호텔 스파 이용객의 서비스 품질 인식과 만족에 관한 연구

Abstract

With a renewed interest in health, the "wellness" industry focused on health prevention, treatment and lifestyle has grown rapidly. This ebb and flow in the industry have influenced the tourism industry as well. More specifically, spa, which is part of the wellness industry, has shown rapid growth. Spa originated from the idea of personal healthcare through the use of thermal mineral waters. Since then, the concept has expanded into a lifestyle of seeking "wellness" through providing a distinguished healthcare service tailored towards each individual needs. As a result, many have adopted and developed spa in a tourism setting. Recent trends suggest that a majority of hotels offer spa services and facilities, and many are even offering medical spa treatments in partnership with hospitals to provide services to medical tourists. Even though spa is becoming one of the promising tourism industries, there is comparatively less academic research in the field. Additionally, even though service quality is a sensitive factor for its customers, considering that it's an industry involving providing a service of intangible goods, there are far less study on the quality of service and customer satisfaction in various industries. As such, the paper attempts to examine the service quality perception and satisfaction level of customers of hotel spa services. As such, this paper distributed a total of 280 questionnaires to customers who have utilized a hotel spa. Among them, excluding ones with incomplete and insincere responses, a set of 205 questionnaires were analyzed for the purpose of this study. Factor analysis of the collected survey data was conducted. Results showed that among the five proposed factors from previously existing studies (flexibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy), four factors, flexibility, reliability, responsiveness, and empathy, were statistically significant. The four factors were tested against the hypothesis presented. The research results can be summarized as follows: First, the perception of the service quality is analyzed by spa usage categorized into customer's hotel membership, stay information, hotel selection depending on spa service, travel type, number of times visited, and service cost. In terms of hotel membership, members perceived less service quality than non-members in all of the factors of confidence, reliability, empathy and flexibility. In terms of customers who are staying at the hotel and those who aren't, those who stayed at the hotel perceived higher service quality. On the contrary, those who have chosen the hotel based on the spa service perceived less service quality than those who haven't in all of the factors of confidence, reliability, empathy and flexibility. Additionally, there were no differences in the perception of service quality among individual tourists versus group tourists. In terms of the different perception of service quality by the number of times at which customers have utilized the spa service, first-time customers perceived better service quality in factors such as confidence and reliability than those who have visited two to ten times and those who have visited more than eleven times. Lastly, there were no statistically significant differences in the perception of service quality in terms of spa service costs. Second, depending on the usage of the spa service, difference in customer satisfaction was examined. In relation to service quality, difference in customer satisfaction showed similar results; however, in relation to members versus non-members, members showed less satisfaction. Additionally, in relation to customers who are staying at the hotel versus who are not, customers who are staying at the hotel showed less satisfaction. In relation to whether or not customers chose the hotel for the spa service or not, customers who have chosen the hotel with the spa service have shown less satisfaction. Also, in relation to customers who are using the spa service for the first time or not, customers who have used the spa service for the first time showed better satisfaction levels. There were no significant differences in customer satisfaction across various tourist types, whether it is individual tourists or group tourists. Additionally, the price point for spa services showed no difference in customer satisfaction. Conclusively, the perception of the service quality and customer satisfaction showed similar results. Third, within the service quality categories, confidence, responsiveness, empathy and flexibility, with an exception of reliability, all had a positive effect. The study results call for providing tailored services that identify the needs of individual customers. This not only increases the perception of service quality but also plays an important role in improving customer satisfaction; however, tailored service to each individual customer may potentially create an unorganized ad-hoc spa service. As a result, as suggested through the research, it will be helpful to operate the spa depending on the personality of the surveyed customers and establish an operating strategy on the consensus opinion of the users surveyed.