Abstract
M.B.A.
In recent years South African travel industry has been facing ferocious competition. The
competitive business environment has driven managers to consider the performance of
their organizations in order to increase market share, or in other words, improve the
quality of service as the ultimate weapon for achieving high performance. The delivery
of service quality to customers requires a congruence in the perceptions of the customers
and the providers of service.
The aim of this research is to examine if there are any statistically significant differences
in the perceptions of received service between the three major groups i.e. the customers,
the staff and the managers of travel agencies. The information was gathered by means of
a mail survey. A questionnaire was developed (based on SERVQUAL), where all
possible answers of respondents were pre-specified and standardized, in order to ease the
comparison of responses.
The findings of the research revealed significant differences between the perceptions of
customers and staff and that of managers and staff of the travel agencies but not between
managers and customers. Of most concern, were the differences in the perceptions of the
dimension of reliability, which was considered the most important dimension by the
customers. Therefore, the managers of travel agencies in South Africa need to devise
strategies and seriously consider the issue of internal marketing to achieve this alignment
in the perceptions