An Examination of Service Quality and Satisfaction in a Religious Tourism Setting Mohamed Darfoon Clemson University, [email protected]

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An Examination of Service Quality and Satisfaction in a Religious Tourism Setting Mohamed Darfoon Clemson University, Mdarfoo@Clemson.Edu Clemson University TigerPrints All Dissertations Dissertations 8-2013 An Examination of Service Quality and Satisfaction in a Religious Tourism Setting Mohamed Darfoon Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations Part of the Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons Recommended Citation Darfoon, Mohamed, "An Examination of Service Quality and Satisfaction in a Religious Tourism Setting" (2013). All Dissertations. 1166. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/1166 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AN EXAMINATION OF SERVICE QUALITY AND SATISFACTION IN A RELIGIOUS TOURISM SETTING _________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University _________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management _________________________________________________________ by Mohamed Darfoon August 2013 _________________________________________________________ Accepted by: Dr. Kenneth Backman, Committee Chair Dr. Sheila Backman Dr. Stephen Grove Dr. Gregory Ramshaw ABSTRACT Since the beginning of time, people have traveled far and wide seeking to gain affirmation of their faith, and to honor the lands where their religious beliefs originated. Faith tourism, or religious tourism, is a pilgrimage that is exclusively or strongly motivated by religious reasons. The pilgrimage to Mecca, known as Hajj, is an Islamic pilgrimage where Muslims travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia to attend one of the largest religious events in the world, with participation from about 3 million people on certain days every year. Despite its spiritual and economic importance, little attention has been paid to Hajj as a religious tourism event and to the pilgrims as tourists that have the same travel pattern. This dissertation addressed service quality perceived by Hajj pilgrims and its impact on their perceived value and overall satisfaction. The research aimed to provide theoretical and practical applications with the goal of enhancing the experiences the pilgrims seek during such religious journeys. The study applied a sequential mixed method. First, in depth interviews with 7 pilgrims were conducted. Analysis of the results led to the development of the quantitative instrument. Second, a self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to first-time pilgrims of the 2012 Hajj season in 13 Islamic centers in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The analysis included 183 usable questionnaires. The data were coded and analyzed using different statistical methods including, reliability analysis, explanatory factor analysis, independent sample t-test, test of variances ANOVA, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. ii The research concluded with a number of important insights concerning the service quality in the Hajj context. Hajj service quality consists of five clear practical dimensions: accommodation, mobility, caretaking, food services and problem solving. This five-dimensional construct identified has shown high reliability and validity in terms of statistic. The 29 items included in the Hajj service quality scale were strongly or moderately significantly related to customers’ perceived service quality, monetary value and overall satisfaction with the purchased Hajj package. Although, the results of the analysis suggested that perception of service quality varies with particular personal and purchased package characteristics, it was identified that pilgrims in general were somewhat satisfied with Hajj services while having lower perceptions of the monetary value of Hajj packages. The empirical findings can assist travel agencies working for Hajj to develop frameworks of their service quality indicators, and the developed scale can be used for monitoring and enhancing their business performance. For destination managers, the findings can assist the improvement of Hajj service quality, and to adopt criteria for licensing Hajj travel agencies, particularly in determining specifications for the different Hajj packages offered. The uniqueness of this dissertation research is the development of a practical evaluation tool that can be used in examining the quality of Hajj packages sold every year all over the world. iii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my late mother Fatima Ali and my late Father Abdussalam Darfoon. Without their love and encouragement for learning, I could not be who I am today. “O my Lord! Have mercy on them both as they did care for me when I was little” The Holly Qur’an, Chapter 17 Verse 24 I also dedicate every hour I spent in course work and in conducting of this dissertation to my wife Rokaia Abdullah and my kids Siraj, Abdussalam, Fatima, Ghofran and Sarah with my great appreciation for their support and patience. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Kenneth Backman for being my Chair and for all his constant support since the time I came to Clemson. Without his very constructive research guidance, incisive comments, encouragement critiques and recommendations, this dissertation would not have been accomplished this way. My Special thank is also extended to the other committee members: Dr. Sheila Backman, Dr. Stephen Grove and Dr. Gregory Ramshaw who were interested in what I was learning and were always willing to offer insights and suggestions. Finally, working in this dissertation has opened doors to different Islamic communities in the study area. I thank all the generous people who have kindly been helping me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE .................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... ix LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................... 1 Research Problem .............................................................................. 5 Purpose of the Study .......................................................................... 5 Research Questions and Hypothesis .................................................. 6 Theoretical Applications .................................................................... 9 Practical Implications....................................................................... 10 Conceptual Definitions .................................................................... 10 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 11 Introduction ...................................................................................... 11 The Service Marketing Triangle ...................................................... 11 Service Quality Concepts and Models ............................................. 13 Development and Critique of SERVQUAL .................................... 15 SERVQUAL and SERVPERF ......................................................... 22 Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) ......................................... 23 Critical Incident Technique (CIT) ................................................... 27 Perceived value ................................................................................ 31 Service Quality and Consumer Satisfaction .................................... 32 Service Quality in the Tourism Literature ....................................... 33 Service Quality in Heritage Tourism ............................................... 37 Religious Tourism ............................................................................ 41 Summary .......................................................................................... 46 vi Table of Contents (Continued) Page III. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHOD .................................................. 47 Introduction ...................................................................................... 47 Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory ............................................... 47 Research Design............................................................................... 51 Critique of Mixed Method ............................................................... 52 Research Model ............................................................................... 54 Study Area and Examined Services ................................................. 55 Data collection ................................................................................. 56 Data analysis .................................................................................... 58 Questionnaire Development............................................................
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