Scales to measure and benchmark service quality in tourism industry A second-order factor approach Bindu Narayan, Chandrasekharan Rajendran and L. Prakash Sai Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate scales to measure and benchmark service quality (SQ) in tourism industry. Design/methodology/approach – The second-order confirmatory factor analysis is employed to validate the instrument. SQ dimensions have been modeled which have significant impact on customer satisfaction (CS) separately from those which do not have a significant impact. Findings – Hospitality, food, logistics, security, and value for money have significant impact on satisfaction, while amenities, core-tourism experience, hygiene, fairness of price, information centers, culture, distractions, personal information, and pubs do not have a significant impact. Research limitations/implications – The above pattern may be different in a different destination, and in a different context. However, a major implication of the current findings is that a destination need not have natural cutting edges to be developed as a tourist destination. A destination with good logistics and assurance for security, value for money, impressive hospitality and food, can satisfy a customer. Practical implications – The scale which has been developed by us will be useful for destination managers to measure the SQ perceptions of tourists and benchmark destinations. The distinction of SQ dimensions with and without the impact on CS could enable a manager to manage these two sets of factors separately. Originality/value – Unlike previous works, SQ has been modeled in tourism as a second-order factor, which appears to be a more appropriate approach. The authors have also modeled factors with and without significant impact on satisfaction separately, and the approach does not seem to have precedence in literature. The inclusion of the factor, “Fairness of Price” is also a new contribution to literature. Keywords Performance measurement (quality), Customer services quality, Tourism, India Paper type Research paper Introduction Benchmarking is an improvement process in which a company measures its performance against that of best-in-class companies, determines how those companies achieved their performance levels, and uses the information to improve its own performance (Bemowski, 1992). Service benchmarking is made more difficult than benchmarking in manufacturing because it appears that those things, which are The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-5771.htm The authors are thankful to the referee and the editor for their comprehensive suggestions and comments to improve the earlier version of the paper. The authors are beholden to Dr S. Bhardhwaj for his help in the second-order factor analysis. Scales to measure and benchmark SQ 469 Benchmarking: An International Journal Vol. 15 No. 4, 2008 pp. 469-493 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1463-5771 DOI 10.1108/14635770810887258