INFLUENCE OF INTERNAL MARKETING ON RELATIONSHIP MARKETING IN TOURISM INDUSTRY: CASE STUDY: KERMAN TRAVEL AGENCIES

Today tourism is one of the most lucrative industries in the world. So many destinations desire to have its advantages. Like other industries, importance of attracting and maintaining customers is undeniable and makes it vital to work on relationship marketing. Relationship Marketing focuses on establishing, maintaining and developing the relationships with customers and other stake holders. Actually, it is marketing activities that are aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers. Many factors may be effective in this process; one of them is internal marketing. So, this research investigates the impact of internal marketing on relationship marketing in tourism industry. The statistical society of this research constitutes employees of Kerman travel agencies and the customers of these travel agencies. The first group ample size is 116 and the second one is 121.This research is an applied one based on the aim of the study and from the aspect of the manner of data collection is a descriptive research and of the correlation type. Regression analysis based on SPSS software and Factor analysis and structural equation model by PLS software are used to consider the relation between latent variable. Findings show the positive impact of internal marketing on relationship marketing, and its components including trust, bonding, reciprocity and empathy however, just the hypothesis of impact of internal marketing on shared value and communication was not confirmed

کلیدواژه ها:

Internal Marketing ، Relationship Marketing ، Tourism Industry ، Travel Agency