Investigating Rhodes Aquarium Service Quality by Visitors with Different Demographic and Economic Characteristics

The aim of the present study was the evaluation of quality services provided by the Aquarium of Rhodes and the examination of the degree of satisfaction and informal oral communication of the visitors, in relevance with their demographics and economics characteristics. The research sample consisted of 203 visitors of the Aquarium (45.8% men and 54.2% women). The quality of services was evaluated by the SERVQUAL instrument of Brady and Cronin (2001), the satisfaction by the scale of Tian-Cole et al. (2002) and the informal oral communication by the scale of Knauer (1992). The reliability of the instrument was tested successfully. The findings from this research provide the lack of statistically significant differences through the demographics characteristics according to the quality, the satisfaction and the informal oral communication. In reverse significant statistical differences were noticed between the variable “value entry ticket” to the Aquarium and the total of the three dependent variables. Specifically, the group of visitors who comprehended the price entry as “high” evaluated with lower scores all the dependencies variables (p<.01), in relevance with the group of visitors who comprehended the price entry as low. The results underscored the severity of the element pricing entry into a tourist attraction, as it affects the overall perception of the quality level, the degree of satisfaction and the informal oral communication. In conclusion, the price entry is a factor that consolidates the loyalty of visitors to a tourist destination. Key words: service quality, customer satisfaction, word of mouth communication, demographics, economics characteristics.