The Quality of Services Provided by Tourist Information Center of

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E. The Quality of Services Provided by Tourist Information Center of

Surakarta Surakarta TIC as a division under Dinas Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata of Surakarta institution has responsibilities to give good service to the tourists visiting Surakarta. This chapter discusses the quality of service provided by Surakarta Tourist Information Center which refers to five dimensions of service quality by considering the instruments and observation result. a. Reliability TIC provided information sources which had correlation with tourism components such as tourism organizations ASITA, government institutions DISBUDPAR, travel information center, individual business promotion restaurants, hotels, travel agents, etc and regional tourist associations Asosiasi Biro Wisata Surakarta. In addition, TIC also provided car rent service and guide. The staffs often recommended the tourists to visit Sukuh and Cetho Temple. b. Responsiveness One of the duties of TIC officers is giving information accurately to the tourists about objects or events in Solo. They are very helpful in giving information to tourists who are visiting Solo for the first time. It can be seen from their willingness to help tourists and their efforts to give prompt service, for example, there is always an officer in TIC front office commit to user desk even though it is breaking hour. Therefore, tourists or guests can information quickly without waiting until the lunch time end. c. Assurance TIC officers mastered English as a foreign language. They speak English fluently which is very important to deliver the message or information to foreign tourists. Beside English, one of the TIC officers has ability in mastering Dutch. The officers had lot of experiences in tourism world. Before work at TIC office, they had job as a tourist guide for many years. They had faced many characters of tourists from different countries. For that reason, they could serve and know well what the tourists needs. For example, the officers can give recommendation to backpackers about accommodations, tourist destinations, hotel or home stay which is affordable for them because they usually have limited budget. d. Empathy TIC officers always tried to serve the tourists as well as they can. They were very friendly when they were talking to the guests or tourists visited TIC. They greeted and smiled when the tourists came. While giving service, TIC officers never let the guests or tourists wait for a long time. They always asked the tourists about where they come from, how long they will stay in Solo, where they want to after Solo. They often made a joke while communicating with the tourists and sometimes the officers took photographs with them. Giving good service would make commit to user good opinion from the tourists about the hospitability of Surakarta people especially and Indonesian generally. e. Tangibility 1. Physical Facilities TIC front office desk is clean and arranged well. Behind the desk there is a cabinet to keep many kinds of brochures, books, and leaflets related to tourist destinations in Indonesia. Above the cabinet there are small statues, miniatures, and gifts from the tourists or other institutions. There is also a set of chairs and table for guests who want to take a rest. There are two toilets near TIC front desk. The toilets are clean and comfortable because there was an officer who always cleaned it every morning. 2. Communication materials To help tourists getting information completely, TIC provides leaflets, guide maps of Solo, brochures, and tourist destination catalogues. All of the materials use bilingual both Indonesian and English. The explanation is also clear enough. If the tourists want to know events or carnivals held in Solo for the whole year, they can bring calendar of cultural events which are provided by TIC for free. commit to user

F. The Problems Faced by Tourist Information Center in Giving Services