The Role of Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM) in Increasing Customer Loyalty in the Hotel Restaurant and Café (HoReCa) Business
Abstract
The tourism industry is a potential business sector that has a large business ecosystem, for example, hotels, restaurants, and cafés (HoReCa). The HoReCa business in Indonesia is growing rapidly along with the development of the tourism industry in destinations such as Bali, Jogyakarta, Bandung, Jakarta and other areas. The HoReCa business competition is increasing due to the presence of new hotels, restaurants and cafés. However, many hotels, restaurants and cafes have closed due to being unable to compete. Word of mouth (WOM) marketing is one of the efforts to face HoReCa business competition. Several HoReCa businesses have managed to survive using traditional WOM because they can interact directly with consumers and create loyalty for customers. Loyal tourists will stay at the same hotels, consume food and drinks at the same restaurants and cafes as before. In addition, loyal tourists will stay longer in their destinations, spread word of mouth more actively, and engage in more intensive consumer activities. The research results show that traditional WOM is effective in building customer loyalty in the HoReCa business