Introduction
The complexity and globalisation of today’s competitive business environments have
made quality as one of the most important sources of competitive advantage for the
tourism business enterprise/destination. Many leading quality organisations have
started to exploit opportunities to face this situation and recognized the importance to
have systematic processes to manage quality to gain and maintain this competitive
position. Each business management is aware of the fierce competition in every sector and customer expectations have never been greater. It is no longer sufficient just to
maintain a business; it is necessary to move forward if a business wants to achieve a
sustainable future. Customer care, improvements in efficiency, effective marketing,
benchmarking, staff training and development are all vital for survival and
competitiveness in a changeable business environment.
To improve, means to change, and change can be stressful. There is no magic formula
that can be applied to every business, but there are proven systems, such as quality
management that can bring great benefits if it is applied in the right way. For business to
be successful, the motivation to develop and implement a quality management system
must be based on a clear understanding of the business aims and objectives. Whatever
the size of the organisation and whatever the type of business, management will
appreciate just how important quality is to the organization/destination’s continued
success.
After all, the term “quality” frequently leads to misunderstanding. A better
understanding of the term is essential, particularly if the quality has been seen from a
strategic viewpoint. However, the term quality has come to take on a broader meaning
in the management of organisations. The total quality management (TQM) movement
and other management philosophies have focused on the fitness of final products and
services for stakeholders, have emphasised not only the product quality, but also the
need to build quality into the production and delivery processes of the organisation and
have stressed the importance of employee involvement in process redesign and
commitment to the improvement of the final tourism product or service.
Tourism as a business is asserting itself as the engine of Egypt’s economic
development. In 1982 Egypt hosted about one million visitors. By 2003, that figure has
risen to 6.0 million visitors and it has continued to rise, despite the political turbulence
of the last few years. Egypt’s tourist facilities and destinations are able to compete well
by following tourism quality standards and sustainable tourism models.
Owing to the customer-oriented service endeavours, tourism enterprises, either
private or public, need to improve service offerings by determining the needs of their
target groups. Exploring the current ratings of customer expectations and customer
perceptions on specific service attributes provides a tool for management in order to
improve the service quality of the firm. Within this context, this study aims at
determining the current service quality level of tourism services in Egypt.
This paper endeavors to evaluate the customer overview related to tourism quality
in Egypt. Also, measuring the extent to which tourism business environment in Egypt
is creative and innovative.