China is opening up its door wider to the world to attract more and more people from all over the world to visit China. Owing to the diverse culture, possessing rich wonderful places with fantastic panoramic view, tourism industry in China is booming at an exponential rate. They are the axis of the whole travel experience and, to some; they are soul of the tourism industry. In certain instances they are considered the ‘beautiful angel’ who will provide the tourists with an unforgettable experience reflected through China’s beauty and hospitality. As the industry grows, so does the demand for capable tour guides. Tour guide is a significant component of tourism industry, and their performance is very crucial in the tourists’ satisfaction. The tourist guide service quality is able to directly affect the total tourist’s experience. However, tourists are lamenting that the guides are incompetent in their work performance which affect their satisfaction level. Hence, the aim of this study is to assess the influence of tour guide’s performance on people’s travel experience (and satisfaction) in China’s. The importance-performance analysis was used in the context of attributes of tour guide to describe the importance attributes of tour guide according to the consumer expectation and compare with customers satisfaction on these attributes to see whether they are satisfied with the services offered by tour guides in mainland China. Self-administrated questionnaire was developed from IPA instrument and distributed to Chinese tourists and international tourists. The findings of this study are expected to contribute in the improvement of tour guides performance through a standard document for tour guiding competences and training programs.
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In-Text Citation: (Lu, Liujien, & Hashim, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Lu, C., Liujien, W., & Hashim, R. (2018). An Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) of Tour Guide in Mainland China. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(14), 200–217.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
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