Tourism smes, service quality and destination competitiveness

A successful tourism destination must embrace an integrated approach towards the many components of the tourism system. The role of destination management organizations (DMOs) is vital to providing leadership and coordination for destination stakeholders (Ritchie and Crouch, 2003). Tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have very different approaches to the setting and maintenance of quality standards that are critical to competitiveness at an
individual business and destination level. Coupled with this, the tourism industry experiences significant staffing problems due to its poor image. The recruitment and retention of staff of an appropriate calibre is a major issue for many businesses. High staff turnover militates against investment in employee development. Public-sector interventions, e.g. by DMOs and related business support services, seek to promote regional integration and quality standards through the development of regional approaches to benchmarking, training and marketing to enhance destination image and its appropriate projection, maximizing the potential of tourism as a vehicle for economic development. Orthodox approaches to considerations of service quality management do not map well onto the heterodoxy of tourism SMEs and microbusinesses, due to the inherent characteristics of tourism SMEs and the problems associated with their understanding of service quality and how to achieve it.

Từ khóa: tourism smes, service quality, destination competitiveness, hệ thống du lịch, điều phối du lịch, kinh doanh du lịch