How Do International and Domestic Tourists Perceive the Service Quality of Japanese Ryokans? A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Though tourists’ cultural background is known to substantially influence their assessment of hotel service quality, how tourist and hotel cultures mutually affect each other remains understudied. Focusing on a representative Japanese ryokan as a heritage hotel, this article employs Hofstede’s cultural dimension model to investigate the mechanisms relating tourists’ cultural backgrounds and service quality assessment. From a theoretical perspective, it demonstrates that tourists’ uncertainty avoidance influences perceived quality in tangible aspects of service, while power distance matters for intangible aspects. From a managerial perspective, it shows that tourists’ cultural distance from the ryokan affects their service quality assessment.