EXAMINING E-COMPLAINTS ABOUT TOUR GUIDES: SERVICE FAILURES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Tourist guides play a crucial role in shaping tourists’ perceptions of service quality, satisfaction, and destination loyalty. However, service failures in guide-tourist interactions often lead to dissatisfaction and negative word-of-mouth. Despite growing digital complaint platforms, the academic literature lacks comprehensive analyses of e-complaints about tourist guides through a theoretical lens. This study aims to examine online complaints lodged against professional tourist guides, identify major service failures, and interpret their implications for tourism service quality and management practices, within the framework of Service Failure and Recovery Theory. The study employs a qualitative netnographic approach to analyze e-complaints collected from the Turkish platform www.sikayetvar.com. A total of 893 relevant complaints were retrieved and subjected to content analysis using MAXQDA 2022 software. The data were coded and categorized into three main themes: personal attitudes and behaviors, professional incompetence, and fee-related issues. Inter-coder reliability was ensured through Cohen’s Kappa coefficient, which indicated high agreement (>0.80). Findings reveal that the most frequent complaints stem from inappropriate and rude behavior (27.9%), indifference (22.6%), program disruptions (17.1%), and lack of knowledge (15.8%). Complaints related to pricing issues such as overcharging and pressuring tourists into extra tours were also prominent. These results demonstrate that tourists' dissatisfaction is not limited to technical knowledge gaps but extends to interpersonal, ethical, and organizational shortcomings. Moreover, failures in communication and transparency appear to significantly harm customer trust and destination image. The results highlight the critical role of guide behavior in post-service evaluations and eWOM dynamics. This study contributes to the theoretical literature by applying Service Failure and Recovery Theory to the domain of tour guiding and offering a timely update on complaint trends. It also provides practical recommendations for tour operators, guide associations, and policymakers, suggesting the need for stricter professional oversight, ethical training, and competency-based performance evaluations to improve service quality in tourism.