Service quality perceptions of museum visitors: The case of Göreme Open Air Museum

Abstract

The aim of the study is to measure quality perceptions of the museum visitors. The study was conducted in the Göreme Open Air Museum situated in historical Cappadocia Region. A self administrated questionnaire was used to gather information. A total of 308 visitors were included in the study with a convenience sampling method. At the end of the study, it has been determined that visitors' perceptions of service quality have a four-factor structure. These factors are “the physical elements of the service”, “elements of the exhibitions”, “empathy”, and “price and other service elements”. According to visitors, in terms of all the factors the service quality of the Museum is at the moderate level. In other words, visitors are expecting more improved services from the Museum in all service quality factors. Visitors have the highest service quality perception on empathy, and the lowest on price and other service elements. Overall service quality of the Museum is at the moderate level and the physical elements of the service is the most important dimension in predicting visitors' overall service quality evaluation. It is also revealed that overall service quality perception of the repeat visitors is higher than first time visitors.

Keywords

• museum visitors,museums,service quality,Göreme Open Air Museum,questionnaire,tourist perceptions,servqual scale,customer satisfaction,performance-only measurement

Müze ziyaretçilerinin hizmet kalitesi algılamaları: Göreme Açık Hava Müzesi örneği

Öz

Araştırmanın amacı, müze ziyaretçilerinin hizmet kalitesi algılamalarının ölçülmesidir. Araştırma, tarihi Kapadokya Bölgesi sınırları içerisinde bulunan Göreme Açık Hava Müzesi'nde gerçekleştirilmiştir. Veri toplama aracı olarak anketten yararlanılmıştır. Araştırmaya kolayda örnekleme yöntemiyle seçilen toplam 308 ziyaretçi katılmıştır. Araştırma sonunda ziyaretçilerin hizmet kalitesi algılamalarının dört faktörlü bir yapıya sahip olduğu belirlenmiştir. Bu faktörler “hizmete ilişkin fiziksel unsurlar”, “sergilere ilişkin unsurlar”, “empati” ile “fiyat ve diğer hizmet unsurları”dır. Ziyaretçiler, Müze'de kendilerine verilen hizmeti bütün faktörler açısından orta düzeyde değerlendirmişlerdir. Bir başka ifadeyle, ziyaretçiler kendilerine daha kaliteli hizmet verilmesini beklemektedirler. Empati, ziyaretçilerin en yüksek kalite algılamasına sahip olduğu faktör iken, fiyat ve diğer hizmet unsurları faktörü ise en düşük algılama değerine sahiptir. Ziyaretçilere göre Müze'deki genel hizmet kalitesi de orta düzeydedir ve genel hizmet kalitesini en iyi açıklayan faktör, hizmete ilişkin fiziksel unsurlardır. Ayrıca, daha önce Müze'yi ziyaret edenlerin genel kalite algılaması, Müze'yi ilk kez ziyaret edenlerden yüksek çıkmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• müze ziyaretçileri,müzeler,hizmet kalitesi,Göreme Açık Hava Müzesi,anket,turist algılamaları,servqual ölçeği,müşteri memnuniyeti,performansa dayalı ölçüm

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