EMPIRICAL MEASUREMENT OF THE QUALITY OF TOURIST SERVICES IN THE CASE OF PERCEPTION OF STAFF'S IMPRESSION

The subject of this research is the insufficiently studied aesthetic dimension of overall quality, created amongst other also through the "image" of service staff. The main objective of this research is related to finding an adequate methodological process of measurement and assessment by which the presence of the mentioned aesthetic dimension in the total quality achieved would be proven and enabling the analysis of the relationship between the dependent variables (questions related to expectations and perceptions) and independent variables (studied tourist facilities and cities, age structure of respondents). For that purpose five specific determinants of assessment have been allocated: appearance, charm, tidiness, business clothing and team affiliation. The methodology used in this research included a research of primary and secondary sources, the survey technique, the scaling technique, the method of analysis and synthesis, the descriptive statistical analysis and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The research was conducted in travel agencies, tourist info-centers, restaurants, hostels/apartments and hotels in three cities in the Republic of Serbia: Subotica, Novi Sad and Belgrade. The period of the study realization was July-December 2013. The research results indicate the fact that the respondents were generally dissatisfied with the impression of the staff. The largest negative gap value was recorded at the second determinant related to the manifested charm. This kind of approach to the quality, based on individual dimensions, can serve for corrections of the services in the relevant tourist entities, with the aim of reaching the threshold of the users' satisfaction and to increase the perceived value of the total service.