Resumo: Measuring the satisfaction of tourists who are staying in tourist facilities in rural areas plays an important role in the management of the service and the consequent success of companies that engage in this activity. Given the importance of this matter for the owners and managers of establishments and for those involved with the sector (government, travel agencies, marketers), we intendto providesome clues toabetter service quality management.We proceeded to an analysis of concepts Motivation, Performance, Importance and Satisfaction in order to determine the dynamic of those issues and drawthe conceptual framework.The data collectedby questionnaire, whichsoughtto touristsin tourist facilities at rural areas in the Azores region during the second half of 2009, were analyzedbased onthe instrumentsthat thereview of the literatureindicated asthe most appropriate(SERVQUAL, ANOVA, analysisMultiple Regression).The study revealed that in general tourists are satisfied with the service provided by facilities, but some doubts arise with regard to some aspects related to the destination, such as the accessibility to the region, the price level, the signage and the tourism information on the island.
