Publication: Effect of component failure on tour package evaluation
Tour packages comprise two or more service components sold as a bundle, and multiple actors are often used to deliver individual components, thus forming a value chain. Several studies have attempted to examine the contribution of individual components on overall tourist satisfaction and find that some contribute more to satisfaction than others (e.g. see Chan, Hsu, & Baum, 2015; Räikkönen & Honkanen, 2013). However, there also seems to be a consensus amongst researchers that tourists tend to consider tour packages as unified products, and therefore evaluate their experiences holistically rather than separately (Zach & Racherla, 2011).
Previous studies on tour package satisfaction are based largely on the one-way quality model, which examines the impact of the presence of a quality element on satisfaction, and treats the relationship between tourist satisfaction and the evaluation of individual components as linear. However, Kano’s two-dimensional model suggests that quality attributes and customer satisfaction have an asymmetric and nonlinear relationship, which makes it important to consider one-dimensional quality attributes along with attri- butes whose presence does not have the same effect as their absence. In other words, Kano’s model recognises that certain factors or elements can engender satisfaction but their absence does not necessarily lead to dissatisfaction (Alegre & Garau, 2010). This view is upheld by the findings of several studies such as Cadotte and Turgeon (1988) and Zhu and Tsai (2010). In light of Kano’s model, an intriguing question in the context of tour package operations is whether individual service component failure can affect tourist evaluation of the entire bundle. That is the focus of this research note.........
