Tourism services quality (TourServQual) in Egypt : The viewpoints of external and internal customers

Purpose – This research paper aims is to evaluate the customer's views related to tourism quality in Egypt. It attempts to measure the extent to which tourism business environment is creative and innovative as necessary conditions for internal customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – The objectives of this research have been achieved through reviewing a number of literatures in the fields of services quality management and tourism quality measurements. The paper's outcomes have been obtained through two surveys, one to measure the satisfaction of the internal customer (employees) and the second to measure the external customer satisfaction (tourists). Findings – The main conclusions of this research paper are: quality can be considered as a philosophy for guiding tourism organization/destination when taking decisions related to tourism services; tourism business environment in Egypt does not support the internal customer satisfaction because the absence of a suitable system for encouraging people to be creative and innovative; and in the area of the external customer satisfaction there is still a need for things to be done such as the environmental conditions improvements, internal transport quality enhancement, increasing people awareness, and improving the level of safety and security conditions. Research limitations/implications – There is a number of limitations which faced this paper research they are: the sample size is small, compared with the size of total population, that was reflected on the level of reliability of the research results; and the limited time allowed to the respondents was reflected on the validity of the research outcomes, because they interviewed at the last time of their journey by the time they are ready for departure. Practical implications – A useful source of information about total quality management (TQM) and how practitioners can measure it. It provides wide guidelines for improving the quality of tourism services in total manner in Egypt. Originality/value – This paper provides useful information that are needed for tourism services quality improvement. It offers a practical help to tourism planners and marketers in Egypt to understand the concept of TQM and how they can improve their services continually.