THE IMPACT OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION DESIGN ON CUSTOMER RETENTION THROUGH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY

Abstract

Many hotels still struggle to keep their regular Free and Independent Traveler (FIT)/ public guests in the competitive hotel industry. As business hotel, their public guests are considered low during Covid19 outbreak. Responding to the situation, it is crucial for a hotel to retain their existing customers. A hotel needs to be different among the competitors by providing better experience to develop the retention. The retention itself can be supported by hotel promotion or marketing activities. In the hotel industry it is common to promote a hotel through visual information or Visual Communication Design. Therefore, this research analyzed how Visual Communication Design (VCD) impacts on Customer Retention (CR) through Customer Experience (CE) in the hotel industry. 265 respondents in this quantitative research are regular FIT guests from 3 hotel brands of Accor in Tangerang, Indonesia. The finding of this study showed that CR is significantly impacted by VCD through CE as an intervening variable. The study also found that both VCD and CE has significant impact on CR directly.