| Abstract: | The National Museum of Prehistory (hereinafter referred to as the Museum of Prehistory) is the
first museum in Taiwan to focus on prehistoric and native cultures. It comprises several museums,
archaeological sites, and ecological parks. It is also the first national museum to be built on the east
coast of Taiwan. Statistics from the Taitung Tourism Administration for various tourism sites in the
Taitung prefecture indicate that the total number of tourists arriving in this area per year has not reached
300,000, with a momentum of decrease on the yearly basis. This study is designed to understand the
service quality and tourist satisfaction of the Museum of Prehistory through the visitors’ experiences. This
study analyzes the service quality of the Museum of Prehistory using the PZB model proposed by
Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1988). We have gathered information by means of questionnaire
research and sampling of tourists visiting the museum, and from this process we obtained 439 effective
questionnaires. The analytical methods used include descriptive statistics, t test of paired samples,
analysis of Pearson related factors, credibility analysis, and the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA).
The research data indicate the following results: (1)The male and female tourists are equal in numbers
and their ages ranged from 21 to 51, most of them are married and with a university (college) education.
Most of them live in the northern region. Among the tourists from the three prefectures in the east, many
are from Taitung. Furthermore, most of the tourists have arrived in their own cars. (2)The questionnaire
originally had 31 questions related to the museum’s service quality but was reduced to 25 items after a
factor analysis. The questionnaire was divided into six sections to include educational entertainment,
responsiveness and assurance, reliability, tangibility, convenience, and care. We found that after their
visit, the tourists are most satisfied with the first three items in survey form which are the overall
environmental cleanliness, ticketing process, and air conditioning. (3) The six sections are directly
correlated with most of the overall satisfaction of the Museum of Prehistory. (4)The
Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) has been used to analyze the expectations of the tourists prior to
the trip and their actual experience. This took up four items in the questionnaire, ,, such as professional
knowledge of tour guides, explanation methods of the tour guides, service desk set-up, and opening time.
These items are related to probable areas of improvement for the museum. |
