In many business situations, the primary focus of marketing activities can be
viewed as developing and maintaining repeat patronage or loyalty from the
firm’s customer base. Due to many alternatives for consumers, vacation
marketers are building loyalty by developing relationships with consumers. While
organizations may conceptualize and even implement relationship marketing
practices into their consumer loyalty strategies, it is necessary to examine the
variables contributing to a more loyal consumer base. This paper explores the
relationship between organizationally related factors and consumer attitudinal
loyalty in the resort industry using data collected from a ski resort. All
factors in the study have been linked to loyalty, but have not previously been
examined in one study. Regression results indicate that trust, commitment,
satisfaction, past behavior, and value predict 60 percent of the variance in
attitudinal loyalty. Implications suggest resort marketers need to segment
customers based on number of visits, creating strategies to manipulate factors
that are most important to each segment.
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US Census Bureau, URL (consulted May, 2006): http://www.census.gov/
