A status evaluation on customer loyalty creation through database and relationship marketing approaches of travel agents in Turkey

With the rapid advance of the information technologies, the companies are able to store the information about their clients much easier than ever before and try to create customer loyalty among the present and potential clients by using this information. Database marketing applications provide great benefits by helping companies create connections amongst the information stored in the databases, and these connections are useful in guiding the company to the correct product choice and networks to reach clients. The marketing approach that allows the companies to create long lasting relationships with their customers, thanks to the gained information, is called relationship marketing approach. This research aims to reveal for what purposes travel agencies, one of the tourism operations, use the database and relationship marketing applications to create customer loyalty. In this regard, Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) was contacted to obtain the contact information of all the 6025 active travel agencies in Turkey; and the question form of the research was sent to these agents via e-mail. The number of the travel agents who replied to the question form is 423. The research showed that the travel agencies use the database marketing operations to create client strategies, determine marketing strategies, process the information of the clients and administrate the client relations. It was also determined that the travel agencies use the relationship marketing operations to create trust and bonding, to communicate, create common values and to be able to empathize with the client and create mutuality. The research also showed that the customer loyalty programs such as discount policies that the agencies provided for their clients or free product offers and special attention shown to the client had an impact on the customers to prefer the agency over again. Keywords: Database Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Customer Loyalty, Travel Agencies.