Vryoni, S. et al.: Customers' satisfaction and service quality of spa centers... Acta Kinesiologica 11 (2017) Suppl 1: 12-18 12 CUSTOMERS' SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY OF SPA CENTERS IN GREECE Spyridoula Vryoni 1 , Panteleimon Bakirtzoglou 2 and Panagiotis Ioannou 2 1 School of Health and Medical Care, Alexander Technological Institute of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece 2 School of Physical Education and Sports Science, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece Original scientific paper Abstract The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of service quality on customers' satisfaction in SPA centers in Greece. 207 customers attending ten Spa centers in Greece volunteered to participate in this study. Measurements included the use of the SERVQUAL instrument (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988) to measure perceptions of service quality. Factor Analysis was used to identify the predictive variables of customers’ satisfaction. Results indicated from the five dimensions and twenty two items of SERVQUAL model, willingness to help the customer (responsiveness), management support in problem solving situations (assurance), food and beverages (tangibles), feel secure from danger (assurance), employees' commitment to the comfort of their customers (empathy) and honest and empathic treatment of customers (empathy)were the most predictive variables of Spa centers customers’ satisfaction. In conclusion, the information provided by this research can be used when designing marketing strategies to improve customers' satisfaction in Spa market and industry in Greece. Key words: beauty industry, attractiveness, responsiveness, assurance, empathy. Introduction Physical beauty is an advantage at a social level and has many consequences (Little, Jones, & DeBruine, 2011). Physical attractiveness and beauty are associated with a number of positive outcomes in the economic and working environment such as: employment benefits, hiring, wages, promotion but also social advantages such as work satisfaction, positive perceptions of others and self-esteem (Kwan & Trautner, 2009). Beauty is associated with economic mobility especially for women (Dipboye, Fromkin, & Wiback, 1975; Jha, 2016). Attractive people have more advantages in social and economic level (Gupta, Etcoff, & Jaeger, 2016). According to Sala, Terraneo, Lucchini & Knies (2013), facial attractiveness does matter both for men and women and secondly its impact is constant over the employment history. Furthermore, attractiveness impacts in psychological well-being, happiness or depression and social connectedness (Plaut, Adams, & Anderson, 2009; Umberson & Hughes, 1987). Wellness and spa industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world (Okech, 2014; Tabacchi, 2010), while Spa tourism is very popular worldwide (Kamata & Misui, 2015). One of the main parts of beauty and spa industry and one of the most important areas of beauty sector are Spa centers. According to International Spa Association and its 2016 U.S. Spa Industry Study (ISPA, 2016), total Spa visits were 2.1% higher in 2015 than 2014, while an average visits per Spa rose 2.9% from 2014 to 2015. Moreover, according to the above survey, Spa industry reached 16.3 billion dollar record with a 5.0 percent increase from 2014 to 2015. Plus, worldwide like Asia and more specific in Malaysia the number of Spas has grown more than 200% since 2002 (Al-alak, 2012). European Spa market has a similar significant increase and has the largest number of Spas worldwide ('Spa Global Market Analysis', 2016). For example, UK Spa market is estimated to be worthy nearly 2 billion pounds including retail and treatments, while UK customers make an estimated 6 million visits per annum to Spas throughout the United Kingdom (UK Spa Industry Report, 2014). According to Global Wellness Institute (2014), Europe is the world's largest spa market due to its relatively higher average revenues per Spa, followed by Asia and North America. Furthermore, in Europe thermal Spa tourism has been developed in conjunction with the overall social development (Radnic, Gracan, & Fister, 2009). In Europe, Greece as a country and its history has a great tradition in the early forms of wellness tourism such as spa, due to numerous historical spa towns and thermes that exist (Vasileiou & Tsartas, 2009). According to Greek Tourism Minister (June, 2016) a new department of thematic forms of tourism (promoting pilgrimage tourism, spa tourism and medical tourism) is being created in Greece. Spa centers are basically service organizations. The concept of quality plays a critical role in the success of service organizations. Definition and meaning of quality is complicated, due to different meanings to goods and services by individuals (Hoyer & Hoyer, 2001). Some definitions of quality in services have to do with accessibility. However, the most widely used and accepted definition of service quality is that provided by Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry (1988). According to them, service quality theory includes five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Customer's satisfaction is one of the most important outcomes of marketing activity. High quality of service can result in high customer's satisfaction and increases customer's loyalty