Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis to alleviate the standard of service quality management of coach buses provided by the inbound tour operators in Thailand

This research was aimed at proposing an instrument for measuring service quality management of coach buses provided by the inbound tour operators in Thailand. Quantitative method research was adopted. 415 Chinese tourists who purchased tour packages from the leading inbound tour operators in Thailand were selected with the purposive sampling method as the respondents. Self-administered questionnaire, developed on the five Likert scale, served as a research tool for data collection. Both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analyses were embraced to perform the data analysis. The results of the exploratory factor analysis showed that 28 observed variables could be organized into three factors. Those three factors included physical, service, and management. With the statistical significance of the .01 level, the results of the confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the measurement models of these three factors perfectly fit the empirical data reported by the goodness of fit indices. Thus, those measurement models could be used to measure service quality management of the coach buses provided by the inbound tour operators in Thailand. The bottom line was that the proposed instrument could alleviate the standard of service quality management of coach buses in Thailand for the tourists of any nationalities.