RISK EVALUATION OF GROUP PACKAGE TOUR SERVICE FAILURES THAT RESULT IN THIRD-PARTY COMPLAINTS

Third-party complaints usually indicate the most egregious service failures and represent customers' higher order actions. To reduce or eliminate these critical failures and protect the long-term profits of service firms, the major potential failure modes need to be identified to enable preventive action. There is scant information in the tourism literature on third-party complaints about group package tours. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risk prioritization of the critical potential service failure modes that result in third-party complaints about Taiwanese outbound group package tours. A novel approach to risk evaluation is used. Some managerial implications are addressed.