Service quality scales and tourists with special needs: A systematic review

Abstract

This paper reviews the most commonly used scales for measuring service quality in sustainable tourism destinations to analyse if the requirements of tourists with special needs are considered. Results highlight that most of the recent research on service quality in tourism published in scientific journals is focused on a relative reduced number of validated scales. Variables related to tourists with special needs are often omitted or represent a reduced weight in the complete scale. Thus, this paper highlights the importance of including variables that collect the perceptions of service quality in this target group to better understand the individual perception of service quality and to move forward to sustainable tourism, considering the social dimension.