A Study of Determinants of Service Quality and Its Role in Customer Satisfaction: A Case of Selected Hotels in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

Purpose of the study: Hospitality and tourism is a promising sector for growth of the Economy in Kurdistan region of Iraq. Every year a massive number of tourists visit the region during Nawroz and Eid –ul-Adha festival seasons. The region is fairly modern and possesses several tourist destinations including site seeing, religious tourism and historical tourism etc. Kurdistan Regional Statistics Office published a report on region’s economy that consists of number of foreign individuals, who visited Kurdistan region categorized into Arab and Non-Arab visitors category provides a clear picture that the region is not only an attraction for holiday but also for other type of tourism. Therefore we wish to learn customers opinion about satisfaction from service quality of the selected hotels. The study will be used to share key information with the hotel in Sulaimaniyah city.

Methodology: To understand the determinants of service quality that is most shot for by the individuals we have conducted a survey of selected five star hotels in Sulamaniyah. The sample size for this study was a small sample which was 50 respondents. We used purposive sampling. For data analysis we used SPSS software package for social sciences.

Main Findings: We observed from the majority responses that Room service, delivery time, behavior of hotel staff, a nice welcome on arrival, variety of food and beverage are some of the important parameters on which customers decide to rate a hotel. The customers do not have much interest in modern furniture facilities as per this study result.

Application of the study: In the nutshell hospitality and tourism sector has huge potential for job creation given the fact the region has well-educated and well groomed young population ready to be employed in the region’s growing tourism industry, this research will help the hotels to provide better services to satisfy the customer.