Hospitality Marketing Overview

Principles

Definition

Hospitality marketing is a specialized domain within the broader field of marketing focused on the promotion of hospitality businesses to attract and retain customers. As an academic concept and research area, it investigates the unique processes, strategies, and dynamics involved, including the study of customer preferences, adaptation to diverse cultural contexts, and the development of sector-specific approaches (e.g., hotel, restaurant, theme park marketing) for optimizing booking acquisition and enhancing brand recognition. Its significance lies in providing theoretical frameworks and empirical insights for effectively connecting hospitality service providers with their target markets in a complex and service-oriented environment.

Ontological type

Core Strategies

Consumer Behavior

Digital and Online Channels

Key developments

Key Figures

Gastronomy-Experience Marketing era

Bing Pan [1], linked with Cornell University [3] and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [4] in this era, emerged as a leading figure shaping gastronomy-experience marketing. His notable contribution in this era centers on the paper Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management [6], which advanced understanding of online consumer feedback and its implications for destination branding and market segmentation, underscoring why electronic word-of-mouth mattered for experiential gastronomy offerings. Ronald E. Goldsmith [2], affiliated with Florida State University [5], contributed to this era by co-authoring that same electronic word-of-mouth study [6], highlighting the growing role of online discourse in hospitality and tourism marketing. Together, Bing Pan [1] and Ronald E. Goldsmith [2], with affiliations at Cornell University [3], University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign [4], and Florida State University [5], and the paper Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management [6], helped establish measurement, benchmarking, and strategic use of online discourse to tailor gastronomy-based experiences in this era.

Online Reputation Management era

Rob Law [1], connected with The University of Melbourne [3] and Hong Kong Polytechnic University [4], embodies this era of hospitality marketing. The impact of online user reviews on hotel room sales [7] and The influence of user-generated content on traveler behavior: An empirical investigation on the effects of e-word-of-mouth to hotel online bookings [8] reveal how online reviews and e-WOM influence demand, perceived quality, and bookings, underscoring the shift toward reputation metrics that matter for branding, pricing, and loyalty. Heesup Han [2], connected with Sejong University [5] and Dong-A University [6], embodies this era's focus on sustainability within hospitality marketing. His papers, An investigation of green hotel customers’ decision formation: Developing an extended model of the theory of planned behavior [9] and Empirical investigation of the roles of attitudes toward green behaviors, overall image, gender, and age in hotel customers’ eco-friendly decision-making process [10], illuminate how green attitudes shape consumer decisions and, by extension, online reputation's role in occupancy and pricing.

Value-Driven Experiential Marketing era

Girish Prayag [1] is associated with University of Otago [3] and University of South Australia [4] during the Value-Driven Experiential Marketing era. Prayag [1] maps how tourists’ emotional experiences relate to perceived overall image, satisfaction, and intention to recommend, as demonstrated by the 2016 paper [7], thereby providing a framework to translate experiential attributes into loyalty outcomes. Giacomo Del Chiappa [2] is affiliated with University of Sassari [5] and Zayed University [6] during this era. Del Chiappa [2] further contributes by applying the same 2016 paper [7] to articulate how emotional experiences and perceived image drive satisfaction, repurchase intention, and advocacy in value-driven experiential marketing.