The spanish restaurant sector: evaluating the perceptions of quality

The restaurant sector is one of the fastest growing sectors within the Spanish economy and looks likely to continue its development into the future. The implementation of total quality (TQ) systems in the tourist industry is still a recent phenomenon in Spain. Hence the importance of the client's satisfaction, resulting in the acquisition of an optimum quality level: i.e. cooking is culture and it has to be culturally adapted and promoted. The survey on the customers of Spanish restaurants reported in this article has gathered the perception of quality according to a likert scale from one to five. The objective of the survey was to determine the degree of satisfaction as well as the quality of the establishment, by using a cluster analysis of the data. Amongst the findings of the survey was the importance of the motivation of pleasure that makes people go to restaurants and it is therefore necessary to create a favourable atmosphere of quality the customers will want to come back to. This provides the sector's greatest challenge.