Chapter 3: Conceptualising and Measuring Quality in Tourism

This chapter critically discusses how quality has been conceptualised and measured in tourism studies, and in the context of tourism destinations in particular. It commences by arguing that to date, debates and studies on quality in tourism have been primarily informed by the services marketing perspective. Given the limitations of the services marketing theory highlighted in Chapter 2, this chapter also addresses the question of whether the services marketing theory provides an adequate basis for conceptualising and measuring quality in tourism in general, and tourism destination quality in particular. This chapter also considers whether a holistic view of tourism destination, and additionally Baker and Crompton's (2000, p. 787) ‘quality of experience’ and ‘quality of opportunity’ perspectives, could inform the conceptualisation of tourism destination quality. This chapter also discusses limitations of prior studies that attempted to measure destination service quality or destination product quality and provides a rationale for the need to conceptualise tourism destination quality from the tourists' perspective. Finally, this chapter discusses factors that could affect tourists' understanding of destination quality.