Destination Benchmarking: An Indicator-System’s Potential for Exploring Guest Satisfaction

Abstract

After giving an overview of latest benchmark approaches in tourism, an already existing Benchmarking Indicator System implemented by the Austrian Government in 1987 is discussed. This article first critically assesses the neglect of relevant elements covering the production and delivery process of tourism services in this approach. Hence, the existing benchmarking approach is extended conceptually by linking it to tourists’ satisfaction measures. There is growing evidence that tourism service quality attributes can fall into three different categories of factors that display a differing impact on tourist satisfaction. The literature distinguishes between two different approaches for best identifying these factors: Vavra’s two-dimensional Importance Grid, which is based on customers’ self-stated importance and derived importance assessments, and Brandt’s Penalty-Reward-Contrast analysis, which is based on the performance-only approach and thus only uses one (e.g., the satisfaction) variable. This article tests both approaches empirically using different sets of variables from a recent destination benchmarking survey.