Recently, experiential marketing creating a closer bond between the guest and the hotel (brand) by which is immersing them in a fun and memorable experience with special events is a trend in hotel industry. Due to increasing numbers of tourists seeking experiential tourism, many hotels try to develop and provide experiential activity programs aside from offering accommodations and foods.
This study aimed to investigate structural relationships among hotel experiential programs, the perceived value of hotel experiential activity programs, satisfaction, lovemark and loyalty. By utilizing four factors(Entertainment experience, Educational Experience, Escapist experience, Esthetic experience) of experiential activity programs which were originated from the Pine & Gilmore''s (1998) theory of experience economy (4Es), the effects of them on perceived value, satisfaction, and lovemark and loyalty both related to emotional image of hotels were analyzed.
In order to achieve the objective of this study, prior researches regarding hotel experiential activity programs, perceived value, satisfaction, lovemark and loyalty were investigated. Futhermore, based on theoretical background, surveys for empirical research were conducted by tourists who experienced hotel experiential activity programs in Busan and Jeju island. With SPSS 19.0 statistics program, frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, descriptive statistics analysis and correlation analysis were conducted. And, Amos 18.0 program was used to conduct the structural equation modeling analysis for confirmatory factor analysis and hypotheses verification.
The results of this study are as follows.
First, at the result of hypotheses tests for the casual relationships between 4 factors of hotel experiential activity programs and perceive values, the entertainment, educational and esthetic factors had positive effects on economic values. On the other hand, the entertainment and escapist factors had positive effects on emotional values.
Second, at the result of hypothesis test for the casual relationship between perceived value and satisfaction, both economic and emotional value had positive effects on satisfaction.
Third, at the result of hypothesis test for the casual relationship between satisfaction and lovemark, the satisfaction with hotel experiential activity programs had statistically significant influence on lovemark toward hotel (brand).
Fourth, the hypothesis test for the casual relationship between satisfaction and loyalty also proved that loyalty was significantly affected by satisfactions.
Fifth, the hypothesis test for the casual relationship between lovemark and loyalty also verified that lovemark affected loyalty significantly.
As a result of this study, there were two theoretical implications. First, this study investigated the theoretical relationships among hotel experiential activity programs, perceived value, satisfaction, lovemark, and loyalty by utilizing 4 factors of experiential economy theory which were rarely used in the area of hotel related researches. Second is by applying lovemark construct which has never applied to hotel industry, the practical study on the structural relationship among related constructs were conducted.
At the point of practical implications, in order to raise overall satisfaction, four elements of experience(Entertainment, Educational, Escapist and Aesthetic experience) should be included in the experiential activity programs evenly. And, hotels should develop experiential activity programs which participants can directly feel and experience so the experience leads customers to re-visit and have positive word of mouth.
Also, when hotels develop experiential activity programs, they should meet the needs of participants with a careful program planning which can indulge customers'' five senses including various attractive places and activities. And they need to develop diverse programs targeting various customer segments.
As can be seen from the results of this study, hotel experiential activity programs are an important factor that affects the loyalty having positive word of mouth effects. Therefore if future hotels have recognized the importance of experiential activity factors and tried to develop effective hotel experiential activity programs, the experiential activity programs will be very helpful in marketing strategies and financial performance for forming loyalty and creating repeat guest.