Perception on Service Quality of Foreign Tourists Who Attended the Iloilo Dinagyang Festival Ati-Ati Tribe Competition 2014

The aim of this study is to assess the level of service quality of the Iloilo Dinagyang Festival, one of Philippines’ most prominent cultural festivals. Current festival studies are focused on the quality improvement of service organizations and recreation industries. Nevertheless, being an abstract concept, the measurement & analysis of service quality is still under continued development with numerous models applicable for different tourism activities. In lieu with this, the researchers aim to put into context the gap mentioned by making an attempt to measure the level of service quality of the 2014 Dinagyang Festival using one of the leading service quality assessment models. Purposive sampling with thirty foreign tourist respondents was used in this study. The Childress-Crompton model was utilized to assess the respondents’ perception of service quality based on four key service dimensions. The study concludes that foreign tourists who attended the festival were satisfied with the event’s generic and specific entertainment features, and neutral with regards to information sources and comfort amenities. As to the over-all relative level of importance of the four dimensions, the ranking is in accordance with existing literature. Furthermore, statistical tests revealed significant differences on how the different sexes and age groups rated some of the festival’s key service dimensions. In conclusion, improvements in the festival should focus on cleanliness, information dissemination, and refinement of comfort amenities.

Keywords – Cultural tourism, Festivals, Dinagyang, Service Quality, Childress-Crompton Model