This volume focuses on the management of tourism in island environments, particularly in the Caribbean. The first part of the book (chapters 2-5) is about resources for islands, including transport and hospitality, and demand for islands. This part addresses the core resources of tourism products...

This chapter studies one particular method for examining and improving customer perceptions of service quality: the critical incidents technique (CIT). In particular, the chapter reviews the use of CIT in tourism and hospitality and presents the results of a study of critical incidents reported by...

This chapter first presents an overview of marketing/applied research in tourism and hospitality. It then assesses the four main methods of measuring customer service quality (importance performance analysis (IPA), SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, and SERVQUAL × Importance), and then in a case study, compares...

This chapter examines the research method. The contribution of this study to the understanding of consumer behaviour within a marketing environment lies in the rigour of its methodology and the 'power of numbers'. Prince Edward Island has provided a remarkable social laboratory for an investigation ...

As a method of seeking best practices by comparing one's own performance with others', the concept of benchmarking emerged in business management in the 1980s. Benchmarking, thinking and looking out of the box, has been adopted by a variety of national and international businesses in order to...

This chapter has set out a general discussion of the application of benchmarking in tourist destinations and its implications for benchmarking theory and practice. It has underlined the main differences between the terms 'organization benchmarking' and 'destination benchmarking', and then addressed ...

This chapter has aimed to demonstrate the design and approach to data collection for decision-making and problem-solving in destination benchmarking research. General guidelines for the application of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods have been provided and a structured approach...

This chapter has set out a general discussion of the application of external benchmarking in tourist destinations and its implications for benchmarking theory and practice. It was based on the findings emerging from the case studies on specific destinations in Mallorca and Turkey. The relevance of...

This chapter has addressed the application of internal benchmarking in destinations. The main purpose of internal benchmarking is to improve the performance of tourism businesses or tourist destinations by identifying their own strengths and weaknesses on the basis of the feedback obtained from...

This chapter has provided the basis of what kind of measures can be developed and how they can be applied to tourist destinations from the perspective of internal and external benchmarking. The chapter has also included a short discussion about how tourism authorities can use such data as...