Can relationship marketing of youth hostels nudge customer engagement?

Abstract

Youth hostels are favoured accommodations among backpackers due to their affordable prices and distinctive features. In particular, they offer excellent opportunities for backpackers to actively participate in social interactions. Customer engagement is closely linked to the principles of relationship marketing and becomes crucial when examining how relationship marketing can be improved to predict their likelihood of revisiting. This study aims to investigate the relationship between satisfaction, trust, commitment and customer engagement. Specifically, it examines how both affective and continuance commitment influence customer engagement. The findings reveal that customer satisfaction has a significant positive impact on both trust and commitment. Interestingly, only affective commitment shows a significant positive influence on customer engagement, while there is no significant relationship between continuance commitment and customer engagement. Based on these results, recommendations are proposed to enhance affective commitment and promote continuance commitment in order to strengthen customer engagement in youth hostels.