Thesis (DBA) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Business Administration Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 142-154)

ABSTRACT Currently, hotels require additional efforts to develop new streams of revenue as competition is powerful and new visitors are challenging to attract. It is significant for hotel managers to identify customer engagement with brand, to distinguish what the antecedents of these sort of engagements are, and to differentiate what significances they are able to attain from customer engagement. The research intended to examine the circumstantial and consequence of brand relationship quality and customer engagement in hotel industry in the Northern of Iraq. This will have impact on customer purchasing decision, gaining satisfaction and achieving loyalty, and to ensure the continuity and survival of the hotels, and to establish the relationship with the customer. These are essential elements within hotels' strategy as whenever the hotel or resort is attractively prepared, this will encourage the tourists or the travelers. A quantitative research method was applied to measure the current research. Random sampling method was used in choosing the sample of study for hotels, the number of hotels in Erbil reaches 385. The sample was determined after counting the classified hotels in the city of Erbil through the data obtained from the Ministry of Tourism, the study selected 27 hotels in Erbil. The study adopted a questionnaire from different academic articles. The findings revealed that most of the developed research hypotheses were supported, moreover, it was found that the highest value was for hypothesis one regarding the HRB which significantly influences BRQ and the lower value was for hypothesis seven regarding CE which significantly influences REP. While loyalty programs have been acknowledged as the have to recall and attract valued guests in the hotel industry, it is significant to achieve loyalty programs as a profit domain, rather than a monetary burden. The outcomes of this research proposed that more consideration should be given to creating and maintaining loyalty program to hotels' guests. The findings revealed that HRB of loyalty program significantly impact on (BRQ, WOM, REP), moreover, BRQ is positively related to REP, WOM. Also, BRQ mediates HRB and WOM, REP, on the other hand mediates NHRB and WOM, RE. On the other hand, NHRB of loyalty program significantly impact CE and REP, CE is positively related to REP. However, the study rejected several research hypotheses that developed to measure the current study, the findings showed that HRB of loyalty program does not have an impact CE, and REP. Moreover, NHRB of loyalty program does not have an impact BRQ, WOM and CE is not positively related to WOM. Lastly, CE does not mediate HRB and WOM, REP, also CE does not mediate NHRB and WOM, REP. The results of this study suggest that more attention needs to be paid to creating and maintaining reciprocal dynamics between members and programs to bring real value to hotels and guests. However, readers should be aware of several limitations of this study. First, this study is considered exploratory to understand the loyalty problem from polygamy programs to hotel loyalty programs. The discriminatory analysis used in this study can only provide information about the features of the program that best differentiate between customers who do not have a subscription, a single subscription, and multiple memberships.