旅游管理英文文献

1. The need for a new quality approach in tourism

The quality of tourist services offered by each supplier is the result of joining two

components: quantity, which is rather of material nature as it is represented by equipment

and facilities, such as food, scenery, working methods; and quality, which is mainly

behaviouristic

The material component is influencing the quality of the tourist services through the

demand for comfort, functionality, aesthetics, as well as ergonomics qualities of the

equipment provided by certain units. One of the most important factors in-fluencing these

demands is the level of technicality, which determines the level of comfort and service

quality. The higher the technicality, the better the service, as they offer heating and phonic

isolation, different room facilities, such as reliable installations, which lead

both to lower

maintenance expenses and fewer complaints.

The implementation of the electronic database has positive effects on the quality of service,

as a result of eliminating bureaucracy, which facilitates the cor-rect management of the

client account and the fast billing. Thus, it is also easier to op-timise the system of data

transfer that allows the calculation of the specific indexes. This increases the quality of

service and gives staff more time for the relation with the customer. Even if the initial

investment is higher, the benefits are visible on a long term.

Another important element of quality is represented by sizing and organising different

spaces that must include aspects concerning the offer flexibility, in order to be able to

provide complementary services such as the organisation of congresses and conferences, as

well as other events.

The business card of a unit is represented by the interior dec-orations, “the atmosphere”

created by decoration, the colours, the intensity and colour of lights, the thermal comfort

(air temperature and humidity), air freshness and indoor sound system, elements that

complete the product [4].

However, the most important quality component is the staff behaviour within the hotel,

which is usually neglected, as the company is mostly concerned with employing the

necessary qualified number of employees to know and apply standards and working

procedures.

The effects of professional behaviour are directly connected to the quality of service and

how it is perceived by the client. Unlike the material components we have discussed before,

the effects of the professional behaviour are unpredictable and almost irre-versible. They are

directly related to the number, the structure and the level of training and mo-tivation of the

staff.

That is why staff recruitment must take into account that beside professional training and

general background knowledge, employers must seek to identify per-sonal behaviour and

attitude qualities in the future employee, such as: cha-risma, vocation for tourism,

availability and learning abilities, sociability, empathy and other elements which will reflect

the quality of services and the level of satisfaction of the clients [7].

Therefore, a client oriented professional behaviour may contribute to a better assessment of

the quality of service rather than exposing material luxury and in some cases, an adequate

professional behaviour may compensate for certain material deficiencies.

In this context the present classification based on stars is no longer responding to the

demands of the client, whose expectations with respect to the quality of services are

precise.

The methodological norms regarding the classification of the accommodation units consists

of an administrative system of classification, that takes in-to consideration only the

architectural features of the building, the level of facilities, equipment and inventory objects

as well as the minimum services that must be offered by an accommodation unit according

to its classification, [9] without emphasising the most important quality element like the

staff attitude for example.

This administrative system of classification used by all countries, was found inconvenient

to the new requirements. In this respect, some countries started reconsidering

and changing

the classification standards stressing on the quality of services especially on the hotel staff

and its behaviour.

This approach is necessary due to the present economic crisis that led to an obvious

decrease in the number of tourists, who shall mainly turn to suppliers who provide the best

quality-price warranted balance.

In the case of Romania, which has a diverse tourist potential, with authentic components,

the change from facility standards to service quality standards would be an element of

differentiation and it would increase the competition of the Romanian tourist product. This

has also been demonstrated by international research studies that consider Romania an

interesting tourist destination.

2. Quality standards and systems in the hospitality industry

Both in Romania and in other countries with tourist tradition the service quality assurance

is accomplished in two ways: according to the different types of standards and according to

the quality management systems. Moreover, standards include: norms shaped by official

organisations of different countries such as the standards of category classi-fication (stars),

occupational and other standards including facility, procedure, management, which are

mostly created by hotel chains, especially those from 1991, since the first procedure of

tourist star classification settled by The Ministry of Tourism and later on followed-up by

several other variants.

The occupational standard is the document that states the competitive units and their level

of quality according to their activity outcome for one occupa-

tion. This one includes the

fields of competence and corresponding unities of competence. The compe-tence fields are

divided into three categories: fundamental, general and specific competences. Each unit of

competence corresponding to an occupation include: competence elements,

accomplishment criteria, variable range and assessment guide.

Fundamental competence includes: efficient communication at work and team work.

General competences presuppose: the NPM and NPSI application, the job organisation,

promoting the hotel image. The specific competences are differentiated according to

occupational categories which include technological operations which are specific function.

Despite their complexity they do not guarantee the quality of the ren-dered service as the

general competences assurance is not enough to satisfy the clients.

This particular client

satisfaction is determined by other inner individual elements, such as: client needs

awareness, active understanding, and service provider responsibility. From the beginning, the methodological norms of star classification of the tourist

welcoming structures are limited to quantitative aspects of the hotel services quality,

without pointing to subtle quality elements of the tourist service, which rep-resent essential

attributes of the hotel product.

The internal standards were created by hotel chains in order to ensure a similar system of

facilities, to have services and staff with a view to promoting and maintaining a brand

image. These standards are different from one hotel chain to another, even if they have

similar elements. In the case of independent hotels, only some of them have already created

their own standards.

Taking into consideration that the ratio of the hotels which have created their own standards

is low, the present ones have an increased level of heterogeneity, and some limits with

regards to quality assurance which makes this method of quality implementation and

assessment insufficient.

Regarding the quality management systems in tourism, the best approach is the use of an

integrated quality management system which includes: the quality management system

based on SR EN ISO 9001:2001, the environment management system based on SR EN

ISO 14 001:1997, the food security management system according to the HACCP

principles, based on the ISO 22000 standard and the health and labour secu-rity management

system based on OHSAS 18002 from 1999.

The quality management is defined according to ISO 9000 as the total amount of activities

of the general management function which determine the policy in the field of quality, in

order to implement the objectives and responsibilities in the quality system by specific

means, such as: quality planning, quality control, quality assurance and quality

improvement [8].

The main objective of quality management is to efficiently accomplish at a maximum level

the products which entirely satisfy the client’s requirements and which are consistent with

the society requirements and the applied standards and specifications, which consider all

aspects regarding consumer and environment protection and which are of-fered to the client

at the established price and term.

The introduction of a quality system brings benefits to all the parts involved:

the designated

country, the direct tourist services suppliers, the consumers and the media-tors.

This implies a constant level of quality. That is why the im-plementation of quality is

accomplished by a sum of requirements called standards which are grouped in types,

according to their field.

To get quality does not only mean initiating standards and being consistent with them, but

also quality performance to meet clients’ requirements and expectations, as well as quality

management.

In this context, the systemic management of the hotel service quality and the taking up of

some measures are a maximum priority at this stage.

Thus, ensuring products and hotel service competition must be based on quality

management, as it is a way to ensure the company’s credibility on the mar-ket.

Even if the quality management system has been enforced since 1995, the ratio of hotel

service suppliers who are certified is low, as many of them are not aware of the importance

and implications of the certificate of quality.

Even in the case of certified organisations some of the subtle aspects of quality guarantee

have not been identified and included in the specific documentation. Thanks to the general nature of the ISO standards and to the lack of experi-ence in the case

of internal or external auditors within the certifying organisms, the subtle elements of

quality guarantee have not been identified. This certificate is insufficient to ensure the level

of quality that is required by the new demands in the economic environment. Though, the

financial element, the high costs of authorisation and TQM are aspects that

determine big

hotel and food units to postpone certification, considering that they were not absolutely

compulsory.

Despite its advantages offered by the standards and the quality man-agement system, this

instrument of ensuring the quality of service within the welcoming industry is limited as it

does not allow the national level of guaranteed quality. Even the hotel field organisations,

which have their own system of standards and are certified in an integrated system of

quality management, have not reached the intangible components of ensuring quality of

atmosphere and staff behaviour, but the entertainment service development has been

forgotten, though they best underline the relationship be-tween the supplier and the

customer.

Regulation 636/2003 focussed on the initiation of the mark Q, with regard to the National

Program to increase hotel service quality, with a consequence of founding the Tourist

Service Quality and Hospitality Industry centre, in July 2005 –INQUALTOUR- a

professional private association of public interest, a NGO and a non profit organization,

with its head office in Bucharest. Its founding members are physically and legally

competent and are also well known persons in the field of tourism quality, such as the

Romanian Quality Insurance Company (SRAC); the Tourism S.C, the Hotel and Restaurant

Consulting Group SRL - THR CG; the National Association for Rural, Ecological and

Cultural Group - ANTREC, as well as expects with great expertise.

The reason to invite these associations, in Romania was to achieve a Centre of Excellency

and expertise in the field of touring and hospitality to develop quality and competition of

Romanian tourism, its standard and business level, with a view to European Integration and

globalization [2].

The Ministry of Tourism, in cooperation with INQUALTOUR and the professional field

associations elaborated, at that moment, a guide of over 100 criteria to evaluate hospitality

industry quality, which were presented to the managers in the field who had to make

remarks to improve things in terms of specific quality standards and of im-plementing them

at the national level a feed-back which hasn’t been yet achieved, every-thing being still in

the project stage.

These were the first steps in achieving a unitary system and a centralized one to certify

hotel quality service in Romania.

3. A new view on the quality of services within the Romanian hotel industry Most countries, which have not perceived the importance of tourism devel-opment and the

shift to a new way of approaching service quality offered to the clients, have made a

complex system of standards in the hotel industry at a national level, which demand the

service to be characterised by criteria such as: reaction, cre-ditworthiness, curiosity,

flexibility, and so on.

For instance, since 1995 the Swiss standards included meeting clients in the norms of

classifications and service quality standards in the hospitality industry at present. The

classification norms in Swiss is hotels settled by the hotel association being very complex,

considering both aspects with quantitative aspects, trying to di-versify and individualize

service as well as to increase staff behaviour.

The Swiss system of classification includes 14 criteria, each containing norms presented in

a technical card organized in comfort categories.

The certificate of classification will be obtained as a reset of self-evaluation, of the

evaluation of the regional commission and the commission of hotel classifi-cation.

The classification criteria deal with : security norms, building exterior and area, reception,

public area, rooms, bathrooms, breakfast service, room-service, restaurant service,

restaurant, further service, reception and entertaining service, quality, entertainment and

sports outfit [13].

One should notice the 12 specific norms to organize entertaining activities which should be

permanently achieved based on a settled program advertised in the hotel all season long in

season hotels and the provision of at least one five – day entertainer a week

for those hotels

open all year-long, who may be a free time employee or a collaborator. In the same classification system, other qualitative aspects such as air quality in the

restaurants and bars, live music five days a week for four hours at least are also present.

Another example is the hotel certificate in France referential standard which represents the

result of the cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Tourism

Trade Union Federation, the Quality Certification Body, the Association for the

Consumers’ Protection, on one hand and the tourist and hotel industry professional

associations and the Tourist Department in France, on the other hand. This quality referential commitment was initiated in 2001 and tested in 12 hotels in France;

in February 2002 it was published in the “Monitorul Oficial” Review, be-coming operational

later on.

Hotel certification is a quality guarantee focussing on the client and on in-creasing service

quality staff behaviour and attitude. It implies 7 quality standards, such as staff professional

smile, cleanliness and hygiene, quality bed sheets, staff availability, quietness, tourist and

practical information offered to clients as well as monitored quality.

Certification will comprise two stages: firstly consultancy and auditing need to reach the

high level hotel service standard, and secondly the certification as such. The certificate is

obtained after some steps have been taken: the “mystery clients” reports, hotel self-

evaluation, settling clients’ claims, their level of satisfaction and aspects of staff training.

Checking is organized every month and it involves 550 issues.

At the same time, at the level of hotel chains, there are some assessment and control criteria

that describe service and behaviour components by classical methods of management,

according to their own standards by the chain inspectors who assess the quality of service

and the quality and certifying hotel standards as clients.

Since 1996, the General Department of Authorisation and Control has dealt with giving

tourism patents and classification certificates to different tour-ist units following an

assessment process which matched the documentation with the specific con-ditions offered

by the tourist offers.

This observation has led to making a decision to decentralise the authorising and control

system as well as creating the Local Departments which continued to deal with the same

type of activity according to the legislation, without improving the classification criteria

concerning tourist welcoming structures and the system of quality assess-

ment.

There are mainly two possibilities to approach quality im-provement process in the

Romanian hotel business as follows: completing the criteria under Methodo-logical Norms

regarding the star classification of the welcoming criteria, and creating a quality assessment

system regarding hotels and food.

Creating a complex system of services quality standards in the Romanian hotel industry

must be a priority of the Ministry of Tourism, of the professional tourism as-sociations and

of all organisations in the field.

The new system should include: the total amount of criteria, the methods of their

assessment, establishing institutions which will be involved in the system construction, its

improvement and setting the categories of people who will evaluate the re-sults and will take

the correcting measures.

In order to ensure the increase of the hotel quality services we consider that the most

efficient solution would consist of an analysis of the Ministry of Tourism in order to issue a

normative act which would be more complex than the present Regulation 636/2008. This

should lead to a development of the existent criteria which will include extra criteria

concerning the assessment of the service quality.

Starting with the present system of criteria which are includ-ed in the Methodological

Norms regarding the star classification of the welcoming tourist units and the public food

supply units, their improvement implies the inclusion of constructive features such as: the

hotel location, the accessibility, the quality of the access ways, the placement (close to the

interesting tourist area, slopes, beaches, etc.), the attractiveness of the area.

The building assessment may also have in mind the exterior aspect and the architecture,

including the novelty of the building or its refurbishment. There are also other ambient

elements such as green areas, parks, gardens, waterfalls, fountains, lights, as well as

entertaining areas for adults and children

A very important aspect is represented by the development of the criteria referring to the

indoor space which signal the communication with the client represented by different types

of information, design and decorative plants.

A basic element in separating and personalising the service supply is the ad-justment to the

structure and the facilities of the room to the client needs by offering for in-stance double-

double rooms, rooms for disabled people, standard rooms, as well as luxury rooms for

business people, or rooms for people with pets.

Room assessment criteria also include elements of ambiance, lights, aroma-therapy, design,

colours, but also aspects such as facilities level of usage, ergonomic furniture and

equipment, extra beds, or baby care facilities.

Modern technologies have allowed the hotel to stop wasting resources, which improved the

possibility to control and adapt the temperature and the lights. Thus they must be included

in the assessment criteria.

A basic component of the hotel service is the food supply and the number, the structure and

the specific service offered in the unit. Together with the quality of accom-modation service,

food supply is an important step in choosing a particular hotel.

Restaurants may be different according to the quality of the rendered service and by

introducing hypo-caloric, vegetarian, healthy, thematic, or children menus by making lists

of dishes which are specifically described: calories, additives percentage, or other elements

which are part of the Methodological Norms in the chapter dealing with ex-tra-criteria.

Internationally in this field, food supply service is assessed by other criteria too: serving

standards, serving efficiency, careful and fast serving, competitive staff who help the client,

staff outfit and appearance, visible prices, hygiene and production quality. This also implies

the aspect of the dishes, their taste, freshness, temperature, as well as ambi-ance – the degree

of silence, the smoking and non-smoking areas, the possibility to assist the cooking process,

children facilities, etc. Conclusion

A fresh tourist promotion in Romania is a complex process im-plying both the initiation of

legal and institutional background and new technical devices,

to allow diversifying the

hotel and restaurant service supply, and to increase quality service level. This year, the Tourism Ministry has initiated a step to a new quality assessment system, by

reconsidering concepts and increasing the importance granted to the hotel staff and their

attitude towards tourist service quality.

The economic implications will be critical, though hardly reversible in time, if not achieved

in parallel with the implementation of valuable models and the change of mentality within

the Romanian hotel service suppliers practice.