1 Introduction
With continuous improvement of people's quality of life and travel consciousness, tourism has become a new engine to drive economic growth in countries around the world. People's demand for tourism consumption is growing drastically, and the demand level is getting higher and higher
[1-6]. Scenic food is an important factor for tourists to choose a certain scenic spot for tourism. The scenic spots should not only bring unique visual enjoyment to tourists, but also meet the unique taste experience of tourists. As a symbol of local culture, catering in scenic spots is one of the main factors affecting tourists' experience and satisfaction. Thus, the level of catering service in scenic spots reflects the quality of scenic spots
[7-11].
Some scholars have carried out relevant research on catering service satisfaction of tourist attractions and have made some preliminary research results. Pizam
[12] summarized the connotation of tourists' satisfaction earlier, and expressed satisfaction as the comparison between tourists' expectation and experience performance. Meanwhile, by comparing the psychological expectation value of tourists with the actual perceived value, a method for evaluating tourist satisfaction has been investigated. Sukiman, et al.
[13] adopted the holiday satisfaction model (HOLSAT) to determine the gap between tourists' expectations and experiences, and proposed relevant strategies to improve tourists' satisfaction in the scenic area. Mutanga, et al.
[14] pointed out that different motivational factors of tourists have different effects on the tourism experience, and the satisfaction of tourism experience can be predicted through interactive experience, tourism fees and other related factors. Devesa, et al.
[15] explored the relationship between tourism motivation and visitor satisfaction. Through variance analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis, it was found that tourism motivation is the determinant of the visit evaluation criteria and the direct result of visitor satisfaction. Martin, et al.
[16] employed a fuzzy multi-criteria decision model to analyze tourist satisfaction with the destination, assessing it based on various segmentation variables like gender and age. Lee and Jeong
[17] examined two different aspects of tourists including eudaimonic and hedonic experiences, and compared how they affect satisfaction and location attachment.Studies have shown that providing a hedonic experience may improve the level of satisfaction, and a sufficient level of hedonic experience is required regardless of the presence of other enhancing factors. Chinese scholars mainly carry out research from the analysis of the current situation of catering services in tourist attractions and the strategies to improve tourist satisfaction. By referring to the case of daily catering industry, Xu
[18] analyzed the development status, trends and problems of domestic catering industry in scenic spots under the internet background, and proposed a feasible scheme for improving and innovating the catering industry in scenic spots. Taking Tianjin theme park scenic spots as an example, Guo
[19] explored the current situation and existing problems of catering services in such scenic spots, and pointed out that catering services are an important part of scenic spot services, which directly reflects the overall quality level of scenic spot management. In the meantime, he put forward relevant strategies to improve the quality of catering services in theme park scenic spots. Shi and Sun
[20] took Yuanjia village in Shaanxi Province as an example, and used the IPA analysis method to carry out the perception evaluation of tourists' rural tourism catering, and put forward countermeasures and suggestions to improve the management and service of rural tourism catering. Ren, et al.
[21] investigated the development status and problems of catering industry in major scenic spots in Wuhan, and proposed that the attraction of sustainable tourism can be further enhanced by developing characteristic catering. Sun and Lu
[22] analyzed the current situation of the catering industry in four A-level scenic spots in Beijing and the satisfaction and demand of tourists, and believed that the catering industry in scenic spots should develop in the direction of characteristics, greening, popularization and standardization.
At present, most of the existing research on catering service in scenic spots is qualitative, while the empirical research on catering service satisfaction in scenic spots is relatively few. Zhangzhou City, which located in the southeast of Fujian Province in China, is a typical famous tourist and cultural city. Taking Zhangzhou as an example, we make an empirical study on the satisfaction of catering service in Zhangzhou Tourist Attractions Based on IPA analysis. Our study takes consumers' satisfaction with the catering service in the scenic area as the breakthrough point, and deeply analyzes the relevant influencing factors of the catering service in the scenic area, and then initially constructs the 4Ps consumption demand theory of catering service. Finally, based on the IPA quadrant analysis, the 4Ps improvement paths of the catering service satisfaction in the scenic area are first proposed, which will provide a new perspective for the exploration on the improvement of tourists' catering service satisfaction, and provide theoretical basis to formulate the scenic spot marketing strategies to meet the multi-level demands of tourists, so as to promote the high-quality development of scenic spot tourism.
2 Methodology Formulation
IPA (importance performance analysis), i.e. "importance performance degree" analysis method, refers to that customers' satisfaction of service arising from their attention to service attributes and performance evaluation
[23]. By analyzing the IPA index, the satisfaction degree of each index can be obtained, and then the IPA quadrant matrix could be built up
[24]. The IPA quadrant model takes the importance as the abscissa and the satisfaction as the ordinate, while takes the overall average value of tourists' importance and satisfaction evaluation of various indicators as the intersection of the X-Y axis to divide the space into four quadrants. They are quadrant A (advantage area): Customers are satisfied with the indicators in this quadrant which are considered as important; Quadrant B (retention area): Customers do not pay much attention to the indicators in this quadrant but still satisfied with them; Quadrant C (improvement area): Customers are dissatisfied with the indicators in this quadrant which are considered as unimportant; Quadrant D (weak area): Customers attach great importance to the indicators in this quadrant but are not satisfied with them.
IPA analysis method is mainly used to carry out research on customer satisfaction analysis, which has been widely used in tourism, transportation, hotel, education, public, catering, network and other fields
[25-29]. In this paper, the IPA analysis method is used to construct the evaluation index system of catering service satisfaction in Zhangzhou tourist scenic spots. By studying the importance and satisfaction level of each index, the four quadrant index characteristics of catering service in Zhangzhou tourist scenic spots are established, and then investigate the specific factors affecting customer satisfaction and the areas where service quality indicators should be improved.
3 Empirical Analysis
3.1 Survey Design
There are many factors that affect the satisfaction of catering service in scenic spots
[30]. In order to make the investigation and analysis results more scientific and reliable, this paper constructs three main levels, five core elements and 31 detailed index evaluation systems (as shown in
Figure 1) of catering service satisfaction in scenic spots, and divides the satisfaction evaluation of tourists into three levels: Target level A, element level B and index level C. The evaluation index systems at all levels are gradually decreasing and closely related. The element layer B is the inclusion and induction of the indicator layer C, and the subdivision indicator layer C is the interpretation and explanation of the content, characteristics and attributes of the element layer B. Two indicators have functional relationship and interact with each other.
Figure 1 Evaluation index system of catering service satisfaction in scenic spots |
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The questionnaire of this study mainly includes three parts: first, the demographic and sociological characteristics of the sample are investigated, involving the six aspects of the respondents' gender, age, occupation, monthly income, education level and residence; Secondly, it is the scale analysis of tourists' evaluation and investigation on various indicators of catering in scenic spots, including the importance of each factor to tourists and tourists' satisfaction with each factor. Based on the three levels of catering service satisfaction in scenic spots, five core factors and 31 indicator evaluation system, 31 indicators are determined as the variables of the matrix scale in the questionnaire; The last part is the overall evaluation, which is set as a matrix scale to investigate the overall satisfaction of tourists to the catering service in Zhangzhou scenic area.
3.2 Sample Statistical Analysis
In this study, a simple random sampling survey was adopted. A total of 520 questionnaires were distributed and 515 were recovered. After excluding the invalid questionnaires, the effective questionnaires accounted for 98.8%.As shown in Table 1 , demographic descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the collected effective samples. The gender difference is significant. It is obvious that the ratio of female tourists to male tourists is about 7:3. In addition, the age of tourists is also closely related to the tourism demand. The middle-aged and young people are more willing to travel, which are the main source of tourists in Zhangzhou tourist attractions. According to the occupation division, the high proportion of tourism groups is mainly school students and company employees. Furthermore, education level is also one of the factors that stimulate tourists' tourism consumption. Groups with higher education have greater demand for tourism, and most tourists have received good education. In general, the descriptive statistical results of the samples basically conform to the characteristics of tourist groups in the tourism market, indicating that the samples selected in the survey are representative.
Table 1 Descriptive statistical analysis of samples |
| Population features | Category | Proportion(%) | | Population features | Category | Proportion(%) |
| Sex | Male | 28.16 | | | Student | 71.84 |
| Female | 71.84 | | | Government unit | 4.9 |
| Age | Under 18 years old | 6.12 | | Occupation | Company unit | 11.02 |
| 18~25 years old | 71.02 | | | Individual business | 3.67 |
| 26~35 years old | 9.8 | | | Retiree | 1.22 |
| 36~45 years old | 6.94 | | | Others | 7.35 |
| Over 45 years old | 6.12 | | Monthly income | Below 2000 (RMB) | 62.86 |
| Education level | Below high school | 12.65 | | 2000~3500 (RMB) | 11.84 |
| College degree | 13.47 | | 3500~5500 (RMB) | 9.8 |
| Bachelor degree | 70.61 | | 5500~7500 (RMB) | 7.35 |
| Master's degree or above | 3.27 | | Above 7500(RMB) | 8.16 |
| Source of tourists | In the province | 62.04 | | | | |
| Outside the province | 37.96 | | | | |
3.3 Sample Reliability and Validity Test
3.3.1 Reliability Analysis
Cronbach α coefficient method was used in this study to test the reliability of the questionnaire results (as shown in Table 2). First, the overall factors of the five dimensions of importance are analyzed to obtain the total α value which is 0.903; Then the reliability of 31 factors under the five dimensions was tested, and the highest α coefficient of importance scale is 0.733, while the lowest α coefficient is 0.701. Cronbach α coefficient values of each dimension are distributed between 0.7 ~ 0.8, which exhibit little difference. This shows that the questionnaire data has high reliability and the scale is true and reliable.
Table 2 Cronbach coefficient test of importance dimension |
| Variables | N | Cronbach's Alpha |
| B1 Catering products | 8 | 0.733 |
| B2 Catering function | 7 | 0.716 |
| B3 Catering characteristic | 5 | 0.703 |
| B4 Cateringservice | 6 | 0.724 |
| B5 Additional service | 5 | 0.701 |
| Cronbach coefficient of the whole scale | 31 | 0.903 |
As shown in Table 3, the reliability of the five dimensions and 31 factors of satisfaction is analyzed, and the Cronbach α coefficient values of each dimension are all greater than 0.8 and the α coefficient of the total factor is 0.813. The α coefficients of satisfaction scale are all above 0.8, and the coefficients are high and distributed between 0.8 and 0.9, which indicates that the questionnaire data has high reliability and the reliability of the scale can also meet the standard.
Table 3 Cronbach coefficient test of satisfaction dimension |
| Variables | N | Cronbach's Alpha |
| B1 Catering products | 8 | 0.829 |
| B2 Catering functions | 7 | 0.839 |
| B3 Catering characteristic | 5 | 0.845 |
| B4 Cateringservice | 6 | 0.818 |
| B5 Additional service | 5 | 0.809 |
| Cronbach coefficient of the whole scale | 31 | 0.813 |
Reliability and validity are the basis and basis for evaluating whether the questionnaire data is accurate and stable. This study uses data processing software to carry out reliability analysis on 31 sub factors of the five major dimensions of importance and satisfaction. The results show that the overall α coefficients of importance factor is 0.903, and the overall α coefficients of satisfaction factor is 0.813. The α coefficients of two dimensions are higher than 0.8, which indicates that the reliability of the above two types of factors is up to standard, and the consistency and correlation of the relevant indicators are good, which is suitable for empirical analysis with IPA method.
3.3.2 Validity Analysis
Validity is a measure that accurately reflects the purpose and requirements of evaluation. This study conducted KMO and Bartlett tests on the importance of the questionnaire and the satisfaction scale. First, the importance factor is tested and the results are shown in Table 4. The KMO test value of the importance factor is 0.823 (greater than 0.8); The chi-square approximation value of Bartlett's test is 3227.277, signifying that the validity is high. The significance levels are all 0.000 (the significance is good), indicating that the relationship between each variable is clear.
Table 4 KMO and Bartlett test for importance |
| Types | Values | |
| KMO test | 0.823 | |
| | Approximate chi-square value | 3227.277 |
| Bartlett test | Degree of freedom | 465 |
| | Significance | 0 |
At the same time, the satisfaction factor is tested and the results are shown in Table 5. The KMO test value of the satisfaction factor is 0.755, which is between 0.7 and 0.8. The approximate chi-square value of Bartlett test is 3757.081 (good validity) and significance level value is 0.000 (good significance), which show that the relationship between various variables is close, thus the results of the questionnaire are accurate and effective. The KMO test values of both are greater than 0.7 and the significance level values are all 0.000. It shows that it is suitable to use IPA analysis method for this research because the relationship between the variables is clear and will not be affected by the existence of other variables.
Table 5 KMO and Bartlett test for satisfaction |
| Types | Values | |
| KMO test | 0.755 | |
| | Approximate chi-square value | 3757.081 |
| Bartlett test | Degree of freedom | 465 |
| | Significance | 0 |
3.4 IPA Index Analysis
3.4.1 Importance Analysis
Through the evaluation and analysis of the importance, satisfaction, IPA index and overall satisfaction of the element layer, it can be inferred that tourists have high expectations on catering products, catering features and additional services in the tourist attractions, while moderate satisfaction and expectations on catering functions and services. The satisfaction of the five elements can be divided into two levels: One is the relatively satisfied index, including B1 catering products, B3 catering characteristics and B5 additional services; the second is the general satisfaction index, including B2 catering functions and B4 catering services.
The five elements are ranked according to the average importance in Table 6, from high to low: B2 catering functions (3.95) → B1 catering products (3.94) → B4 catering services (3.87) → B3 catering characteristics (3.78) → B5 additional services (3.74). The overall average value of the importance of the five elements is 3.86, and the average value of each element is greater than 3. In particular, the values of catering functions, catering products and catering services are prominent, which indicates that tourists have high expectations on the satisfaction of catering services in the scenic spot. Tourists not only have the demands for diversity of catering products and improvement of supporting facilities, but also pay more attention to food safety and catering hygiene in the scenic spot.
Table 6 Importance, satisfaction and IPA index evaluation results of element level |
| Evaluating indicators | Importance (I) | Satisfaction (P) | I−P | IPA Index(IPAI) | IPA Index(IPAI) |
| Element layer B | Mean value | Standard deviation | Mean value | Standard deviation | Mean value |
| B1 Catering products | 3.94 | 0.912 | 3.64 | 0.935 | 0.30 | 7.61 | Fairly satisfied |
| B2 Catering functions | 3.95 | 0.843 | 3.55 | 1.078 | 0.40 | 10.13 | Generally satisfied |
| B3 Catering characteristics | 3.78 | 0.861 | 3.58 | 0.841 | 0.20 | 5.40 | Fairly satisfied |
| B4 Catering services | 3.87 | 0.746 | 3.19 | 0.893 | 0.69 | 17.70 | Generally satisfied |
| B5 Additional services | 3.74 | 0.853 | 3.45 | 0.929 | 0.29 | 7.70 | Fairly satisfied |
It can be seen from Table 7 that the overall average value of the importance of 31 indicators is 3.87, including C25 sanitary Condition (4.28), C24 food safety (4.26), C11 product price (4.07), C15 product taste (4.05) and C23 meal delivery speed (4.00). The average value of these five indicators is greater than 4.0, and the average value of the importance of the other indicators is between 3.5 and 4.0. These are the main factors affecting tourists' satisfaction with the catering services in Zhangzhou scenic spots.
Table 7 Importance, satisfaction and IPA index evaluation results of index layer |
| Evaluating indicators | Importance (I) | Satisfaction (P) | I−P | IPA Index(IPAI) | IPA Index(IPAI) |
| Element layer C | Mean value | Standard deviation | Mean value | Standard deviation | Mean value |
| C11 Product price | 4.07 | 0.898 | 3.68 | 0.924 | 0.39 | 9.58 | Fairly satisfied |
| C12 Product category | 3.91 | 0.871 | 3.80 | 0.961 | 0.11 | 2.81 | Very satisfied |
| C13 Product innovation | 3.93 | 0.885 | 3.70 | 0.962 | 0.23 | 5.85 | Fairly satisfied |
| C14 Product culture | 3.81 | 0.899 | 3.76 | 1.040 | 0.05 | 1.31 | Very satisfied |
| C15 Product taste | 4.05 | 0.89 | 3.61 | 1.034 | 0.44 | 10.86 | Generally satisfied |
| C16 Product nutrition | 3.94 | 0.871 | 3.64 | 0.889 | 0.30 | 7.61 | Fairly satisfied |
| C17 Raw material quality | 3.96 | 0.976 | 3.45 | 0.833 | 0.51 | 12.88 | Generally satisfied |
| C18 Product processing | 3.86 | 1.003 | 3.50 | 0.834 | 0.36 | 9.33 | Fairly satisfied |
| C21 Supporting service | 3.82 | 0.853 | 3.77 | 0.955 | 0.05 | 1.31 | Very satisfied |
| C22 Catering environment | 3.85 | 0.813 | 3.58 | 1.005 | 0.27 | 7.01 | Fairly satisfied |
| C23 Delivery speed | 4.00 | 0.784 | 3.45 | 1.086 | 0.55 | 13.75 | Generally satisfied |
| C24 Food safety | 4.26 | 0.828 | 3.43 | 1.081 | 0.83 | 19.48 | Generally satisfied |
| C25 Sanitary condition | 4.28 | 0.788 | 3.62 | 1.164 | 0.66 | 15.42 | Generally satisfied |
| C26 Convenience of dining | 3.82 | 0.862 | 3.57 | 1.133 | 0.25 | 6.54 | Fairly satisfied |
| C27 Dine together | 3.64 | 0.972 | 3.40 | 1.123 | 0.24 | 6.59 | Fairly satisfied |
| C31 Special snack | 3.86 | 0.800 | 3.83 | 0.991 | 0.03 | 0.78 | Very satisfied |
| C32 Local speciality | 3.92 | 0.806 | 3.50 | 0.783 | 0.42 | 10.71 | Generally satisfied |
| C33 Traditional food | 3.83 | 0.850 | 3.59 | 0.651 | 0.24 | 6.27 | Fairly satisfied |
| C34 Special tableware | 3.59 | 0.917 | 3.41 | 0.896 | 0.18 | 5.01 | Fairly satisfied |
| C35 Catering culture | 3.69 | 0.934 | 3.55 | 0.885 | 0.14 | 3.79 | Very satisfied |
| C41 Service attitude | 3.91 | 0.728 | 3.02 | 1.163 | 0.89 | 22.76 | Dissatisfied |
| C42 Service ability | 3.89 | 0.707 | 3.02 | 0.918 | 0.87 | 22.37 | Dissatisfied |
| C43 Service awareness | 3.84 | 0.732 | 3.59 | 0.688 | 0.25 | 6.51 | Fairly satisfied |
| C44 Service standardization | 3.86 | 0.768 | 3.29 | 0.841 | 0.57 | 14.77 | Generally satisfied |
| C45 Service convenience | 3.89 | 0.763 | 3.15 | 0.779 | 0.74 | 19.02 | Generally satisfied |
| C46 Personalized service | 3.81 | 0.779 | 3.04 | 0.966 | 0.77 | 20.21 | Dissatisfied |
| C51 Entertaining activity | 3.76 | 0.795 | 3.57 | 0.821 | 0.19 | 5.05 | Fairly satisfied |
| C52 Reception capacity | 3.85 | 0.801 | 3.11 | 1.273 | 0.74 | 19.22 | Generally satisfied |
| C53 Service centre | 3.80 | 0.846 | 3.48 | 0.872 | 0.32 | 8.42 | Fairly satisfied |
| C54 Specialty shopping | 3.60 | 0.894 | 3.73 | 0.827 | | | Very satisfied |
| C55 Tourist guide | 3.67 | 0.928 | 3.37 | 0.854 | 0.30 | 8.17 | Fairly satisfied |
3.4.2 Results: IPA Index Analysis Results
This study uses IPA index to quantitatively evaluate the satisfaction of catering services in scenic spots in Zhangzhou. The measurement formula is:
, and IPAI is the index of IPA, where I is the importance score, P is the performance score
[31]. IPA index is negatively related to satisfaction, that is, the lower the IPAI value, the actual performance is closer to customer expectations, and then leading to the higher satisfaction. Conversely, the higher the IPAI value with the lower satisfaction. In order to distinguish the degree of influence of different factors on satisfaction, IPA index can be divided into five grades according to the level of IPA index: Value less than or equal to 5.00 is very satisfied; 5.01 ~ 10.00 is fairly satisfied; 10.01 ~ 20.00 is generally satisfied; 20.01 ~ 30.00 is dissatisfied; and value greater than or equal to 30.01 is very dissatisfied.
Based on the above questionnaire data, the IPAI values of the element layer and the 31 influencing factors in the index layer were calculated by using the IPA index calculation formula. The results are shown in Table 6 and Table 7. It can be seen from Table 6 that the "importance-satisfaction" difference of the element layer and IPAI value are between 5.40 and 17.70, of which the IPAI value of B3 catering characteristics is the smallest, at 5.4, followed by B2 catering functions, B5 additional services and B1 catering products. The largest IPAI value is B4 catering services, at 17.70. According to the classification law of IPAI value, tourists are fairly satisfied with the catering services, catering functions and additional services of Zhangzhou scenic spot, and generally satisfied with the catering products and catering characteristics.
In addition, From Table 7 we can see that the IPAI value of the indicator layer is between -3.61 and 22.76. The C41 (Service attitude) index is the highest, reaching 22.76, and the C54 (Specialty shopping) index is the lowest, with a value of -3.61. The difference between the highest and lowest indexes is about 20, which indicates that the experience and satisfaction brought by specific indexes to tourists are different. Some indexes make tourists feel very satisfied while some indexes leading to very dissatisfied, but most indexes are between very satisfied and dissatisfied. Among them, 96.77 range of 0.78 ~ 22.71, and there are five indicators in the range of 0.78 ~ 3.79, which shows that tourists are very satisfied with these five indexes. There are 13 indexes in the range of 5.01 ~ 9.58, indicating that tourists are fairly satisfied with these 13 elements. There are 9 indexes in the range of 10.71 ~ 19.48, showing that tourists are generally satisfied with these 9 elements. Three indexes between 20.21 and 22.76 also signify that tourists are not satisfied with these three indexes. The specific distribution of satisfaction is as follows:① very satisfied indexes: C12 product category (3.91), C14 product culture (3.81), C21 supporting service (3.82), C31 special snack (3.86), C35 catering culture (3.69), C54 specialty shopping (3.60); ② fairly satisfactory indexes: C11 product price (4.07), C13 product innovation (3.93), C16 product nutrition (3.94), C18 product processing (3.86), C22 catering environment (3.85), C26 convenience of dining (3.82), C27 dine together (3.64), C33 traditional food (3.83), C34 special tableware (3.59), C43 service awareness (3.84), C51 entertaining activities (3.76), C53 service center (3.80) C55 tourist guide (3.67); ③ indexes of generally satisfaction: C15 product taste (4.05), C17 raw material quality (3.96), C23 delivery speed (4.00), C24 food safety (4.26), C25 sanitary condition (4.28), C32 local specialty (3.92), C44 service standardization (3.86), C45 service convenience (3.89), C52 reception capacity (3.85); ④ dissatisfied indexes: C41 service attitude (3.91), C42 service ability (3.89), C46 personalized service (3.81).
4 4Ps Improvement Path of Catering Service in Scenic Spots Based on Empirical Analysis
4.1 IPA Quadrant Discussion
This study draws an IPA quadrant chart to analyze and evaluate visitor satisfaction. According to Table 7, the overall average value of the importance of 31 indexes is 3.87, and the overall average value of satisfaction is 3.49. The two values obtained above are the intersection of importance and satisfaction. Take this point (3.87, 3.49) as the midpoint to extend to both sides, where importance is the horizontal axis and satisfaction is the vertical axis, and then the IPA quadrant diagram can be built up (as shown in Figure 2).
Figure 2 IPA quadrant diagram of evaluation indexes of catering services in scenic spots1 |
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1C11 Product price, C12 Product category, C13 Product innovation, C14 Product culture, C15 Product taste, C16 Product nutrition, C17 Raw material quality, C18 Product processing, C21 Supporting service, C22 Catering environment, C23 Delivery speed, C24 Food safety, C25 Sanitary condition, C26 Convenience, C27 Dine together, C31 Special snack, C32 Local speciality, C33 Traditional food, C34 Special tableware, C43 Catering culture, C41 Service attitude, C42 Service ability, C43 Service awareness, C44 Service standardization, C45 Service convenience, C46 Personalized service, C51 Entertaining activity, C52 Reception capacity, C53 Service centre, C54 Specialty shopping, C55 Tourist guide.
IPA quadrant diagram can be divided into four quadrants:
1) The first quadrant (advantage area): This quadrant is a high importance and high satisfaction index area, including seven tourism and catering evaluation indexes, including product price, product category, product innovation, product taste, product nutrition, sanitary condition and local specialty. These indexes are the most important and direct needs of tourists for catering services in the scenic spot. In tourism marketing activities, these indexes must be strengthened and highlighted to meet the catering needs of tourists with high quality. Customer satisfaction with catering services should be maintained, and the quality of tourism services ought to be improved in the scenic spot.
2) The second quadrant (retention area): This quadrant is an index area with low importance and high satisfaction. Tourists think that these indexes are relatively unimportant, but have high satisfaction. It contains eleven indexes, including Special snack, supporting service, product culture, specialty shopping, service awareness, traditional food, entertaining environment, convenience, entertaining activity, catering culture and product processing. Tourists think these indexes are not so important but very satisfied, which give tourists a better experience.
3) The third quadrant (improvement area): The indexes are low importance and low satisfaction in this quadrant, mainly including seven indexes: dine together, special tableware, service standardization, personalized service, reception capacity, service center and tourist guide. Although tourists do not think these catering services are particularly important at present, scenic spots should still strive to improve tourists' satisfaction in these aspects, and provide tourists with services beyond expectations. When these potential needs of tourists are met, there will generate "spillover effects" of tourists' satisfaction.
4) The fourth quadrant (disadvantaged area): This quadrant is an index region with high importance and low satisfaction. These indexes are considered important by tourists, but the actual satisfaction is low, including six evaluation indexes: raw material quality, delivery speed, food safety, service attitude, service ability and service convenience. These indexes are the key factors that determine the quality of catering services in the scenic spot. Tourists have a strong demand for these services, but they are difficult to be met, which greatly reduces the sense of experience of tourists and thus makes them feel very dissatisfied.
4.2 4Ps Improvement Paths
The essence of marketing is demand management, and if the demands of the target custom- ers can't be accurately mined and grasped, we can't construct effective marketing strategies
[32-34]. Therefore, only by analyzing the direct and main needs of tourists' catering services and giving them full and accurate satisfaction can the scenic spot build strategies that can truly and effectively improve tourists' satisfaction. Some scholars have tentatively explored various needs of tourists in tourism services, and indicated that psychological demands
[35, 36], potential demands
[37, 38], personal demands
[39, 40] and profitable demands
[41] are the core needs of tourists in tourism catering services which should be met urgently but have not been well met. The psychological demands of tourist mainly including their desire for specialty catering types, pricing, and hygiene. Meanwhile, tourists also have potential demands of transparency of production process and product quality. The personal demands mostly refer to the needs of differentiated products and personalized services, while profitable demands are about quality of raw materials and food safety, delivery speed and convenience, service attitude and service ability. Whether these demands can be well satisfied directly affects the experience value and satisfaction of tourists. In the field of marketing, the traditional 4Ps theory mainly considers the four main factors including product, price, place and promotion
[42] from the enterprise's own conditions, but does not pay enough attention to the needs of consumers
[43]. This study takes the demands of tourists' catering services as a new breakthrough point, based on the index characteristics in the four quadrants and the demands in the process of catering consumption in scenic, the 4Ps consumption demand theory of catering services has been initially constructed (as shown in
Figure 3). The 4P demands are Psychological demands (P1), Potential demands (P2), Personalized demands (P3) and Profit demands (P4).
Figure 3 Theoretical framework of 4Ps demand for tourist catering services |
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Based on the results of the empirical analysis of IPA quadrant, and combined with the 4Ps demand theory of tourist catering services, this study initially constructs the 4Ps improvement path of tourist catering service satisfaction, with a purpose to improving the quality and attractiveness of tourist services in scenic spots. The 4Ps path model is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 4Ps path model diagram for improving tourists' satisfaction of catering services |
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1) P1 path: Strengthening innovation to meet Psychological demands (P1) based on the analysis in the first quadrant (advantage area).
As shown in Figure 2 and Figure 4, this quadrant is a high importance and high satisfaction index region, including seven catering evaluation indicators that tourists attach great importance to, containing product price, product category, product innovation, product taste, product nutrition, Sanitary condition and local specialty. Among them, five indexes belong to the catering products of element layer B1, and the other two are from the catering functions of element layer B2 and the catering features of element layer B3. In view of the direct and important catering service needs of tourists, as well as the high degree of homogeneity of catering
services in most scenic spots, the service department should, on the basis of continuously providing high-quality services and in the light of the psychological demands of tourists, strengthen innovative thought to meet the demands of consumers at multiple levels, and constantly maintain the core competitive advantage of catering services in scenic spots. Specific measures are as follows:
① In terms of the pricing of catering products, the catering operators in scenic spots should focus on innovation according to the psychological demands of tourists on the basis of maintaining reasonable pricing and making tourists feel the catering products are good and cheap. Seeking novelty is a common psychological feature of tourists, and people's emotions and desires are often inspired by new and novel things. Catering operators should innovate in food pricing and food development according to the psychological needs of tourists to experience novelty. For example, in the field of pricing, some catering products can adopt the reverse pricing method or the demand pricing method based on tourists' perception of catering products and services to improve tourists' satisfaction and purchase interest. In terms of the development of food types, the psychological and spiritual needs of tourists such as novelty, functionality, cultural connotation and characteristic packaging should be considered as new breakthrough point to launch catering production featuring more destinations, with a variety of characteristic and novelty, so as to attract more tourists.
② In the field of Sanitary condition, relevant departments should strengthen the inspection of catering safety and health management and make it public in time, so as to continuously improve the health awareness of operators. On this basis, health supervision should be innovative effective, based on the psychological needs of tourists for interaction and active participation in food and beverage health supervision. For example, new regulatory measures allowing tourists to objectively evaluate the health status of catering operators, or periodically carrying out health evaluation and making public can improve the consciousness of operators in food and beverage health and also improve the satisfaction of tourists. In addition, in the special period of the COVID-19 epidemic, it is not only necessary to ensure the sanitary conditions of food, tableware and dining environment, but also to take proper prevention measures to ensure the safety and experience of tourists.
③ As to special products, scenic spots should pay full attention to the innovative integration of special products and catering in scenic spots according to the psychological demands of the diversity of tourism consumption, and reasonably integrate local special products into catering products and services in scenic spots, so as to solve the current dilemma of serious homogenization on tourism products. For example, integrating the characteristic agricultural products such as bananas, pomelo, dried Osmunda, asparagus and laver, which are abundant in Zhangzhou, with the catering in the scenic area, has become a core competitive advantage of the scenic area to attract tourists in Zhangzhou.
2) P2 path: Deep excavation to meet Potential demands (P2) based on the analysis in the second quadrant (retention area).
As shown in Figure 2 and Figure 4, this quadrant is an index field with low importance and high satisfaction, including eleven indexes: Product culture, product processing, supporting services, catering environment, convenience, special snack, traditional food, product culture, service awareness, entertaining activity, and specialty shopping in scenic spots. According to the IPA index analysis results, tourists are very satisfied with the five indicators of product culture, supporting service, special snack, product culture and specialty shopping in the scenic spot, while the six indicators of product processing, catering environment, convenience, traditional food, service awareness and entertaining activity are all generally satisfied. Although tourists have no strong demand for these for these indexes, if we can deeply dig and analyze the potential demands of tourists and continue to improve the six indexes with general satisfaction, it will make tourists obtain additional experience beyond expectations. The specific methods are as follows:
① As to food processing, although tourists do not have a high awareness of the importance of food processing and production, tourists have potential demands of transparency of production process and product quality. In the process of food production, some links that needn't to be kept secret should be transparent, visible and displayable as far as possible to meet the potential participation and experience demands of tourists, which enhance the trust between catering operators and tourists in the scenic spot and the satisfaction of tourists.
② In terms of catering environment, a good catering service environment in scenic spots is another potential demand of tourists. If the potential need can be satisfied, it can directly improve the satisfaction of catering services. The improvement of the environment of catering service in the scenic spot mainly includes two aspects: One is the building of the physical environment and atmosphere, including the catering facade, internal decoration, spatial layout, theme design, and so on. The other is the construction of intangible environment, including the service attitude, cultural quality of service personnel and the cultural style of the restaurant.
③ With regard to convenience, the convenience of catering consumption in scenic spots is a hidden demand of tourists. In order to improve the convenience of catering and reduce the waiting time of tourists, the scenic spots can carry out capacity adjustment management and promotion, and provide off peak services for tourists through price incentives, exclusive packages in low peak periods and other promotional tactics to alleviate the service pressure in peak periods. In addition, scenic spots should provide some comfortable waiting areas and matching entertainment equipment while tourists wait for dinner, which will substantially enhance the consumption experience and satisfaction of tourists.
④ In the field of traditional food, characteristic snack is another potential demand for catering consumption of tourists in the scenic spot. Snacks have always been the symbol of traditional food and the business card of scenic spots. Special snacks such as four fruit soup, stewed noodles, Satay noodle, vermicelli, cat porridge, oyster fry, salted chicken, flour dumplings, rice-pudding, triangle cake, and so on, are the tourism cards of Zhangzhou. Each scenic spot should launch local characteristic snacks, meanwhile excavate their corresponding cultural connotation to meet the potential demand of consumers for tasting characteristic snacks in the scenic spot, which contributes to cultivate a cultural brand of catering in scenic spots.
⑤ As to service consciousness, it is the expectation of tourists that the catering operators in scenic spots could have a high awareness of catering service. Although the importance of catering service awareness of operators is the potential needs to tourists, if operators and staff have high service awareness, it will directly promote tourists' consumption experience and sense of value. Some scenic spots in Zhangzhou City, such as the history museum and the Confucian Temple, have set up volunteer stations to provide free explanation, dining guidance and other services for tourists, which has markedly improved the experience and satisfaction of tourists.
⑥ As far as entertaining activities are concerned, such as singing, dancing and playing while eating, which has become a fashion of current catering consumption are the new potential demands of tourists' catering consumption. Many restaurants in Zhangzhou scenic region are launching some entertainment projects, for example, some scenic restaurants in Dongshan Island, Jinluan Bay, Maluan Bay, Nanmen Bay have provided some entertainment activities when having a meal, for instance, visiting the film location, leisure sea fishing, watching globe fishes, catching crabs, and so on.
3) P3 path: Creating differentiation to meet Personalized demands (P3) based on the analysis in the third quadrant (improvement area).
From Figure 2 and Figure 4 we can see that this quadrant is an index area containing seven tourism catering evaluation indexes with low importance and low satisfaction, including dine together, special tableware, service standardization, personalized service, reception capacity, tourist service center and tourist guide. At present, the homogeneity of catering services in scenic spots is serious, and tourists have strong personalized needs for catering services. Although tourists have low awareness of the importance of these seven indicators and low satisfaction, catering operators in scenic spots should meet the personalized service demands of tourists by providing differentiated products and personalized services to change tourists' perception and satisfaction of these indexes, so as to improve the service quality and attraction of the scenic spot. Specific measures are as follows:
① About catering gathering and tableware. When tourists first arrive at a strange scenic spot, the herd mentality will guide them to gather in the place with lots of people where they think that the food and service should be better. In light of the differentiation of the characteristics of the food, the price of the food, the taste characteristics of tourists and the consumption ability of tourists, the scenic spot should provide a gathering area with differentiated catering and services to form a variety of cultural experience environment of catering such as food streets, food courts, food tribes, theme food city to make catering gathering as an important method to attract tourists. In addition, as to tableware, catering operator should provide distinctive and personalized tableware according to the difference of cultural characteristics in different scenic spots. For example, Ancient silver tableware can be used in old towns, and shell-shaped tableware with with a tang of sea can be used in island scenic spots, while bamboo tableware with rural elements can be used in earth building to create an personalized experience of "what I enjoy is not food but culture" for tourists.
② Service specifications and personalized services. Service norms mainly mean that catering operators can treat guests with integrity, fair trade, professional service. Standardized service is the premise for tourists to have a strong desire for consumption, which potentially and directly affects tourists' satisfaction. On the basis of providing standardized services, the catering service providers in the scenic spot should provide some personalized services to meet the potential needs of tourists. For instance, they should arrange relatively spacious and quiet dining-tables for the elderly with more patience, and provide children's dining chairs and tableware for the young children.
③ The reception capacity, the service center and the tourist guide of surrounding scenic spots. Tourists do not have a high perception of the importance of these additional service indexes, while which are very important supporting services in the catering industry of the scenic spot. Reception capacity is the most intuitive reflection of the level and level of catering services in the scenic spot and reception services should also be different to meet the needs of personalized services for tourists with different ages, genders and physical conditions. The tourist service center set up in the scenic spot generally only provides general services including toilets, restaurants and shopping. Personalized services such as personalized tour guide service, personal tourism strategy consultation, individualized reception service and personalized ticket service can be introduced into the tourist service center to meet the diversified and personalized needs of tourists to improve the overall economic efficiency of the scenic spot.
4) P4 path: Strict control to meet Profitable demands (P4) based on the analysis in the fourth quadrant ((disadvantaged area).
Also as indicated in Figure 2 and Figure 4, the indexes in the fourth quadrant including six tourism catering evaluation indicators with high importance and low satisfaction, consisting of raw material quality, meal delivery speed, food safety, service attitude, service ability and service convenience. Tourists have a strong perception of the importance of these indicators, but their actual satisfaction is very low. Therefore, the indexes in this quadrant are the crucial factors affecting tourists' satisfaction of catering services. According to the IPA index evaluation results, tourists are generally satisfied with raw material quality, meal delivery speed, food safety and service convenience, but dissatisfied with service attitude and service ability. Food quality and safety which should be strictly controlled involve the most fundamental interests of tourists. On the premise of ensuring the quality of raw materials and food safety, catering operators in scenic spots should constantly improve the speed of food delivery, service convenience, service ability and their service attitude to meet the most fundamental interests of tourists, which is the crux for promoting and enhancing the satisfaction of tourists. Detailed measures are as follows:
① As to quality of raw materials and food safety. The quality of raw materials directly determines the quality of meals. The raw materials of meals mainly include main raw materials, food ingredients and food additives which not only is required to have high quality, but also to ensure that it is harmless and safe to ensure the safety of meals. From the perspective of tourists' consumption interests, in the process of food production, catering operators in scenic spots should strictly control the quality of raw materials and establish the visual and transparent supervision mechanism of food production to provide tourists with high-quality, pollution-free and green food, which is the most basic guarantee for tourists' food satisfaction.
② About delivery speed and convenience. In scenic spots with larger people flow, the long waiting time of tourists for meals is the great dilemma of scenic spot service, which will drastically reduce the satisfaction of tourists. In some scenic spots of Zhangzhou, the problem of long waiting time for meal is universal, which increases the time cost of tourists and reduces their own interests. Catering operators should collect the popular dishes frequently ordered by tourists, which is conductive to prepare semi-finished raw materials in advance, and assign professional chef to cook special dishes. The strict control of these processes is the ensure of the speed of food delivery. In addition, more service channels should be opened, such as for ordering and checkout, to improve the convenience of tourists' dining and reduce the cost of tourists' dining time, so as to protect the interests of tourists and improve service satisfaction.
③ Service attitude and service ability. The catering service attitude and service ability of scenic spots also relate to the vital interests of tourists and customer value. Tourists generally attach importance to the catering service attitude and service ability of scenic spots. Good service attitude will make tourists feel cordial, sincere and enthusiastic and thus produce high satisfaction and consumer perceived value. Therefore, catering operators in scenic spots must strengthen the training and management of service personnel to improve their service attitude and service skills. While being warm, patient and polite to tourists, they also should constantly enhance their observation ability, communication ability and adaptability to effectively increase tourists' consumption experience and consumption interests.
5 Conclusions
Catering service is an integral and important part of tourism. Tasting the local delicacies and experiencing the local catering culture in scenic spots have become the critical driving forces of tourists' tourism. Therefore, the improvement of tourists' satisfaction of catering service is the key to the high-quality development of tourism in scenic spots. Based on the IPA analysis method, this study selects 31 indexes and constructs an IPA quadrant chart to carry out an empirical research on the tourist satisfaction of catering services in Zhangzhou scenic spots. The main conclusions and contributions are following:
1) The mean deviation of the importance and satisfaction of the evaluation indicators is positively related to the IPA index, while the IPA index is negatively relevant to the satisfaction degree. The rise or fall of the mean value of the importance or satisfaction of any index will affect the IPA index, and also lead to relative errors in the evaluation of the satisfaction degree.
2) An IPA quadrant chart to analyze the tourist satisfaction of catering services has been built. According to the importance and satisfaction of the indicators in each quadrant, it can be divided into four quadrants: The first quadrant (advantage area), the second quadrant (retention area), the third quadrant (improvement area) and the fourth quadrant (disadvantaged area).
3) We have initially constructed the 4Ps consumption demand theory of catering service for tourists in the light of the characteristics of the indicators in the four quadrants and the demands of tourists, which includes psychological demands, potential demands, personalized demands and profitable demands.
4) The 4Ps paths of tourist satisfaction of catering service in scenic spots have been explored. The catering operators in scenic spots should deeply analyze the consumption needs of tourists and establish an innovative awareness of meals and services. Accurately meeting the multi-level demands and constantly improving the perceived value and satisfaction of tourists for catering services in scenic spots are the crux to cultivate core competitive advantages of scenic spots.
At present, the research on tourist satisfaction of catering services in scenic spots is still in the exploration stage. In the future, empirical research can change the research variables, further reveal the impact of other factors on tourist satisfaction. Furthermore, other theoretical methods and tools, such as fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, conditional value evaluation method and neural network model, could be used to deeply analyze and evaluate the relevant indexes of tourist catering satisfaction. In addition, further exploration and analysis on the potential needs and multi-level demands of tourists' catering services should be conducted to formulate accurate and efficient marketing strategies.
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Figure 1 Evaluation index system of catering service satisfaction in scenic spots
Table 1 Descriptive statistical analysis of samples
