Service Quality: Foreign Tourists’ Perception of Iloilo Dinagyang Festival Ati-Ati Tribe Competition

The aim of this study is to assess the level of service quality of Iloilo Dinagyang Festival, one of Philippines’ most prominent cultural festivals. The study focuses on the Ati-Ati Tribe Competition, which is the weeklong celebration’s highlight. Current festival service quality studies are focused on the quality improvement of service organizations & recreation industries. Nevertheless, being an abstract concept, the measurement & analysis of service quality is still under continued development with numerous models applicable for different tourism activities. In lieu with this, the researchers aim to put into context the gap mentioned by making an attempt to measure the level of service quality of the 2014 Dinagyang Festival using one of the leading SERVQUAL assessment models. Purposive sampling with thirty (30) foreign tourist respondents was used in this study. The Childress-Crompton model was utilized to assess the respondents’ perception of service quality based on four dimensions, namely: generic features, specific entertainment features, information sources, & comfort amenities. The study concludes that foreign tourists who attended the festival’s Ati-Ati Tribe Competition were satisfied with the event’s generic and specific entertainment features, and neutral with regards to information sources & comfort amenities. As to the over-all relative level of importance of the four dimensions, the ranking is in accordance with existing literature. Furthermore, the Pearson Correlation was used in the analysis of data by sex and by age group. Results have shown a strong linear relationship on how different sexes rate the festival’s information sources and comfort amenities. No significant relationships exist for the age bracket. In conclusion, respondents are satisfied with the festival’s overall level of service quality. Improvements in the festival should focus on cleanliness, information dissemination, and refinement of comfort amenities.