Zeszyt naukowy - całość - Wydział ZarzÄ dzania i Ekonomiki Usług

ZESZYTY NAUKOWE UNIWERSYTETU SZCZECIŃSKIEGO
NR 592 EKONOMICZNE PROBLEMY TURYSTYKI NR 14 2010
MAIJA ROZITE, JURIS OZOLS, DAINA VINKLERE
School of Business Administration Turiba, Latvia
QUALITY ASPECTS AND ASSESSMENT
OF RURAL TOURISM ENTERPRISES OF LATVIA
Introduction
At the time of economic crisis quality of services can become a crucial factor
for enterprise’s survival in its competition with other destinations or other businesses.
Quality in tourism is also important because its service is not tangible or
verifiable at the moment of its purchase. It is one of the reasons why World Tourism
Organisation (UN WTO) has paid particular attention to this issue by developing
a work programme “Quality in Tourism: a Conceptual Framework Document”
and by creating its Quality Support Committee 1 In the European context EuroGites
2 , Association of European Country Tourism Federations has defined country
tourism as one of its priorities for developing common quality standards. Its
member in Latvia is a professional rural tourism association “Countryside Traveller”
and the organisation has adopted a targeted approach in implementing these
standards in the country 3 .
In order to assess the existing level of understanding about the issues of quality
and its various evaluation aspects, a survey of guest houses was conducted. This
survey is particularly topical since the School of Business Administration Turiba
1
Quality in Tourism: A Conceptual Framework UNWTO, 2003,
http://www.unwto.org/quality/std/en/std_01.php?op=1&subop=1.
2
Qualitool project EuroGites, 2008, http://www.eurogites.org/new.php?lang=EN&id=-
56&show=EN.
3
Project “Transfer of Quality Ensurance Tools for European Rural Tourism Sector”: a
professional rural tourism association “Countryside Traveller”, http://www.celotajs.lv/cont/prof-
/proj/Leonardo2008/Leonardo2008.html.