10. Conclusion
Physical appearance generally plays a major role in how people communicate with each other in Western cultures. One of the areas where attractiveness is very important is in the tourism industry. We are all well aware of the efforts that we make before going on summer vacation when our bodies, with all their weaknesses and strengths, are put on display. The question in the industry where service encounters tend to be unavoidable is whether an attractive guest may receive better service. The answer is clearly in the affirmative. The results of our research show a statistically significant correlation between a guest's physical appearance and the quality of the service provided by the hotel staff.
We believe that the results of our study could be widely implemented outside the tourism industry. All service companies who place their employees in direct physical contact with customers may face similar problems. Whenever we physically face a customer, the perception of physical appearance is involved and this may influence service delivery. It is, therefore, crucial for management to understand this and act accordingly.
One possibility is to make a study of this problem part of students’ study programmes. In the case of tourism, education institutions need to introduce additional topics or programmes to the study curricula that address the issue. If tourism students are educated and trained not to allow guest appearance to influence the service they give and this becomes part of their professional skills, higher service quality will be provided by hotels or other tourism companies in the future. As an example, Bizjak et al. (2010) demonstrated that certain relevant education programmes could change student attitudes to guests with disabilities.
The workforce presently employed in the tourism sector should be offered special sensibility training to learn how to overcome this issue. We should bear in mind that empirical proof indicates that for numerous employees tourism is a ‘refuge’ industry (Szivas and Riley, 1999 and Vaugeois and Rollins, 2007). Due to the fact that a great number of employees come from other industries, they may have less experience and less knowledge about communicating with customers. Service quality is considered to be a tool in helping companies gain higher marketing competitiveness. Therefore, dealing with this problem should not remain solely in the hands of hotel industry staff but should also become a part of company policy aimed at providing better service quality.
Special education for all persons who work in communication with the “other side” – clients, patients, customers at counters, tourists, education and the like, has become a necessity. Such education would provide a better common understanding of diversity; not only tolerance but also acceptance of diversity as a normal phenomenon. The changes would not only be reflected in the quality of communication, but also in the provision of services.