Services in the Arab Gulf States

Despite the importance of the service sectors in the world economy,research related to services only recently attracted the attention of marketers. As a result, far more research and writings have been concerned with goods than services. This would not really matter if the problems encountered in services marketing were identical to their counterparts in goods marketing. This article highlights the importance and characteristics of the service sector in the Western world and the Arab Gulf. It has been argued that the Arab Gulf States are service societies where more than 60 per cent of their labourforce is employed in service‐related industries. Intangibility, functional inseparability,perishability, and difficulty of controlling quality are universal features which differentiate service from goods‐producing industries. Service establishments in the Arab Gulf States are unique, however. They are characterised by the absence of service tradition, high operating costs, poor marketing, uneven quality, a regulated market environment,and a lack of indigenous innovations.