ABSTRACT
The Chinese market is now New Zealand’s largest inbound tourism market. There are three popular travel modes such as independent tour, group tour and group package tours (GPTs). Despite increased Chinese GPTs in New Zealand, there are several service shortfalls among Chinese GPTs that reduce service quality. In academic literature, the SERVQUAL model of service quality has been studied extensively. Furthermore, a large body of tourism literature examined service quality based on the SERVQUAL model. However, the alternative factors that can influence service quality need to be investigated further. Hence, in this chapter, we identify several service shortfalls that influence service quality among Chinese GPTs in New Zealand including package tour, information asymmetry and role of the tour leader. Subsequently, several suggestions are proposed to support improvements by tourism marketers in New Zealand.
