March 27, 2013 - The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) today (27 March) released the PolyU Tourist Satisfaction Index (PolyU TSI) and the first Tourism Service Quality Index (PolyU TSQI). The 2012 PolyU TSI hit a record high of 75.07, an increase of 2.46 points from 72.61 over the year. As another innovative gauge for service performance, the debut PolyU TSQI stood at 75.37 for 2012.
 
Spearheaded by Professor Haiyan Song, Associate Dean and Chair Professor of Tourism at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), the PolyU TSI project measures inbound tourists’ satisfaction levels across six tourism-related sectors and integrates them into an overall index. Since its launch in 2009, the PolyU TSI has served as a comprehensive system that provides authorities and industry practitioners with much needed information for decision making and planning.

The 2012 index shows that the sectors consistently excelling in service performance in Hong Kong are transportation (78.48) and attractions (75.49). Immigration services (75.15), retail shops (73.42), hotels (72.96) and restaurants (72.95) have also managed to exceed tourist expectations.
 
The measurement of tourist satisfaction spanning four years from 2009 to 2012 has revealed the stability of the market-level index, with the Americas scoring the highest, followed by Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Macau, and Japan and Korea.
 
The PolyU TSI evaluates service sector competitiveness not only over time but also across international tourism destinations. In fact, the project is expanding and its framework has been adopted by Singapore, Macau, major cities in the Guangdong province. The 2012 index indicates that Hong Kong outperformed all other destinations measured. “With the PolyU TSI, Hong Kong is able to determine its performance and competitiveness relative to other international tourism destinations, allowing it to identify strategic areas for further development,” said Professor Song.
 
With the underlying research design resembles that of the PolyU TSI, the PolyU TSQI is a weighted average of the six tourism service quality indices, measuring overall tourism service quality.
 
In the first PolyU TSQI study, tourists from the Americas had the highest index score of 79.17, followed by Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific (78.71), Europe, Africa and the Middle East (78.38), South and Southeast Asia (78.05), Chinese mainland (72.81), Taiwan and Macau (71.92), and Japan and Korea (68.31).
 
Among the six tourism-related sectors, transportation received the highest score of 78.32, followed by immigration (75.65) and attractions (75.10). Hotels (74.65), restaurants (74.30) and retail shops (73.52) were ranked fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
 
Professor Kaye Chon, Dean of the SHTM and Principal Investigator of the PolyU TSQI project, observed, “We believe that adding the tourism service quality index to the existing framework of the PolyU TSI will help boost tourist satisfaction through the management of tourism service quality”. Indeed, with the PolyU TSQI the industry can benchmark its service performance with tourists’ growing expectations.
 
With such a comprehensive and sophisticated system of measuring the level of satisfaction of its customers and service quality of its suppliers, the Hong Kong tourism industry is well poised to further bolster local economic development. “The SHTM is proud to support the industry in this way, and looks forward to its advancement in the dynamic global environment,” Professor Chon said.

About School of Hotel and Tourism Management
PolyU’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management is a world-leading provider of hospitality and tourism education. It was ranked No. 2 internationally among hotel and tourism schools based on research and scholarship, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research in November 2009.

With 65 academic staff drawing from 19 countries and regions, the School offers programmes at levels ranging from Higher Diploma to Ph.D. Currently a member of the UNWTO Knowledge Network, the School was bestowed the McCool Breakthrough Award in 2012 by the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education (I-CHRIE) recognising its breakthrough in the form of its teaching and research hotel – Hotel ICON – the heart of the School’s innovative approach to hospitality and tourism education.