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530 service quality
low-contact service may also be suitable for
substitution by information technology or selfservice.
There are a number of different ways of
organising service delivery systems, depending on
the mix of products and services on offer. In a pure
service, the process can only begin when the
customer places an order. Where there is a mix of
products and services, the customer order may
initiate production or stocks of finished materials
can be held awaiting the placing of an order.
See also: commissary system; fast food
Further reading
Levitt, T. �1976) `The industrialisation of service',
Harvard Business Review 54: 63±74.
Sasser, W.E. and Fulmer, W.E. �1990) `Creating
personalised service delivery systems', in D.E.
Bowen, R.B. Chase and T.G. Cummings �eds),
Service Management Effectiveness, San Francisco:
Jossey Bass.
service quality
DAVID KIRK, UK
Service quality is a measure of how well the
service delivered meets customer expectations,
resulting from comparing these with the actual
performance on both the outcome and the process
dimensions of the service. From the provider's
perspective, delivering service quality means
conforming to or exceeding these expectations
consistently.
See also: management; service delivery system
sex tourism
ANDREW LOCKWOOD, UK
Sex and tourism are linked in several ways, and sex
tourism is one variant within a range of possible
relationships. It can be defined through a study of
motivation or by focusing on the organisations
involved. When sex tourism is defined as holiday
making where the primary motive is to experience
relatively short-term sexual encounters, it is linked
to prostitution, here considered as a commercial
and short-term transaction involving the explicit
provision of sexual services in return for payment,
in cash or kind. However, much sexual interaction
occurs among tourists themselves, particularly the
young and `single'. Holiday makers also meet locals
from the `host' society, especially men, at entertainment
centres, and temporary liaisons are common.
These need not reflect equality, for young men in
some societies may regard conquests over tourists
as personal �but temporary) recompense for real or
imagined political oppression. The prognosis for
such relationships is usually poor.
When affluent tourists visit developing countries,
interaction between them and their hosts is rarely
on equal terms. From the earliest days of
colonisation, stereotypes of colonised peoples ±
and their sexual proclivities ± were widespread in
the West and are still expressed in tourism
promotional literature. Colonialism �and/or the
presence of armed forces from overseas, in wartime
or during periods of `rest and recreation') also led
many colonised people to believe all white visitors
were wealthy, a view reinforced by the growth of
international tourism. Such stereotypes contributed
to the commoditisation of many aspects of
human relations, which was already occurring on
an unprecedented scale.
Just as `true love' has its material ramifications,
the commoditisation of sexual relations is rarely
total. Many men and women in developing
countries may quite literally `wait' for a spouse
from overseas to provide them with a passport to a
more developed society, but such relationships are
not necessarily totally instrumental. Partners need
not be the same age, and studies from the Gambia
and the Caribbean indicate a deliberate search by
middle-aged white women for younger black men,
to be either temporary holiday lovers or permanent
partners in their home country. Female prostitution
in Southeast Asia has its equivalents elsewhere. In
such circumstances, the distinction between the
exploiter and exploited is unclear, and we must
differentiate between individual and institutionalised
power relationships.
Although sex workers in cities of the developed
world also target tourists, in circumstances relatively
little publicised in the literature, the links