An assessment of hotel product quality in Kenya as a basis for building destination competitiveness

Abstract

Developing countries such as Kenya and other African countries now consider tourism as a passport for development as it does not need expensive investment to initiate and operate as a national business. This study was motivated by the need to create parameters that can elevate the competitiveness of a tourist destination. The purpose was to initiate the formulation of a structured, integrated conceptual framework for hotel product/service, quality based on the normative quality expectation of the tourists and Hotel Operators' strategic quality designs. Descriptive qualitative research design was used to establish the secondary objectives and to assess the five propositions that were developed for the study. Tourists and hotel operators in two major tourist provinces of Kenya were used to obtain information regarding normative and perceptive hotel product/service quality. Destination marketing managers employed by the only destination marketing organization, Kenya Tourist Board (KTB), were also surveyed to provide insight on Kenya's destination marketing strategies. The study found that hotel operators and other destination management organizations neither share nor operate on a common vision as they endeavor to build destination competitiveness for Kenya. An integrated framework that may be utilized to build destination competitiveness so that the economic potential of tourism is maximized in Kenya is therefore proposed.