Identifying critical service quality attributes for higher education in hospitality and tourism: Applications of the Kano model and importance-performance analysis (IPA)

This study aims to identify critical education elements using the Kano model andimportance-performance analysis (IPA), and thus provide recommendations for college hospitality and tourism programmes. It makes an empirical contribution to the question of quality in hospitality and tourism education. The population sampled was hospitality and tourism students in higher education. A total of 338 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 61.4%. The results suggest that education elements can be categorized by their different quality attributes. The two most important elements perceived by students were, 1) teachers assess the academic performance of students in a true, correct, and reasonable way, and 2) teachers can provide students with information on future employment’.