The Measurement for the Service Quality of Rural Wineries

Li-Chun Huang
National Taiwan University

Providing quality service is critical for winery operation. However, there are still some concerns unsolved
regarding the management of service quality in winery operation, such as the measure of service quality
is not consistent and highly mixed that different conceptualizations and indicators are used. The current
study aims to identify the key service attributes for enhancing tourist satisfaction and loyalty in wine
tourism, as well as to compare the efficiency of the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF models for measuring
wineries service quality. The statistical results indicated that reliability and tangibles are the
determinants for both tourist satisfaction and loyalty. Meanwhile, the SERVPERF model explains more
variance for tourist satisfaction and loyalty.

INTRODUCTION

Wine tourism is defined as tour visitations to vineyards, wineries, wine festivals and wine shows, and
is associated with a broad range of tour activities (Hall & Macionis, 1998; Hall & Mitchell, 2000; Yuan et
al., 2005). Due to its manifold economic benefits, such as creating more job opportunities, increasing the
value of agricultural production, as well as facilitating the re-structuring of local regions, many countries,
like Australia, the U.S.A., South Africa, Thailand, and so on, have attempted to develop their respective
tourism business for their wine industry (Batra, 2008; Beames, 2003; Bruwer, 2003; Economist, 2008;
Hanagriff & Lau, 2007).
In fact, many wineries are depending on visitors and cellar door sales to survive. Carmichael (2005)
found that 70% of the wine tourism visitors purchased wine at the winery. In the cases of most of the
wineries visited, cellar door sales represented 70-80% of their total sales. Tassiopoulos, Nuntsu and
Haydam (2004) studied wine tourists in South Africa and found that of the visitors expenditure on wine
tourism, 53.1% was attributable to wine purchases, 26.1% to restaurants and food, and an average of 8.3%
was spent on curios and gifts. Wine tourism also functions in marketing promotion for the wine sales of
wineries. Through wine tourism-related activities, such as wine tasting, vineyard tours, and local cultural
experiences, wineries are able to educate their visitors knowing about their wine and brands, while also
having good opportunities to interact with their customers to foster good customer relationships (Bruwer,
2003; Getz et al., 1999; Hall & Mitchell, 2000; Jaffe & Pasternak, 2004; Martin & Williams, 2003;
Williams & Kelly, 2001). All these come with the consequences of increases in wine sales and brand
promotion in the short term, and ultimately their impact on the visitors loyalty toward the wineries in the
long term. Obviously, the development of wine tourism is very important for the wine sales of wineries.
Therefore, how to attract visitors is a very important concern of the winery managers.
ONeill and Palmer (2004) suggested that the quality of wine is not the only reason for the success of
wineries. It was found that recommendations and/or previous experiences determined the visitors

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 29

decisions regarding which wineries to visit; the importance of word-of-mouth recommendations and
previous experiences was even greater than that of the published materials, such as travel guides,
magazines and travel publicity/brochures (Tassiopoulos, Nuntsu & Haydam, 2004). Moreover, for some
wineries, the majority of wine tourists were found to be repeat visitors. When Carmichael (2005)
investigated the visitor behavior in related to the wineries within the region of Niagara, Ontario, Canada,
he found that 56.9% of tourists were repeat visitors. Meanwhile, most of the repeat visitors returned
between two and five times per year, and 8% returned more than 12 times per year. It is thus clear that,
discovering how to satisfy and delight the visitors, in order to generate the synergy of good word-of-
mouth recommendations and visitors loyalty, is very decisive for the success of wineries. Service quality
may be the key.
Although the importance of service quality has been proved in the case of wine tourism, as in the case
of the influence of the brand equity of the winery (Nowak, Thach & Olsen, 2006), the visitors wine
purchasing decisions (ONeill, Palmer & Charters, 2002), and other successful elements of wineries (Hall
& Mitchell, 2002; Jaffe & Pasternak, 2004; Martin & Williams, 2003; ONeill & Charters, 2000), there
are several problems that need to be faced in regard to the service quality management in wine tourism.
First, the measure of service quality is not consistent and is highly mixed for the market of wine tourism,
where different conceptualizations, indicators and criteria are used (Cole & Illum, 2006; Eraqi, 2006;
Reisinger & Waryszak, 1994). Second, since key service attributes related to the consumers overall
perceived service quality vary from business to business (Gupta & Chen, 1995), to find the key service
attributes which are critical for tourist satisfaction and loyalty is essential for wineries to succeed in wine
tourism. Third, since the enhancement of service quality usually costs money, how to balance the cost and
gain is critical for the management of the service quality of wineries. Besides, the component of the value
chain in tourism is complex that many external industries are involved in strategic alliances with regard to
the value delivery system, namely, travel agencies, tour operators, carriers, hoteliers, restaurants, etc.
Therefore, the control of service quality becomes more challenging for the managers in the wine tourism
than in the other service sectors (Eraqi, 2006).
Even though service quality is important for the success of wineries and there are still some critical
problems unsolved regarding the management of service quality for of wineries, as described above, there
has been little academic research conducted on these and related issues. This study therefore seeks to
address this shortcoming. The objectives for this study are: 1) to compare the efficiency of the
SERVQUAL and SERVPERF approaches, which are the two most well-known conceptualizations for the
measurement of service quality, for the prediction of tourist satisfaction with and tourist loyalty toward
wineries, and 2) to identify the key service attributes of the service quality of wine tourism by evaluating
the effects of service attributes on tourist satisfaction with and loyalty toward wineries.
Even though wine tourism is not a new business for wine industry, there are still significant
differences among the different regions with regard to knowledge about the development of wine tourism
(Hall & Mitchell, 2000; Howley & van Westering, 2008; Mowle & Merrilees, 2005). In particular, wine
tourism is a new growing industry for many countries, and how to link wine production with tourism to
yield economic synergy is still a goal that is being pursued by many winery owners and governments
(Hall & Mitchell, 2000; Howley & van Westering, 2008; ONeill, Palmer & Charters, 2002). More
knowledge regarding the service quality of wineries is worth exploring and sharing.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The Service Quality of Wine Tourism

Wine tourists rely on word-of-mouth to decide which winery to visit (Jaffe & Pasternak, 2004).
ONeill and Palmer (2004) suggest that quality of wine is not the only reason determines the success of
winery operation. Due to its effect on consumer satisfaction, brand loyalty and long-term behavior
intention, service quality plays an important role for the success of winery operation.
As ONeill, Palmer and Charters (2002) studied the relationship of service quality and tourists
behavior intention of purchasing wine, they found the service process factors were more closely related to

30 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

wine purchase rather than tangible elements. The importance of service quality to competitiveness of
wineries has also been proved by other previous studies (Martin & Williams, 2003; Nowak, Thach &
Olsen, 2006). ONeill, Palmer and Charters (2002) claimed that there are several characteristics for the
wineries which are different from other sector of service industry regarding service quality. For example,
wine tourism involves customers visiting a vineyard where experience of tangibles and service production
processes are an essential part of the service benefit.
Studies of service quality in tourism industry showed that key service attributes for enhancing tourist
satisfaction and loyalty is varied with the ethnic cultures of the tourists, as well as the nature of tourism.
For example, Atilgan, Akinci and Aksoy (2003) found the service attributes of assurance, tangibility,
responsiveness and reliability had positive impact to discriminate Germany tourists by the levels of
overall satisfaction, and especially assurance and reliability had the highest weights. For the tourists of
Russian, assurance, empathy, responsiveness, and reliability had positive impact to discriminate Russian
tourists groups divided with the levels of overall satisfaction, and especially assurance, empathy and
reliability had strongest weights. Since consumers tend to use specific attributes or cues to infer quality,
Gould-Williams (1999) used hotel service environment as a setting to study the impact of employee
performance cues on guest loyalty, perceived value and service quality. The findings indicate that the
employee performance cues in leisure, reception, housekeeping, room service and restaurant influence
guest perceptions of service quality, and guest perceptions of service quality influence guest loyalty to the
hotel.
The measure of service quality is not consistent and highly mixed in tourism marketing. Different
standards, criteria or conceptualization are used in the measurement of service quality, like expert
interview, TQM, SERVQUAL, importance-performance analysis, etc. (Cole & Illum, 2005; Eraqi, 2006;
ONeill & Palmer, 2004; Reisinger & Waryszak, 1994). As the component of value chain in tourism is
complex that many external industries, like the travel agencies, tour operators, carriers, hoteliers and
restaurants, are involved in strategic alliance for the value delivery system, the management of service
quality becomes more challenge for the managers in winery industry (Eraqi, 2006). The importance of
more research on the service quality of wine tourism for the wineries has been called by many
researchers.

The Relationships among Service Quality, Tourist Satisfaction and Tourist Loyalty
In many marketing studies, service quality has been demonstrated to be the antecedent of customer
satisfaction and loyalty across a broad range of business sectors, including the tourism industry (Atilgan,
Akinci & Aksoy, 2003; Brady & Robertson, 2001; Caruana, 2002; Chadee & Mattsson, 1996; Cole,
Crompton & Willson, 2002; Cole & Illum, 2006; Ismail et al., 2006; Ramsaran-Fowdar, 2007; Venetis &
Ghauri, 2004). Brady and Robertson (2001) found that, in the fast food service industry, the effect of
service quality on the consumers behavioral intention, such as repurchase intentions, loyalty and word-
of-mouth recommendation, was mediated by consumer satisfaction, and the relationship was consistent
for consumers spread across different cultures. As Chadee and Mattsson (1996) studied the customer
satisfaction for four tourism activities, including eating-out, hotel accommodation, renting a car and going
on a sightseeing tour, they found that distinct quality factors were significant for different tourist
encounters regarding the visitors satisfaction judgments. Atilgan, Akinci and Aksoy (2003) also had
similar findings that service quality was related to the tourists satisfaction, and which service attributes
were emphasized varied with the differences in the tourists ethnic cultures.
Across different industry sectors, consumer loyalty is mostly portrayed from the aspects of good
word-of-mouth recommendations, repeat purchases, and tolerance for price changes (Berry &
Parasuraman, 1997; Binninger, 2007). Customer loyalty brings several financial benefits to the company,
including saving on the cost of advertising in developing new customers, good word-of-mouth
recommendations from the old customers, the increased sales volume from the old customers, and the
avoidance of the impact of bad reputation among the customers; bad service quality always leads
consumers to complain, reduce their purchases, or to switch their choice of purchase (Zeithaml, Berry &
Parasuraman, 1996). Tourist loyalty for a destination is usually conceptualized in terms of repeat

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 31

patronage, switching behavior and word-of-mouth recommendations (Gould-Williams, 1999; Huang &
Chiu, 2006).
In the tourism industry, service quality is also believed to be able to enhance tourist loyalty, in terms
of spreading good word-of-mouth recommendations and repeating visits (Ramsaran-Fowdar, 2007).
Several empirical studies back up this belief. For example, Cole and Illum (2006) collected data from
tourists of a rural heritage festival and found that performance quality influenced the tourists behavioral
intention of spreading good word-of-mouth recommendation and repeating visits via its influence on the
quality of the tourists experience and overall satisfaction. Yet again, Cole, Crompton and Willson (2002)
studied the relationships between service quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions among visitors to
a wildlife refuge. Their study results verified that, at the transaction level, service quality contributed to
visitor satisfaction, meanwhile both overall service quality and visitor satisfaction were found to directly
influence the visitors future behavioral intentions. Huang and Chiu (2006) also found that customers who
had had satisfactory experiences with a tourist destination were more likely to exhibit positive behavioral
intentions, leading to increased destination loyalty.
Due to its effect on the customers satisfaction and loyalty, service quality always brings a resulting
synergy in the form of repeat purchases, the customers tolerance for price changes, the prevention of
customer choice switching, saving on the cost of advertising, and avoiding the impact of a bad reputation
(Berry & Parasuraman, 1997; Binninger, 2007; Cole, Crompton & Willson, 2002; Cole & Illum, 2006;
Gould-Williams, 1999; Huang & Chiu, 2006; Ramsaran-Fowdar, 2007; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman,
1996).

Debates over SERVQUAL and SERVPERF

Due to the characteristics of being highly intangible, heterogeneous and inseparable (Parasuraman,
Zeithaml & Berry, 1985), it is usually difficult for customers to claim their perception of service quality
perceived, which in turn puts the service providers in a difficult position regarding the measurement and
control of service quality (Gronroos, 1988). There are two very well-known theoretical conceptualizations
for the measurement of service quality, namely, the perception-minus-expectation-based SERVQUAL
approach and the perception-based SERVPERF approach. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988)
claimed that consumer perception of service quality results from a comparison of their expectations in
relation to the perceived service performance, namely, service quality represents the gap between the
customers expectation and perception of service performance. Based on the perception-minus-
expectation conceptualization, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) developed the SERVQUAL scale
to measure service quality according to five dimensions, including tangibles, reliability, responsiveness,
assurance and empathy.
However, there are arguments among scholars regarding the measure of service quality, and the
validity of the SERVQUAL scale has been questioned in certain respects. For example, Cronin and Taylor
(1992) tested the dimensionality of the SERVQUAL scale using confirmatory factor analysis with the
samples being recruited from the banking, pest control, dry cleaning and fast food service sectors. Based
on the studys results, they argued about the reliability and construct validity of the SERVQUAL scale.
They also found that through the use of regression analysis the service quality measured by means of the
SERVPERF scale explained more of the variation in the consumers overall perception, compared with
the service quality measured using the SERVQUAL conceptualization (Cronin & Taylor, 1992). Cronin
and Taylor (1992) suggested that the performance-based SERVPERF scale was better than the
performance-minus-expectation-based SERVQUAL approach in terms of both the content validity and
discriminant validity regarding the measure of service quality, and thus suggested using SERVPERF
instead of SERVQUAL as the measurement instrument for service quality. The instability of the
dimensionality of SERVQUAL was also raised by Babakus and Mangold (1992). Teas (1993a) also raised
issues regarding the application of the SERVQUAL scale, such as the incongruence between the
definitions for the expectation element and the gap conceptualization of the SERVQUAL scale.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1994) defended the questions raised by Cronin and Taylor (1992)
in terms of the conceptual issues, methodological/analytical issues and practical issues. They claimed that

32 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

misinterpretation of the conceptualization of SERVQUAL and inappropriate methodology in relation to
the confirmation test lead Cronin and Taylor to misjudge the validity of SERVQUAL. Meanwhile, they
claimed that the explanation in the literature that cited support for Cronin and Taylors argument was
questionable and the evidence provided by Cronin and Taylor (1992) was not strong enough to claim the
superiority of SERVPERF. Regarding Teas (1993a) argument for the SERVQUAL scale that the
standards for the measurement of expectations and the operationalization of the standards were
questionable, especially when the attributes measured were classical ideal point attributes, Parasuraman,
Zeithaml and Berry (1994) responded that for most situations the proposed performance-minus-
expectation approach was valid for the measurement of perceived service quality, except for certain
special situations in when the attribute measured was a classical ideal point attribute.

METHODOLOGY

Questionnaire Design and the Measure of Variables

Questionnaires were used as the instrument for data collection. The questionnaires were mainly
composed of four sections, namely, the scale items for measuring the tourists level of expectations for the
service quality of the wineries, the tourists perception regarding how well the service quality provided by
the wineries was, the tourists overall satisfaction and loyalty toward the wineries, and the tourists socio-
demographics. A pilot study was conducted to ensure the wordings of the questionnaire items were
comprehensible and in an appropriate format. Based on the factor structure of the SERVQUAL scale, the
service quality of the wineries investigated in this study was evaluated based on the dimensions of
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The component scale items for each
dimension are presented in Table 2. The tourists expectations and perception regarding the quality of
various service attributes performed by the wineries visited were measured with the average of the
tourists agreement levels to the statements of the multiple scale items on a 5-point Likert scale (1 =
strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree). The measurement of service
quality was presented in two different formats. One consisted of the scores for the gap in the tourists
perception-minus-expectations for the service attributes of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance
and empathy, under the conceptualization of SERVQUAL theory. The other was recorded as the scores of
the tourists perception towards wineries performance on the service attributes of tangibles, reliability,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy, a perception-based measure under the approach of SERVPERF
theory.
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988) suggested that appropriate adaptation of the instrument may
be desirable when a single service is investigated. Therefore, these scale items were adjusted according to
the characteristics of wineries engaged in wine tourism to ensure their contextual validity. The consistent
reliabilities for the scale items measuring the tourists expectations regarding the service attributes of
tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy were 0.83, 0.82, 0.94, 0.86 and 0.90 using
&URQEDFKV  DQd 0.79, 0.85, 0.92, 0.87 and 0.89 for those measures of the tourists perception of the
service attributes of tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, respectively, as shown
in Table 2. It is obvious from these results that the internal consistencies for these scale items were
qualified.
The tourists satisfaction with and loyalty toward the wineries visited were also measured with the
average of the tourists agreement levels to the statements of the multiple scale items of tourist
satisfaction and loyalty, based on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral, 4
= agree, 5 = strongly agree). Tourist satisfaction with a destination is defined as an affective state resulting
from overall appraisal of the tourist psychological preference and pleasure towards the destination (Huang
& Chiu, 2006). According to the definition, the variable of tourist satisfaction was measured using the
items I am pleased with the winery and I am satisfied with the winery, with a good consistent
UHOLDELOLW\ &URQEDFKV    7KHVH WZR LWHPV DUH FRPPRQO\ XVHG E\ WKH UHVHDUFKHUV WR HYDOXDWH
tourists satisfaction (Clark & Maher, 2007; Cole & Illum, 2006). In marketing, consumer loyalty is
illustrated mostly from the aspects of good word-of-mouth, repeat purchase, or tolerance for the price

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 33

change (Binninger, 2007; Berry & Parasuraman, 1997). Based on the fundamental definition of consumer
loyalty in marketing, tourist loyalty for a destination is usually conceptualized in terms of repeat
patronage, switching behavior and word-of-mouth recommendations (Huang & Chiu, 2006). Accordingly,
tourist loyalty in this study was measured using the items If there is an opportunity in the future, I will
visit this winery again, I am willing to introduce this winery to my relatives or friends and This
winery is worthy being introduced to other customers. The consistent reliability among these scale items
ZDVXVLQJ&URQEDFKV.

Data Collection
Visitors from five wineries were selected for the survey. These five wineries were selected due to
their having a typical operating style which was representative of the wineries in Taiwan, and they could
be used as an example for the wineries engaged in wine tourism in Taiwan. Therefore, the data collected
from the tourists visiting these five wineries were supposed to have the most representativeness in terms
of the studys objectives. Tourists from the selected wineries were asked whether they were willing to
participate in the survey. Once they agreed to do so, they acknowledged the purpose of this study with a
consent letter, and then they were instructed as to how to complete the self-administered questionnaires.
Data were collected on weekends or national holidays, which were the times when most of the tourists
actually visited the wineries. To maximize the generalizability of the data, visitors were sampled from
different periods of time, namely, morning, noon, or afternoon, to ensure that the various types of visitors
had an equal opportunity to be sampled. The entire survey took place between the middle of July and the
end of September 2007. Most of the participants spent about 10-15 minutes completing the questionnaire.
A total of 316 questionnaires were completed. After the deletion of the questionnaires that were
completed by subjects who were under the age of 18, a total of 302 completed questionnaires were used
for further statistical analysis.

Statistical Analysis
The distribution of the samples socio-economics was portrayed by means of a descriptive
analysis. A paired samples t-test was applied to test the significance of the gap between the tourists
perception and the tourists expectations regarding the service quality measured with SERVQUAL
approach. The predictive power of service quality towards visitors satisfaction and loyalty was analyzed
and compared for the approaches of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF, using multiple regression analysis. All
statistical analyses were processed using SPSS (Version 15.0, SPSS, Inc., Chicago).

RESULTS

Profile of Samples
Among the participants, 43.7% were male and 55.0% were female. A further 1.3% of the participants
did not report their gender information. The age distribution was 14.2% for those aged 18-24 years old;
27.8% for those aged 25-34 years old; 29.1% for those aged 35-44 years old; 20.5% for those aged 45-54
years old; 6.3% for those aged 55-64 years old; and 2.0% were 65 years old or older. Participants were
sampled from different occupations, including the agricultural industry (3.3%), manufacturing (10.3%),
commercial or service industry (29.5%), government employees (28.8%), students (12.6%), housekeeping
(7.0%), the retired group (1.7%), and others (5.0%). About 2.0% of the participants did not report their
occupation. In terms of the participants education levels, 2.3% were primary school educated, 5.6%
junior high school educated, 27.2% senior high school educated, 54.6% college educated, and 10.3%
graduate school educated. The income levels for the participants indicated that 36.4% had an average
monthly income of less than NT$ (New Taiwan Dollars) 30,000, 35.8% from NT$30,001-50,000; 20.5%
from NT$50,001-80,000; 2.6% from NT$80,001-100,000; 0.7% from NT$100,001-150,000; while 1.3%
had an average monthly income of NT$150,001 or over. About 2.6% of the participants did not report
their income level. The statistical results are presented in Table 1.

34 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

 TABLE 1
THE SOCIO-ECONOMICS OF THE SAMPLE

Demographics Sample (%)

Gender
Male 43.7
Female 55.0
Missing data 1.3
Age
18-24 14.2
25-34 27.8
35-44 29.1
45-54 20.5
55-64 6.3
65 or older 2.0
Education
Primary school 2.3
Junior high school 5.6
Senior high school 27.2
College/university 54.6
Graduate school 10.3
Monthly income (New Taiwan dollars)
NT$30,000 and under 36.4
NT$30,001 - NT$50,000 35.8
NT$50,001 - NT$80,000 20.5
NT$80,001 - NT$100,000 2.6
NT$100,001 - NT$150,000 0.7
NT$150,000 and over 1.3
Missing data 2.6
Occupation
Agricultural industry 3.3
Manufacturing 10.3
Commercial/Service industry 29.5
Government employees 28.8
Students 12.6
Housekeeping 7.0
Retired group 1.7
Others 5.0
Missing data 2.0

Compared with the population census data for Taiwan, the sample included in this study had the
characteristics of more females, mostly at the age of 25-54 years old and highly educated that 64.9% of
the samples had their highest educational achievement at college or graduate school, and most of the
samples had low- to middle-level income. However, the sample used in this study are found to be valid
for research into tourist behavior in wine tourism, because many studies in the literatures have shown that
visitors of wineries tend to have the characteristics of being middle-aged, highly educated and with above
average income as suggested by most of the researchers (Dodd, 1995; Getz & Brown, 2006; Mitchell &
Hall, 2001). From the literature, Carlsen (2004) found that most researchers suggested that wine tourists
tended to mainly include those in older age groups in their 40s and 50s who had greater knowledge of
wine and also tended to be more socially aware, although a few researchers did suggest that wine tourists

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 35

tended to be younger. Batra (2008) studied the specific preferences and characteristics of wine tourists in
the PB valley winery in Thailand. The study results also indicated that the majority of the respondents
were between 40-49 years of age and had a higher level of income. However, Charters and Ali-Knight
(2002) suggested that wine tourism age demographics and psychographics varied from region to region.
Dodd (1999) surveyed the winery visitors in Texas and his samples revealed demographic characteristics
where 54% were female, the mean age for the sample was 40 years old, and 77% of respondents were
under 51 years of age. Their respondents had considerably higher levels of education with two-thirds
having been awarded an undergraduate or graduate degree.

Service Quality for the Wineries in Wine Tourism

The Comparison of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF Approaches
In this section, the service quality of the wineries in wine tourism is measured with the
conceptualizations of SERVPERF and SERVQUAL and the outcomes are compared. The scores for
tourist expectations regarding the service attributes of tangibles ranged from 3.92 to 4.12 (mean 4.01),
whereas they ranged from 3.60 to 4.00 for tourist perceptions regarding the service attributes of tangibles
(mean 3.70). Since the expectation scores were higher than the perception scores, scores for the gap in
performance-minus-expectations regarding the service attributes of tangibles were all negative, and
ranged from -0.11 to -0.47 (mean -0.31). As the statistical results of the paired samples t-test indicated
that these gap scores were all significant, namely, the tourists perceived service quality was significantly
lower than their expectations. This result implies that the service performance perceived fell short of the
tourists expectations. Consequently, according to the conceptualization of SERVQUAL, it was assumed
that there was not enough quality regarding the service performance in terms of the attributes of tangibles.
However, the SERVPERF approach gave rise to a different interpretation. When measured in the context
of the tourists perceived service quality, the wineries service performance in term of the attributes of
tangibles was close to a good level (3.60 to 4.00 on a 5-point Likert scale). Obviously, SERVQUAL and
SERVPERF scales could lead the evaluation of service quality to different conclusions. In this study, such
a phenomenon also occurred in relation to all the other service attributes, namely, reliabilities,
responsiveness, assurance and empathy, as illustrated in Table 2.
Tourists expectations regarding the service quality evaluated in this study tend to be high. Such high
scores may reflect the actual high-expectations from the tourists engaged in wine tourism, or may just be
a biased result caused by the deficiencies inherent in the SERVQUAL approach. When explaining the
pros and cons of the SERVQUAL scale, Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1991) claimed that the
wording structure in the expectation section was intended to measure the customers normative
expectations, and thus the expectation scores tended to be very high. Teas (1993b) also argued that the
original expectation scale in SERVQUAL was easily misunderstood by the respondents and that it may
have led to a biased measure of service quality.
Although the SERVQUAL conceptualization indicated that the service quality of wineries did not
meet the tourists expectations, the measure for the tourists overall satisfaction (a mean of 3.83 on a 5-
point Likert scale) and loyalty (a mean of 4.02 on a 5-point Likert scale) revealed that tourists were
largely satisfied with the wineries, and indicated a positive behavioral intention to revisit or recommend
the wineries to others. The finding based on the measure of the tourists satisfaction and loyalty conflicted
with the study results generated by the SERVQUAL conceptualization. The conflict implies that the
saturation point may exist for the service quality of wineries. The saturation point is the point beyond
which further increases in service quality do not lead to increases in customer intention (Prez et al.,
2007). In the present study, even though tourists expectations are much higher than their perception of
the wineries service quality, the measures of the tourists satisfaction and behavioral intention of loyalty
are still positive. This may be caused by a saturation point which is likely to be at a level lower than the
tourists expectations toward the wineries service quality. As a result, even though the tourists
expectations are not satisfied with the performance, according to the measure of SERVQUAL, the
measure of tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty still exhibits a positive trend.
However, the measure based on the SERVPERF approach tended to match the conclusion derived

36 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

from the measure of the tourists satisfaction and loyalty. When measured in terms of the tourists
perceived service quality, the scores for service quality ranged from 3.64 to 3.83 on a 5-point Likert scale,
which was close to the satisfactory level when transformed into its semantic meaning.
When regressing the variables of service quality against tourist satisfaction, the adjusted coefficient of
determination (adjusted R2) for the regression model with the service quality measured using the
SERVQUAL approach was 0.176, and was 0.423 for the regression model with the service quality
measured using the SERVPERF approach, an increase of 2.4 times compared with the former one. The
increase in the adjusted R2 indicated that the service quality measured using the SERVPERF approach had
better prediction power to tourist satisfaction. Similarly, the change in the adjusted R2 for the tourist
loyalty regression model illustrated that the prediction power for tourist loyalty increased by 2.8 times
when the service quality was measured using the SERVPERF conceptualization, compared with when it
was measured using the SERVQUAL approach. It is obvious from these findings that service quality
measured using the SERVPERF approach explained a greater portion of the variance of tourist
satisfaction and loyalty. In actual fact, when introducing the SERVQUAL scale, Parasuraman, Zeithaml
and Berry (1988) examined the predictive validity of the SERVQUAL scale for the consumers overall
quality ratings to a firm and their study results showed that the predictive power of the SERVQUAL scale
was not good for some service industry sectors, such as banks and credit card companies. This study
confirms that a similar situation applies to the business of wine tourism.

TABLE 2
SERVICE QUALITY MEASURED WITH SERVQUAL AND SERVPERF MODELS

Mean of Mean
Service Mean of perception difference
Scale items t P
attribute expectation (SERVPERF (SERVQUAL
Approach) Score)
1: The equipments -
Tangibles 3.923 3.604 -0.317 0.000
are updated. 5.373
2: The physical
-
facilities are 3.933 3.604 -0.327 0.000
5.651
appealing.
3: The employees
-
are well dressed 4.117 4.003 -0.111 0.031
2.164
and appear neat.
4: The physical
facilities match the -
4.080 3.604 -0.475 0.000
architecture of the 7.510
winery.
(Cronbachs ) (=0.83) (=0.79)
(Mean) (4.013) (3.704) (-0.307)
1: The wineries are
-
Reliability sophisticated in 4.181 3.781 -0.397 0.000
6.850
wine brewing.
2: The wineries are
confident about -
4.146 3.821 -0.325 0.000
their skill in wine 5.656
brewing.
3: The wineries are
capable of -
4.321 3.893 -0.415 0.000
providing good 8.243
wines.

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 37

 4: The wineries are
capable of
-
delivering the 4.073 3.667 -0.408 0.000
6.746
service demanded
by the visitors.
(Cronbachs ) (=0.82) (=0.85)
(Mean) (4.180) (3.790) (-0.386)
1: The employees
are able to provide -
Responsiveness 4.047 3.676 -0.366 0.000
prompt service to 6.784
the visitors.
2: The employees
are willing to solve -
4.064 3.696 -0.366 0.000
the problems for 5.812
the visitors.
3: The employees
are able to respond -
4.027 3.635 -0.393 0.000
to the visitors 7.273
requests promptly.
(Cronbachs ) (=0.94) (=0.92)
(Mean) (4.046) (3.669) (-0.375)
1: The visitors can
trust the -
Assurance 4.159 3.793 -0.363 0.000
professionalism of 6.526
the winery.
2: The employees
behave in a -
4.122 3.769 -0.360 0.000
professional 6.791
manner.
3: The employees -
4.176 4.034 -0.140 0.012
are polite. 2.517
4: The employees -
4.095 3.738 -0.360 0.000
are well trained. 6.481
(Cronbachs ) (=0.86) (=0.87)
(Mean) (4.138) (3.833) (-0.306)
1: Visitors
individual needs -
Empathy 3.939 3.640 -0.300 0.000
are emphasized by 5.458
the employees.
2: The winery
clearly knows -
4.020 3.644 -0.383 0.000
about the needs of 6.744
the visitors.
3: The employees
of the winery can -
4.078 3.634 -0.441 0.000
empathize with the 7.815
visitors.
(Cronbachs ) (=0.90) (=0.89)
(Mean) (4.012) (3.639) (-0.375)

38 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

Key Service Attributes
Since the service quality measured using the SERVPERF conceptualization has a better prediction
power for the tourist satisfaction and loyalty, key service attributes regarding the effect of service quality
on tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty are illustrated using the regression models for which the service
quality is measured with the SERVPERF approach, as shown in Table 3. The statistical results indicated
that the service attributes of tangibles, reliability and responsiveness were significant for explaining the
variance of tourist satisfaction, while the service attributes of tangibles and reliability were also
significant for explaining the variance of tourist loyalty. Standardized regression coefficients indicated
that the service attributes of reliability possessed the greatest weights for influencing the tourist
satisfaction and loyalty. In terms of the prediction of tourist satisfaction, every unit increase in the
tourists perception of the winerys performance on the reliability attribute caused a 0.421 unit increase in
the tourists satisfaction, followed by the responsiveness and tangibles attributes whereby every unit
increase in the tourists perception of the performance of responsiveness caused a 0.219 unit increase to
tourist satisfaction and every unit increase in that of tangibles caused a 0.173 unit increase in tourist
satisfaction. In regard to the effect on tourist loyalty, every unit increase in the tourists perception of the
winerys performance on the reliability attribute caused a 0.575 unit increase in tourist loyalty, and every
unit increase in that of the tangibles attribute caused a 0.150 unit increase in tourist loyalty.
The finding that the service attributes of reliability have the greatest impact to the tourists satisfaction
and loyalty indicates that professional staffs play an essential role in enabling wineries to succeed in wine
tourism. Tasting wine, learning about wine and gaining more knowledge about wine are the main factors
that motivate the tourists to visit wineries. All these motivations can be satisfied only when there are
professional staffs available to teach the tourists knowing wine and tasting wine. From the aspects of
customer satisfaction, the winery staffs should be professional enough that they need to be sophisticated
in wine brewing, be confident regarding their skills in wine brewing, be able to provide good wines and
deliver the service wanted by the tourists, what the service attributes of reliability refer to. The findings of
many previous studies are supportive of this assumption. For example, with the data collected from the
professionals in the fields of wine and tourism in Australia and the USA, Getz et al. (1999) pointed out
that visitors visit wineries primarily for good wine, and meeting the owners and the winemakers is an
essential part of the visitors winery experience. They suggested that the professional staff were part of the
winery appeal. Yuan et al. (2005) also found that tasting wine, experiencing local wineries and becoming
familiar with wine were three of the top five reasons for visitors to attend wine festivals. In addition, data
collected from the wine regions of Margaret River and Swan Valley in Australia indicated that different
tourist clusters have different purposes and preferences for visiting wineries, but they have something in
common in that they see the staffs competence and knowledge regarding wine or wine brewing as
important for their winery experience (Charters & Ali-Knight, 2002). Carmichael (2005) studied the wine
tourists behavior within the wine region of Canada and found that tourists reveal very high expectations
regarding the attribute of the staffs knowledge of the service quality of wineries. The wine visitors in the
PB valley winery in Thailand also tend to seek information to know more about wines on their visits to
wineries (Batra, 2008). Apparently, personnel with professional knowledge in wine are essential for
satisfying these basic demands in wine tourism.
Service quality in regard to the attribute of tangibles was also a key to influencing the tourists
satisfaction with and loyalty toward wineries. Service attributes of tangibles refers to the quality criteria
of updated equipment, appealing physical facilities, neat and well-dressed employees, and the physical
facilities that appear to match the architecture of the wineries. All these attributes mainly concern the
appearance of equipment, facilities and employees, which is very likely to influence the visitors tour
experience of the wineries. Due to this being highly related to tourists winery experience, it is reasonable
to see that the service quality in relation to tangibles is significantly related to tourist satisfaction with and
tourist loyalty toward the wineries, as explored in this study. As service products have the characteristics
of being highly intangible, heterogeneous and inseparable (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1985),
tourists may thus see the tangible attributes, such as the appearance of the equipment, facilities,
employees, etc., as a reflection of the quality of some intangible service context.

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 39

 Besides the service attributes of reliability and tangibles, the results of the multiple regression
analysis indicated that the tourists satisfaction with the wineries was significantly influenced by the
service attributes of responsiveness as well. This was probably due to the fact that most of the wineries in
wine tourism face the stresses of guest flow fluctuation, such as large numbers of visitors at peak times,
large coach tours that arrive suddenly without making a reservation in advance, or the effect of
seasonality (Carmichael, 2005). Therefore, prompt and accurate services, which are the service attributes
emphasized in responsiveness, become critical for the tourists satisfaction with the wineries. However,
the service attributes of responsiveness were not found to have any significant effect on tourist loyalty.
The findings of this study have several valuable implications for the service quality management of
wineries in wine tourism. For example, the significant effects of the attributes of reliability and
responsiveness on the tourists satisfaction and loyalty imply the importance of staff training in regard to
knowledge about wine and service quality for being successful in wine tourism, since all these service
attributes are essential to satisfying the tourists need to find good wine, learn something about wine, as
well as to deepen their experience of wineries and wine regions. Getz et al. (1999) suggested that a
friendly and knowledgeable staff is essential when it comes to satisfying the tourists in wine tourism. If
we look at the core function of wine tourism, namely, serving as a channel of direct sales of wine to
customers, educating consumers to know wine and taste wine, and thus, in turn, helping extend brands to
consumers and gaining income from wine tourism, etc., there is no doubt that the personnel who are
professional in the wine field are essential in enabling the wineries to perform these core functions. Only
when there are professional personnel available to educate the tourist to taste wine and know wine, can
the wineries then exactly satisfy the tourists demand in wine tourism, and thereby influence the tourists
intentions to purchase wine from the cellar door. In particular, recommendations from friends or relatives
and wine tasting are the important factors that drive tourists to purchase wine, and meanwhile tourists in
wine tourism tend to seek information on wine, such as information on the harmony of wine and food,
which was found to be the most important reason for drinking wine from the point view of the tourists
(Batra 2008). Therefore, Batra (2008) suggested that wine marketers should tap into their apparent desire

TABLE 3
THE SATISTICAL RESULTS OF MULTIPLE REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Tourist satisfaction Tourist loyalty

Dependent variables
(mean=3.83) (mean=4.02)
Measurement approach
SERVQUAL SERVPERF SERVQUAL SERVPERF
Service attributes

Tangibles 0.127 0.173* 0.117 0.150*

Reliability 0.474* 0.421* 0.396* 0.575*
Responsiveness -0.078 0.219* -0.299* -0.145
Assurance -0.152 0.043 -0.087 -0.079
Empathy 0.079 -0.132 0.202* 0.110
2 2 2 2 2
Coefficient of determination (R ) R =0.192 R =0.433 R =0.135 R =0.348
Adjusted coefficient of
Adj-R2=0.176 Adj-R2=0.423 Adj-R2=0.118 Adj-R2=0.336
determination (Adj-R2)
*significant at D=0.05

40 Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011

for further knowledge about wine, and in the meantime guidelines should be developed and provided to
staff for handling the different wine consumer issues so that experienced and knowledgeable staff are
involved in the tasting process. Personnel job training can usually improve the consumers perception of
the service quality performance of the tourism industry. As Garavan (1997) who studied the personnel
interpersonal skills training for the improvements of service quality in the tourism and hospitality sectors
pointed out, receptionists in an experimental hotel received instructions in social skills in the areas of
appearance, job knowledge and customer relations, and the studys results showed that during the
intervention stage, the receptionists skill in greeting customers, the speed of service, personal recognition
and appreciation were significantly improved.

CONCLUSIONS

The results from this study benefit the development of wine tourism by helping the winery managers
define which conceptualization for the measure of service quality is more appropriate to use when
thinking about the prediction of tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty. This study also helps winery
managers to define the key service attributes related to tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty, and thus
implements guidance in areas of weakness that allow the winery managers to employ essential
improvements with a focus on service quality.
Regarding the measurement of service quality in wine tourism, this study provides two considerable
concerns. First, the measures with the approaches of SERVQUAL and SERVPERF end up with different
conclusions in relation to the wineries service quality in wine tourism. It is recommended that
practitioners of wineries choose the appropriate measurement approach based on the strategic goal of their
service quality management. For example, if the goal is to boost tourist satisfaction and tourist loyalty, the
perception-based SERVPERF approach will be more appropriate since it has stronger prediction power
regarding tourist satisfaction and loyalty in wine tourism. Secondly, there seems to be a saturation point
that exists regarding the relationship between the service quality and tourist satisfaction/loyalty for the
wineries. Therefore, even though the tourists expectations are not satisfied, the measure of tourist
satisfaction and tourist loyalty still exhibits a positive trend. As to what actually constitutes the saturation
point for wine tourists is an issue that deserves further research in the future. It will be a valuable
guideline for the winery managers to manage their service quality while still making a profit, since it will
help the winery managers to get over unnecessary inputs while trying to enhance their service quality.
According to the statistical results, tangibles, reliability and responsiveness are the key service
attributes influencing the tourists satisfaction, while tangible and reliability also serve as the key service
attributes for tourist loyalty. These service attributes either reflect the motivation or influence the
experience of the winery tourists. It may be the reason why these service attributes are highly regarded by
the winery tourists and have become the key to influencing tourists satisfaction and loyalty.
Among those attributes, reliability has the largest weight in terms of influencing both tourist
satisfaction and tourist loyalty. As regards the efficiency of service quality management, especially in
circumstances where there are limited resources, winery managers can set up different priorities in
relation to these service attributes according to their importance for subsequent synergy. Generally
speaking, service attributes associated with personnel share almost the largest portion in terms of
influencing tourist satisfaction and loyalty for wineries, and thus it is assumed that providing job training
to personnel will be very important for the management of wineries in order to enhance service quality.
The job training should focus on the professional knowledge in relation to wine, the personnels
enthusiastic attitude toward providing service both promptly and accurately, and the outward appearance
of the personnel.
Besides the personnel elements, several tangible factors also need to be emphasized regarding the
service quality of wineries. For instance, the equipment in the wineries should be up-to-date, appealing,
and should blend in with the architecture of the winery. Meanwhile the employees should be well dressed
and should appear neat, etc. All these tangible factors are related to the appearance of the wineries, and
are thus very likely to influence the winery experience for tourists, so as to play an important role in terms

Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness vol. 5(5) 2011 41

of tourist satisfaction and loyalty.
There are some limitations in the application of the study results. First of all, the respondents were
sampled from the domestic tourists of Taiwan, and thus the conclusions derived from this study may be
limited regarding the population variable, in so far as the possible impact of nationality on the studys
results is concerned. In addition, wine tourism is still an infant industry for Taiwan. For the countries that
are more advanced in the wine tourism business, such a study may reveal different results. However, there
are still many important issues regarding service quality in wine tourism that deserve further study, such
as what are the related benefits for service quality in wine tourism and what are the moderating variables
that impact the relationship between service quality and its related benefits in wine tourism. Answers to
these questions will help the practitioners in wine tourism find the best service quality strategies.

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