Tribe 1998

From SERVQUAL to HOLSAT: holiday satisfaction in Varadero, Cuba

The authors’ initially question whether it is possible to measure tourist satisfaction with the entity that is known as a ‘holiday’. They consider 3 different approaches to measuring quality and satisfaction:

1) Importance-performance Analysis (IPA)
2) SERVQUAL
3) SERVPERF

The authors then consider what sort of battery of questions is suitable for measuring consumer satisfaction with holidays. Using a methodology akin to SERVQUAL, the authors develop a model they call HOLSAT. (see methods details)


The battery was compiled using 4 different sources;

1) Promotional material, like tour operator brochures
2) Critical literature – literature with no particular interests to serve (newspaper reports, guide books, television reports)
3) Focus Group Tourists (n=11) who had travelled to the resort where primary research was taking place (Valadero, Cuba)
4) Critical reflection.

The decision was taken to follow the same rough methodology as SERVQUAL – i.e. two measures (P-E).

A pilot study was carried out with 102 holidaymakers using a battery of 56 items. A series of interpretable grids were used to track WIN/LOSS in the authors’ eyes. The idea behind a complex framework of +1, +2, 0, -1 etc., was to mediate the results from the two measures (positive or negative holiday attribute, importance of the attribute). This was seen as a weakness of previous models. The grid frameworks also allowed for the generation of mean expectation and realisation scores.

Despite the seemingly weighted nature of the positive attributes, 32 out of the 47 positive attributes showed performance ratings to be significantly lower than the expectations of holidaymakers.

The model, designed to yield more explanatory power than the likes of SERVQUAL, was found wanting. The reason for this failure, according to the authors, is that consumer expectations exceed performance over a wide range of destination attributes. One key issue that had perhaps not been considered was the choice of Varadero, Cuba, as a destination – Caribbean on the cheap – so tourist’s expectations tend to be ‘Caribbean high’ and then they are disappointed as they get what they pay for. The authors then question the role of brochures in raising expectations.

The obvious extension to this work is to investigate value, as this may capture the lower price, and perhaps the belief that Varadero is actually good value.


Unfortunately the model does not appear to add anything meaningful to research, and a flawed choice of destination, without consideration of value, leave the work lacking in meaningful results.