Investigation of how the quality of the service provided in the sports facilities of the provincial directorate of youth and sports is perceived by the users (Yalova province central district example)

The service sector is one of the sectors whose share in the economy increases as technology advances. Due to the changing paradigm landscape, the concept of service quality and satisfaction has become the focus of today's service industry. Service quality has a great impact on satisfaction, so it is important for businesses to measure and improve service quality to increase customer satisfaction. Service Quality; It is a multifaceted concept that includes factors such as the physical elements of the company, reliability, employee behavior and level of knowledge (Şahin and Şen, 2017: 1176). Sports, as a part of human life, has become an internationally accepted sector that benefits the economy and encourages competition. Youth Centers are also organizations that enable young people to devote their free time to social, cultural and sports activities and create an environment. The aim of this study is how the users perceive the quality of the service provided in the sports halls affiliated to the Yalova Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports. The sample of the study consists of 301 participants, 203 women and 98 men, aged 18 and over, who use the gyms affiliated to the Provincial Directorate of Youth and Sports in Yalova. In this study, the SQAS (Service Quality Assessment Scale), developed by Lam, Zhang and Jensen (2005) and whose validity and reliability studies were conducted in Turkey by Gürbüz, Koçak and Lam (2005), was used as a data collection tool to evaluate the service quality of health and fitness clubs. This scale consists of personnel, program, locker room, physical facility, training facility sub-dimensions. In addition to this, a total of 34 questions were applied by including demographic information. The analysis of the data was made with the SPSS 20.0 program, and the demographic information distribution of the participants was examined by frequency analysis. In independent groups, t-Test, means and whether the difference between these means were significant were also examined with One-Way Analysis of Variance. TUKEY test was used to determine from which group the difference originated. The results obtained at the end of the study; For the overall scale; The general expectation level of the service quality of the people aged 18-25 is significantly higher than the other age groups. It was determined that the staff, program, locker room, physical facility and training facility levels of the singles were significantly higher than the married ones. It has been observed that the expectation level of staff, program, locker room, physical facility and training facility is higher among university graduates. It has been found that the general level of service quality evaluation of those with an income of 5501-10000 TL is significantly higher than the other income groups. It has been determined that those who visit the salon 3-4 days a week are more than other groups.