A Study of Service Quality and Satisfaction for Museums -Taking the National Museum of Prehistory as an Example

[[abstract]]National Museum of Prehistory (NMP) is the first museum noted for Taiwanese prehistory and aboriginal culture. It is also a versatile museum includes the issues of education, archeology, biology, and environmental sustainability. However, according to the statistics which is conducted by Taitung official Tourist, the number of visitors does not reach to three hundred thousand per year. What?s worse, it shows the inclination to decrease. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the tourists? satisfaction towards the service quality of NMP provides. The thesis analyses NMP?s service quality by using PZB model represented by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry. A structured questionnaire is designed to collect the empirical data from the visitors. With convenience sampling, a total number of 439 valid samples are obtained. The analytic approaches include descriptive analysis, paired t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and importance-performance analysis (IPA). The results are in conclusion that? (1) Among the visitors, the proportion of males and females is equivalent. They are about 21 to 50 years old, undergraduate learning background, married. Most of them live in the Northern area of Taiwan. And for the visitors come from the Eastern area, Taitung inhabitants visit more often than other places. Most museum visitors come by driving themselves. (2) The investigation is divided into six aspects, including education and recreation, reliability, responsiveness and guarantee, convenience, tangibility, and empathy. After visiting, the top three satisfaction of the visitors includes ?The clearness of the total environment,? ?The convenience of purchasing tickets,? and ?The moderation of the air-conditioned devices,? (3) The six aspects of service qualities are in the positive relation to the total satisfaction toward NMP. (4) By using IPA analysis, the future improved items are suggested on the basis of tourists? expectation and practical feelings after visiting, that is, ?The professional knowledge of the leading guide,? ?The understandability of the leading guide?s instruction,? ?The standout of the information counter,? and ?The suitable opening hours.