Percepción de la calidad de los servicios turísticos en áreas rurales: caso Cuenca-Ecuador

The aim of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of the quality of the service of the tourists who visited the rural areas of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, as a complement to the tourist offer of this destination-cultural heritage of humanity-. A questionnaire with a scale Servqual -Service Quality was obtained from a sample of 326 tourists to measure the quality of tourist services. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (AFE) was applied to determine the dimensions of service quality that collected only the perceptions of the defined elements and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (AFC) to confirm the factorial structure. The findings show five dimensions of quality: security, tangibility, trust, empathy and capacity, and its factorial structure was corroborated, with an adjustment of the appropriate indices. The study suggests that rural spaces should offer quality in their tourism offer as an attraction for tourists within the destination.

Automated summary

The aim of this study is to analyze the perceptions of service quality among tourists visiting the rural areas of Cuenca city in Ecuador. The findings reveal five dimensions of quality: security, tangibility, trust, empathy, and capacity. The study suggests that rural areas should offer high-quality tourism products to attract tourists.