Measuring gaps between Tourists’ Expectations and Perceptions with Reference to Cairo as a tourist destination

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management Tourism Department, Pharos University, Alexandria

Abstract

Customers generally have a tendency to compare the service they 'experience' with the service they ‘expect’. If the perception does not match the expectation, there arises a gap, which could refer to a satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Tourist satisfaction is an important element due to its role in destination survival. This paper estimates the gaps between tourists’ expectations and perceptions. It also identifies the differences among nationalities of tourists in their perception of services provided in Cairo as a tourist destination; also it determines the dependence of tourists’ future behavioral intention on satisfaction or dissatisfaction of services. The results showed gaps between what tourists expect and what they perceive; also indicated a difference among nationalities in their perception .in addition it was found that the tourists’ future behavioral intention is dependent on the services that meet tourists over all expectations.

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