Measuring customer’s satisfaction as a tool to improve the quality of services in Egyptian spas : spas in Cairo City as a case study

Abstract EN

In the recent years, several countries have turned to a new area of tourism – health and wellness.

This niche area explores the intersection of healthcare services and tourism packages, and often depends on local factors such as high-quality health services, cost competitiveness, climate conditions, or specific geographical resources advantages.

Egypt as one of the most important touristic countries in the region has a long tradition of bathing associated with the hammams Turkish baths and pharaonic ones (AmCham Egypt 2012).

Early indications are that Egyptians were the first to discover the potential of water and essential oils for therapeutic purposes.

Remedial treatments and bath spas have been around for thousands of years, with well-being philosophies dating back as far as 7000 BC when the fatty oils of olive and sesame were thought to have been combined with fragrant plants to create the original Neolithic ointments.

(http://www.thespatraveller.com/Articles/The-history-of-spas.htm).

In Egypt, the market and research analysis companies forecast a compound annual growth rate of 5% through 2016, when sales are expected to exceed EGP 1.2 billion.

Previous studies have discussed the Spa industry.

However, customer service-related research from the perspectives of customers and operators is rare.

From the outset, it would be useful to understand the relation between the quality of services in Spa and the customer loyality.

To assess the reliability of the measure in this study, Cronbach's coefficient alpha was used.

Cronbach's alpha is the most accepted formula for assessing reliability of a measurement with multi-point items.