Social networking service as a marketing technology tool and sustainable business in the lodging industry: Investigating the difference across older and younger age groups among tourists

Abstract

Despite the importance of social networking services (SNSs), their engagement and their role as a critical marketing technology tool in explaining travellers’ approach behaviours are not well known. The present study investigated the influence of SNS engagement on traveller loyalty generation for a chain hotel brand and the health of this business by considering the roles of brand attitude, awareness, trust, and attachment and the impact of age. Fostering customers’ SNS engagement in the hospitality industry will be a vital constituent of hotels’ sustainable business. A quanti-tative process was used to meet the research objectives. The proposed research framework encom-passing these variables was successfully developed. The framework’s efficiency in predicting brand loyalty was also demonstrated. Our results showed that SNS engagement considerably enhances loyalty and other study constructs. Attachment had a salient role in boosting loyalty. In addition, age had a moderating influence. The study constructs maximized the influence of SNS engagement on loyalty as mediators. Overall, our results considerably increase our understanding regarding the role of SNS engagement in the formation of traveller loyalty to chain hotel brands and the sustain-ability of such businesses. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland