Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance measurement systems, based on the balanced scorecard concept, to empirically measure the tour guide performance of outbound travel agencies under different strategic orientations. The theoretical model identifies underlying variable dimensions - financial, customer, operational process and learning perspectives - which combine traditional subjective or objective measures with operating measures of a tour guide’s performances. A two-stage survey is employed to explore the performance measurement systems of tour guides and to build up a meaningful evaluating model. In the first stage, twenty experts explore and analyze those four dimensions to measuring a tour guide’s performance by a three-round Delphi survey. The second stage, rating and identifying the above dimension attributes and building a model that also presents those cause-and-effect relationships among the four dimensions of tour guides’ performance measurement, is done through the structural equation modeling (SEM) method approach. Tour guide performance measurement is an important tourist satisfaction attribute that is of key concern to travel agent practitioners. Finally, the paper proposes an optimal tour guide performance evaluating model under a cost leadership and differentiation strategy separately that matches the essential needs of an innovative performance measurement system development under different strategic orientations, overcoming the traditional performance measuring shortcomings.

Key words: Tour guide, balanced scorecard, Delphi, structural equation modeling (SEM), travel agency.

Abbreviation

SEM, Structural equation modeling; BSC, balanced scorecard; GTAs, General Travel Agencies; TOTAs, Tour Operator Travel Agencies; CEO, chief executive officer; LISREL, linear structural relationship; GFI, goodness-of-fit index; AGFI, adjusted goodness-of-fit index; NFI, normed fit index.