Towards a Regenerative Future: An Empirical Study of Service Quality Enhancement in Rajasthan Tourism

Introduction

Every industry has the aim of attaining long-term success and being commercially viable. According to Elexa and Krafská (2011), the overriding aim of any business organization is to obtain and maintain customers. A good number of scholarly articles emphasize that “service quality”, “satisfaction”, and “behavioral intention” play a crucial role in the growth and profitability of the service industry. These studies have theoretically explained the relationship between “service quality” and “customer satisfaction”, as well as, “service quality” and “behavioral intention” in various industries (Asubonteng et al., 1996; Lee and Cunningham 2001; Parasuraman et al.,1994).

In the tourism industry, it is a widely accepted fact that a well-managed service quality enhances the level of tourist satisfaction while visiting any place and increases their intention to revisit that very spot. Adinegara (2018), Prayag and Ryan (2012), Puri et al. (2018), Seetanah et al. (2020), and many more have identified that service quality and tourist satisfaction both influence “revisit intention”. Though previous studies have theoretically explained the influence of service quality on tourist satisfaction and revisit intention, there is always a contradiction concerning the dimensional structure of service quality (Basiony et al., 2014), and which service quality dimensions affect tourist satisfaction and revisit intention is also not clear in the previous studies (Basiony et al., 2014). Only a few studies so far have examined the relationship between “Service Quality”, “Tourist Satisfaction” and “Revisit Intention” in the context of Indian tourist destinations, and no in-depth study has so far explained the perceived service quality dimensions among tourists and their impact on tourist satisfaction and revisit intention in the context of Rajasthan - one of the most popular tourist destinations in India. Henceforth, in this study, the researchers have attempted to examine the perceived service quality dimensions among tourists and their impact on tourist satisfaction and revisit intention in the context of Rajasthan.

This study revolves around four key objectives. The first objective is to analyze the service quality dimension of tourism services in the context of Rajasthan. The second objective is to examine the reasons for tourist satisfaction and intention to revisit this place. The third objective is to determine the relationship between service qualities, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intention. The fourth and final objective is to determine the influence of service quality on tourist satisfaction and tourist’s intention to revisit tourist places in Rajasthan.

The remaining sections of this research manuscript are organized as follows: Initially, the authors have made a brief description of the study area, followed by an extensive Literature Review section covering the concepts of “service quality”, “satisfaction”, and “revisit intention”; their attributes and theoretical relationship upon which the hypotheses are developed. Thereafter, the Research Methodology is presented. After that, Data Analysis and Interpretation have been carried out. In this study, the researchers have applied a combination of various quantitative tools to accomplish the objectives of the study. The study concludes with a systematic presentation of theoretical and practical contributions, along with valuable Suggestions and Recommendations drawn from the study. Limitations and the Future Scope of current research are also discussed at the end.