Tourist expectation and their perception towards Service Quality : The case of Baidyanath Dham Jyotirlinga, Deoghar

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions and expectations of tourists regarding the Service Quality attributes at Baidyanath Dham Jyotirlinga in Deoghar, Jharkhand. The aim is to identify the significant areas of shortcomings in the tourist amenities/services offered at the pilgrimage site and suggest ways to improve the overall pilgrimage experience. The study used the scale development procedures provided by Churchill (1979) and Hinkin (1995) as the initial step in developing a service quality scale. First, a thorough literature analysis highlighted six crucial factors: accommodation, information accessibility, transportation, safety and security, hygienic food and drink, and temple service. Next, 31 measurement items were created and revised using deductive approaches and expert assessments (n = 4) to guarantee content validity. Finally, a pilot test with 101 tourists using offline surveys was carried out, resulting in the addition of two items. Cronbach's alpha values of 0.830 and 0.937 demonstrated the instrument's reliability. The findings demonstrate that a statistically significant difference exists in tourist perceptions and expectations for four dimensions out of the six dimensions taken into consideration, namely, Temple Service Quality, Accommodation, Ease of Information, and Safety and Security. This study establishes a framework for evaluating service quality at pilgrimage sites and identifies major areas for improvement. It provides managers with practical insights to improve tourist satisfaction and produces a reliable measurement scale that can be applied to a variety of religious tourism contexts, making a substantial contribution to both academic research and practical applications. The study also highlights the significant gaps in various service quality dimensions at the pilgrimage destination of Baidyanath Dham. Keywords - Tourism, Religion, India, Service Quality, Jyotirlinga Paper type - Research paper