Relationship Marketing in the Hotel Industry: The Nexus between Concepts and Practices (A case of Ghion Hotel, Addis Ababa Branch, Ethiopia)

Abstract

This study examines the nexus between concepts and practices of relationship marketing in hotel industry with special emphasis of Ghion Hotel (Addis Ababa Branch) in Ethiopia. In recent times, relationship marketing has been viewed to be critical to the success of business organizations. Nevertheless,the concept has been gaining currency within the academic circle. On other wards the implementation and practices of relationship marketing in real world context has not been matured due to the lack of knowledge and principles of subject matter. .These circumstances are, therefore, compelled many practitioners to face with problem of not only to gain customers but also to keep them. For this reasons, the point of deviating the practices of relationship marketing from what the theories says is central concern. In the same vein, the majority of the previous studies had been focused on defining constructs and presenting conceptual model of relationship marketing. Even the geographical scope of most studies conducted on relationship marketing implementation has been limited to Western and Eastern business environments contexts. And studies which doneup on relationship marketing implementation in the context ofmany African countries particularly in Ethiopia, remains unverified. Thus, the aim of this study is providing an overview of relationship marketing practices in the hotel industry that are applicable to a range of Ethiopian business environments.This research project describes the gaps between concepts and practices that influence the achievement of relationship marketing practices. The findings from the research conducted in this study are based on the data collected from survey which examined the hotels guests’ position on the importance level of variables constructed and their perception of relationship marketing practices being witnessed in a case company. In addition, interview was conducted with the marketing department manager and other related staff members of Ghion Hotel to examine the awareness of relationship marketing concepts and systems employed for the actualization of relationship marketing practice on the ground. Random sampling technique was used in the study and equation for large sample size was employed. In order to analyze the data collected frequency analysis, percentage analysis and descriptive gap analysis were used with the help of SPSS. The results and recommendations of the research will provide a valuable insight in to relationship marketing in the Hotel industry. It also hopefully forms the root for later improvements in relationship marketing practices for service provider under study. Furthermore, other service providers can infer issues on how relationship marketing developed and practiced.