s perception regarding the hospitality products; and measures the gap between services expected and services perceived by tourists visiting Agra.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To make study scientific and systematic the researcher has made following objectives:-

 To study the performance of hotels in Agra on

the revenue basis.To identify the gap between tourist perception

and satisfaction towards hotels in Agra.

To investigate the problems faced by tourist in Agra.

To suggest an action plan for improvement in hospitality and services quality of hotels in Agra.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The present study is based on primary as well as secondary data. The primary data has been collected through self structured questionnaire and interview and by using the SERVQUAL for measuring customers' perceptions of service quality.

SERVQUAL along the five dimensions as given below:

(1) Reliability- ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably;

(2) Responsiveness-willingness to help customers and to provide prompt service;

(3) Assurance-knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence

(4) Empathy-caring and individualized attention to customers.

(5) Attitude- professionalism of employees’ approachability and ease of contact, effective communication.

RESEARCH DESIGN Primary data will be collected though self structured

questionnaire and interview of the hotel representatives and tourists of Agra.

To collect primary data the following research design used by researcher.

Parameters Components Geographical Area Agra Sample area Hotels in Fathehabad road Agra Sample Population Tourist 50(Foreigners 25+Indian25)

+5Hotels Sample Type Convenient Sampling Research Method Survey Method Research tool SERVQUAL( service quality measurement tool) Time Period 4 months

Secondary data will be collected through journal, government-reports, magazines, internet websites, and newspapers.

ANALYSIS: There is a sample of 50 tourists in which 25 tourists are

Indians and 25 are foreigners.

Interpretation- The graph depicts that out of 50 tourists, 40% belong

to owner/private business, 28% are students, 20% are employee and govt. officers are only 12%.

Occupation

Government officer12%

Employee20%

Owner/ Private

business40%

Student28%

Other0%

Other0%

Motive of your trip to a particular hotel

Interpretation- The above results depicts that 60% trip to this hotel for their personnel and 24% for their leisure and the rest 16% for their official purpose.

Motive of your trip

Personnel60%

Official16%

Leisure24%

What is the reason to choose a particular hotel?

Interpretation-

The above graph shows that 44% tourists choose hotel which is on the convenient location, 24% tourists due to excellent service, 20% choose this hotel for reasonable rate, 4% because of company contract with hotel and 8% tourists choose this hotel because of other reason like overall good etc.

Reason to choose hotel

Excellent service

24%

Company contract with

hotel4%

Reasonable rate 20%

Other8%

Convenient location

44%

How many times you have stayed at a particular hotel in the past years?

Interpretation-

The results depicts that 76% tourists have stayed less than five times at one hotel and 24% tourists have stayed more than five times at same hotel in the past years because they satisfied with the hotel services .

Stayed at this hotel in the past years

Less than five times76%

More than five times24%

II) ANALYSIS OF TOURISTS SATISFACTION IN HOTELS OF AGRATOURISTS SATISFACTION CONCERNING RELIABILITY

RELIABILITY

4.48

4.123.88

4.084.28

4.08 4.084.2

3.43.63.8

44.24.44.6

Keeppromises

Interest insolving

problem

Dependablein handling

Provideservice they

promise

Level of Expectation

Level of Perception

TOURISTS SATISFACTION CONCERNING RESPONSIVENESS

RESPONSIVENESS

4.36

44.12 4.12

4.324.4

4.08

4.48

3.73.83.9

44.14.24.34.44.54.6

Tell whenservice is

performed

Promptservice

Quicklycorrect

mistakes

Never busyto respond

Level of Expectation

Level of Perception

S.W.O.T ANALYSIS OF HOTEL INDUSTRY

Strengths· A very wide variety of hotels is present in

the country that can fulfill the demand of the tourists.

· There are international players in the market such as Taj and Oberoi & International Chains.

· Manpower costs in the Indian hotel industry is one of the lowest in the world.

· India offers a readymade tourist destination with the resources it has. Thus the magnet to pull customers already exists and has potential grow.

WeaknessesLess availability.• Only 1,50,000 hotel rooms • Less accessibility.• Deviation of services.

Opportunities• Adding 60000 rooms.• Approved 300 hotel projects.• Unique experience in heritage

hotels.International airport project.

Threats

· Guest houses replace the hotels. This is a growing trend in the west and is now catching up in India also, thus diverting the hotel traffic.

· Political turbulence in the area reduces tourist traffic and thus the business of the hotels. In India examples of the same are Insurgency in Jammu Kashmir and the Kargil war.

FINDINGS OF THE STUDY40% tourist belong to business.44% tourist choose this hotel on

convenient.24% due to excellent service.84% respondent will to

recommend this hotel to their family.

16% respondent are not satisfied hotel services.

CONCLUSION  This study focused further on the gap

between tourists expectation and their perception of the hotels service quality. The results showed that the three dimensions of SERVQUAL (Reliability, Responsiveness and Attitude) yielding a positive gap. Hence tourists are satisfied with these three dimensions of service quality. But two other dimensions of SERVQUAL (Empathy and Assurance) are not satisfied the tourists.

Suggestions Creation of small shopping cum

cultural fests in April-May.Small cultural events in April-June.Special light and sound shows during

that period on specific days across the monuments (once a week)

Small exhibitions at the monuments itself to showcase the past of the city with interesting anecdotes.

Providing free drinking water along with tickets.

Arrangement of umbrellas on a returnable basis.

Putting matting on the main monument floors to. save the feet of tourists from scalding.

First aid arrangement for heat stroke.Arrangement of appropriate shade to

minimize. direct exposure to sun as far as possible.

REFERENCES Andrews (2007): “Introduction to Tourism and

Hospitality Industry”, Tata McGraw Hill, New York, USA. Batra G. S (1998): “Tourism Promotion in India:

Strategic Issues”, Tourism Towards 21st Century, Deep and Deep Publication, New Delhi, India

Caprihan Vijai (2001): “Changing Consumer Expectations – Organisational Changes – Insight and Solutions, Excel Books, New Delhi, India.

Dixit, M and C. Sheela (2001): “Tourism Products”, New Royal Book Company, Lucknow, India.

Gowri Shankar K (2009): “Indian Hospitality Industry: Emerging Issues, Opportunities and Challenges”, ICFAI Publishers, Hyderabad, India.

Gupta I.C. and Kasbekar Sushma (1995): “Tourism Products of India”, Indore Publication House, Indore, India.

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