Tourists’ Satisfaction on Penang Hawker Centres, Malaysia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to identify the factors that affect satisfaction of Penang tourists who patronize Penang hawker centres by combining SERVQUAL model with food quality. The collected data from 259 tourists was analyzed and hypotheses were tested by using Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analysis. Result of this study shows that food quality and service qualities (reliability and assurance) have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfaction. In terms of theoretical significance, this study proved that food quality has greater significant positive relationship with customer satisfaction than service quality. The combination of SERVQUAL model and food quality in testing the customer satisfaction has been validated in this study. The Penang State Government should emphasize on improving the quality of Penang street foods during policy setting process. The findings of this study are applicable to any hawker centre globally to improve the quality of the food.