The Role of Traditional Product Development in Building Relationship Quality and its Impact on Resort Hotel Brand Loyalty

Customer loyalty is seen as one of the most important driving factors of the success of a business and is also one measure of performance in business. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of traditional product development in building relations with customers in order to create resort hotel brand loyalty. The paper reviews the theoretical and empirical studies in field of brand performance and relationships marketing. A conceptual model is developed and tested in 180 samples of foreign tourists who have purchased the Balinese traditional food at number of resort hotels in Bali. The research then tests a model of hypothesized relationships using structural equationmodeling. Specifically, recent procedures for assessing direct and mediated effects are adopted. Results showed that two relationship quality factors consisting of satisfaction and trust, was trust plays an important role in determining the resort hotel brand loyalty. The trust mediates the association of satisfaction with resort hotel brand loyalty. The findings also show the traditional product development has an influence on satisfaction and trust. Trust is shown to be important predictor of hotel brand loyalty as well as the satisfaction of having an influence on trust. The paper is conducted within Balinese traditional food business at resort hotels in Bali, and the findings may not be generalizable to other locations or to other markets. The findings suggest that hotel managers must realizes that developing traditional food should be able to touch the customer and provide strategic impact for hotel. However, in order for hotel brand loyalty, they must be earned customer trust, since the effects of satisfaction are indirect. This study presents potentially valuable information for hotel managers with regards to understanding traditional product development and relationship quality, which are the key drivers of resort hotel brand loyalty.