Providing a Model for Identifying the Relationship Between Word of Mouth and Tourists Trust with Customer-Based Brand Equity in Shiraz Hotel Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to provide a model to identify the relationship between word of mouth and tourists’ trust with customer-based brand equity in the hotel industry of Shiraz. This research is descriptive-survey and non-random sampling was used. The Sample size is 384 Iranian tourists who traveled to Shiraz and used hotels and accommodation. At first, indicators related to the dimensions of tourists’ trust in the offline domain were extracted, categorized and finalized by systematic review. Then a questionnaire was designed. After distributing the questionnaire, data were analyzed using SPSS and Smart PLS software. By systematic review, three dimensions of destination characteristics, destination staff characteristics and tourist characteristics were considered for trust. The findings indicate that tourist trust mediates the relationship between word-of-mouth advertising and customer-based brand equity.

Keywords

• customer based brand equity
• trust
• word of mouth
• shiraz city
• hotel industry