INFLUENCE OF EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING ON CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN SHARIAH-COMPLIANT HOTEL

This study set out to determine whether hotel guest perceptions in five aspects of experiential marketing: sense, feel, think, act, and relate and their effects on customer loyalty in Shariacompliant hotels. Quantitative research methods were used in this study, questionnaire assessments of experiential marketing and loyalty were collected from 100 respondents who stayed at Sharia-compliant hotels in the city of Jakarta, Indonesia. The findings show that experiential marketing was statistically significant (R = 0.677) as a predictor variable of customer loyalty in Sharia-compliant hotels.


INTRODUCTION
Halal tourism is one of the rising phenomena. According to the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI), the Muslim tourist market is expected to reach US$ 220 billion in 2020. In 2017, there are 131 million Muslim tourists travelling around the world increased 8.2% from the previous period, the study also revealed that the Muslim tourism market will continue to grow rapidly (Mastercard Crescenrating, 2018).
In recent years, there has been increasing activities and facilities to support halal tourism. Demand for Shariah accommodation, halal food and beverages, transportation, and other sectors such as financial systems and halal holiday experiences (Jaelani, 2017;Widagdyo, 2015;Wingett & Turnbull, 2017). According to Vargas-Sánchez and Moral-Moral (2019), the core of halal tourism is emphasizing on the principles of Shariah, which has a series of implications in the provision of tourism services. In addition, they also mention three core of halal travelers needs in destination, first maximizing trip value based on culture benefits and experience; second halal travelers choose halal-friendly accommodation; third they choose family-friendly destinations.
As one of the core themes in halal travel, hotels and resorts must guarantee the "cultural comfort" of these travellers by providing basic facilities for prayer, cater halal food and beverages, and families and women-friendly facilities. The rise of Shariah-compliant hotels (SCH) can be regarded as one key element of Islamic tourism especially for halal-friendly destinations, this type of business has a unique characteristic compared to conventional hotels. Shariah-compliant hotel main products are halal guarantee and creating experience both emotionally and religiously. Emotional and religious experience is expected to increase satisfaction from customers and ultimately will increase the loyalty of the guest (Razalli et al., 2013). Level of acceptance in Shariah-compliant hotel's concept highly depends on how the businesses integrating the existing hospitality concept and the Shariah rules, with pleasant experience and guarantee of spiritual experience as a Muslim (Idris & Abdul Wahab, 2015;Mastercard Crescenrating, 2018).
Based on research conducted by Mastercard Crescenrating (2018) on the Global Muslim Travel Index, Indonesia ranked second in the world's halal tourism destination. Indonesia has been nominated and won 12 of the 16 existing nominations in 2016 World Halal Tourism Award. Indonesia entitled with the prestigious award as the best halal destination in the world and fort the accommodation sector category World's Best Halal Beach Resort, World's Best Family Friendly Hotel and World's Most Luxurious Family Friendly Hotel (Indonesia Travel, 2018). However, the development of Shariahcompliant hotels especially in Indonesia is still dawdling.
The issue has grown in the importance of halal tourism, especially in Indonesia. Shariah-compliant hotel expected to promote their products and services for both Muslim and non-Muslim guest who have demand on halal lifestyle, family-friendly place and culturally more enriching experience (Ridzuan & Zahari, 2012b). Customer enjoyment often specifically helps the consumers to carry out the purchasing process by focusing on the value of the product (Andreani, 2009). The previous study has highlighted customer awareness, marketing and promotion in Shariah-compliant hotel (Ozdemir & Met, 2012;Ridzuan & Zahari, 2012a). Debate continues about the best strategies for the management of Shariahcompliant hotel to implement more rational and emotional related to experiential marketing, in order to gain valuable experience and consumed the products and services offered repeatedly (Schmitt, 1999).
However, there is no single study exists which systematically investigate and assessing the experiential value obtained by hotel customers affecting guest loyalty in the context of Shariah-compliant hotel. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to understand the perceived value of experiential marketing towards loyalty in Shariahcompliant hotel. Specifically, the following issues will be addressed: First to explore the influential degrees of experiential marketing dimensions in shariah-compliant hotel; secondly to examine how the five dimensions of experiential marketing predict the guest loyalty within the context of Shariahcompliant hotel.

LITERATURE REVIEW Experiential Marketing
Pine and Gilmore (1998), first introduced experiential marketing as part of their work in the experience economy. According to their research, experiential marketing is a contemporary view in delivering the message for the customer about product and service by focus on the quality of physical and real interactive experiences. This approach is relatively different compared to traditional views in marketing to expose the product by using advertising media such as print or electronic messaging. There are five elements of experiential marketing in assessing customer experience, which our senses, feelings, thoughts, actions and social relationships (Andreani, 2009;Kartajaya, 2006;Palupi, 2001;Smilansky, 2017).
A broader perspective has been adopted by Andreani (2009) who argues that experiential marketing is more than just providing opportunities for customers to gain emotional experience and rational in consuming products or service. There are several goals that can be achieved by a marketer in involving customers feelings and emotions, very often this emotional aspect provides effective impact in the marketing process in selling products or delivering services and at the end to enhance the brand awareness, brand equity and customer loyalty. Schmitt (1999) suggests that emotional aspects should be inspiring and attract customers to try new things, do different things, change themselves for a better life, and create a connection between customers individually and with society or culture. He also points out the key of success of the experiential marketing is focus on customer experiences, consumption as a holistic experience, customers are emotionally as well as rationally driven, and strategy from experiential marketer are diverse and multifaceted. Moreover, Schmitt (1999) also describe two approaches in experiential marketing, namely Strategic Experiential Modules (SMEs) and Experiential Providers (ExPros). The approach through SEMs emphasizes more on the aspect of senses, feel, think, act, and relate. While ExPros are supporting elements in SEMs such as communication, visually identify, product presence, co-branding, spatial environment, website, and people.
The interactive experience based on SMEs is related to each other. First, to stimulate customer senses there are several marketing strategies namely: five senses as a differentiator, five senses as a motivator, and value provider (Andreani, 2009;Schmitt, 1999). Moreover, Putri and Astuti (2012) explained that senses are tangible products, it can be felt by the five human senses such as sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch. The function of this sense is to differentiate a product from other products, motivate purchase decision, and shape customer ratings at the end the overall satisfaction for the products.
The second dimensions are Feel which has a close relationship with the emotions of customers. One of the examples is the creation of service environment which is more intangible aspect and depend on the skill, knowledge and attitude of the staff to deliver the services and products and at the same time create relationships with the consumer. What customers feel then will follow up with think dimensions related to problem-solving experience. Companies try to challenge customers and at the same time encourage customers to interact creatively and cognitively in the product creation stage, this stage is part of the innovation process. Moreover, companies will provide information and communicate their product through various media and through internal marketing through the quality of services provide by staff in order to make customers think and conclude on their own whether they will buy the products or not.
After the decisions process then the customer will act, this is an action that relates to a person (mind and body) to meet the needs of life and lifestyle. Through spending their money to consumed products and enjoying services and satisfy their needs. Schmitt (1999) suggest attraction to give customers self-improvement, economically and social status identified by personal brands choice. To achieve this objective, previous aspects sense, feel, think, act should relate to each other.
Therefore, the experience of influencing consumers will be focus on creating positive perceptions for the consumers. Collectively, these studies outline a critical role in the experiential marketing approach to maintain business by using a combination marketing strategy and providing a valuable emotional experience. To conclude Schmitt (1999) has mentioned the strategic experience modules composed of consumers' 5 various experience types, namely sensation experience, emotion experience, thinking experience, action experience and association experience.
In the field of tourism, research on experiential marketing to improve customer experience and customer loyalty are carried out in a number of contexts, such as those carried out in travel agent company (Jatmiko & Andharini, 2012). Some authors have mainly been interested in question concerning tourist attractions, for example, zoo, hot springs resort, and historic heritage sites (Lin et al., 2009;Tsaur et al., 2007;H.-C. Wu & Li, 2017). In the context of services and guest loyalty in restaurant and hotel sectors, some authors found that environmental factors and interactions with service employees and other consumers positively influence the consumer experiential value (Noegroho, 2013;Putri & Astuti, 2012;C. H.-J. Wu & Liang, 2009). Specific on Islamic experiential marketing study has been conducted to assess the application of Islamic experiential marketing value in the retail business sector (Aziz et al., 2016). However, such studies remain narrow in focus dealing only with more retail products only. This review has demonstrated the shortcomings of Islamic marketing in the context of tourism sectors, especially in Shariah-compliant hotel business.

Shariah-Compliant Hotel (SCH)
Definition of Shariah-compliant hotel is accommodation service adheres to the principles of Islamic teaching guidelines and provide Islamic atmosphere with unique characteristics that have consequences for their development, management and marketing (Basalamah, 2011;Fitriani, 2018;Henderson, 2010). Shariah-compliant hotel businesses need to take a holistic approach and practice in operations accordingly to obtain Shariah hotel certification and Halal label to maintain the customer perceptions and assurance related to their products and services (Henderson, 2016;Samori & Rahman, 2013;Samori & Sabtu, 2014).
In previous studies, dimensions of Shariah-compliant hotels related to reception, employees, room facilities, halal food and beverage facilities, praying facilities, and other facilities i.e. halal shop (Ridzuan & Zahari, 2012b;Salleh et al., 2014). There are principles different between Shariahcompliant hotel and conventional hotel, Idris and Abdul Wahab (2015) stated that most of the Shariah-compliant hotel operation ranging from room design, food and beverages, housekeeping, workers uniform, and other facilities offered to the guest. A recent study by Karim, Ahmad, and Zainol (2017) involved management and administration aspects of an Islamic hotel also play an important role in addition to the operational aspects. Management aspects such as providing daily routine of Shariah-compliant manager guidance, Islamic financial aspect, and Islamic promotion material. They also highlighted the Islamic management in trained their staff with Akhlaq 1 , religious activities and events i.e. Al-Quran and Yassin recitation.
Shariah-compliant hotel classifications apply in some Muslim countries. In Malaysia standardisation is based on Malaysian Halal Standards for the quality management system and Halal food management, and the halal certification will be issued by Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) (Karim et al., 2017;Salleh et al., 2014). In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region the concept of Shariah-compliant hotel is based on three aspects operation, design and financial, moreover there are challenges faced by the hotel to fully adapted Shariahcompliant hotel concept related to hotel enterprise, human resources, and guests (Saad & Ali, 2014). There are some basic requirements for the Shariah-compliant hotel's standardization process based on the characteristics of products, services, and management can be seen in The certification is based on the categories of Hilal-1 consist of 49 subelements: 27 products, 20 services, and 2 management. For Hilal-2 consist of 74 subelements: 40 products, 28 services and 6 management (the complete list can be seen in Appendix 1). Hilal categorization aims to provide guidance on the implementation of "Disposition" is a faculty (malakah) of the soul (nafs) which unconsciously inspires activities.

Customer Loyalty
Definition of loyalty is a pleasant attitude towards a product or brand that is offered then make a consistent purchase of the brand repeatedly. Thus the loyalty of one loyal consumer behaviour and make purchases of certain brands repeatedly (Sumarwan, 2011).
The loyal definition not only in the company's products and services but also the overall portfolio of company products and services as part of the loyalty life brand (Gaffar, 2007). According to Griffin (2005), the concept of loyalty is more directed towards behaviour compared to attitude and a loyal customer will show long-term buying behaviour, which is carried out by decisionmaking units. Shoemaker and Lewis (1999) explained that loyalty marketing or retention marketing is needed so that the business can be successful in the future. It is also explained by Hassan, Pourabedin, Sade, and Chai (2018) in the context of hotel business, how the strength of the perceived value indirectly stimulates customer's loyalty to a hotel, followed by the interaction and economic value from the customer value perspective to ensure customer's loyalty.
In addition, research conducted by Jani and Han (2014) mention that hoteliers must concentrate their efforts on satisfying guests in order to create loyalty and improve hotel image for their guests. However, Cetin and Dincer (2014) are more concerned with customer experience, and how positive experiences affect customer behaviour. The studies presented thus far provide evidence that loyalty indicated by making re-purchase intention, buying between product lines and services, recommending to others, positive oral administration, and showing immunity to move to other products over by competitors.

RESEARCH METHOD Data collection
This study was conducted using a quantitative approach and empirical research. This study used the questionnaire survey as the main method for the collection of data. Data were collected by using non-probability sampling to 130 local guest who stay at one of the sharia-compliant hotels in Jakarta, Indonesia. The questionnaire was distributed to guests (respondents) between May -June 2017. The questionnaire distributed are in Bahasa and consisting of 34 questions divided into three sections.

Table 1. Dimensions of Shariah-compliant Hotel in Other Countries Dimensions Description Reception
-Islamic Music background (nasyeed or Al-Quran recitation) and Azan -Disallowed non-married couples to stay in the same room -Hotel staff have been trained to identify married couples and not married, and do not hesitate to reprimand guests who bring partners not mahram 2 -Uniforms for all hotel staffs must cover their awrah 3

Employees
-Most of the staff are Muslim -All-female staff is required to wear the hijab -Greet and receive guests with the Islamic greeting Room Facilities In the first section of the questionnaire, the guest was asked to express their overall perception of Shariah-compliant hotel. For the experiential marketing sections, all the questionnaire was developed from Strategic Experiential Modules (SMEs) theory (Schmitt, 1999), with some modification to Shariah-compliant hotel product and services. In total there are 20 questions in the first section of the questionnaire consist of five dimensions namely senses (four items), feel (four items), think (four items), act (four items), relate (four items).
The second section, participants were asked to express their loyalty level regarding the repurchase intention, buying the product and services, recommend to others based on a 5-point Likert scale, from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree". The questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale from "Strongly disagree" to "Strongly agree". The 5-point Likert scale captures more variances than a binary scale of yes or no (Lehto, Lin, Chen, & Choi, 2012) and is most frequently utilized to measure the intensity of a single attribute (Mazzocchi, 2008). In this study, by adopting 5-point Likert scales in different sections, researchers can be assisted with a better understanding of participants' perceptions, satisfaction levels, as well as revisit intention. The respondents further asked to express their disagreement or agreement of loyalty and level of priority to stay in Shariah-compliant hotel based on a 5-point Likert scale for the customer loyalty dimensions the framework is based on Griffin (2005), consist of eight questions repurchase intention (two items), product buying line and service (two items), recommendation to others (two items) and immunity to competitor offers (two items). In the third section, demographics information including gender, education level, occupation, age as well as the travel companion, and their origin was asked, and consent form regarding respondents' participation in this research was also explained. Out of a total of 130 questionnaires that were collected, only 100 were fit to be used for further evaluation. The survey was completed by 100 respondents who met the criterion selection which required that participants who are stayed at Shariahcompliant hotel. Table 2 shows the demographic characteristics of the respondents. The sample was slightly male dominated (61%), the majority were millennials with age ranging from years 18-30 years old (52%). Most of the respondents are holding undergraduate education (64%). Majority of the guest who participates and stays at Shariah-compliant hotel are come with their family (38%), and only with their husband/wife (8%). Since the location of the hotel in Jakarta, most of the respondents came from Jakarta, Bogor and Banten area (61%). Interestingly, most of the guests (72%) make their first visit to Shariah-compliant hotel, with only 2% of them has visited more than five times.

Data analysis
Data were analysed in SPSS 23.0 for Windows (Aldrich, 2018). There are two analysis used for this study First, descriptive statistics were used to profile the demographics of the participants and the general perception of Shariah-compliant hotel guest. Secondly, respondents were asked questions in relation to their perception of experiential marketing in Shariah-compliant hotel by ranking how their experiences with five dimensions of senses, feel, think, act, and relate (see table 3).

RESULT AND DISCUSSION Experiential Marketing Senses
From the first dimension senses were associated with four items stimulated the human senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch (Putri & Astuti, 2012). In overall, this component (mean=3.95) represent by interior design, food and beverages, temperature and lighting, and bedroom aroma. There was a high level of agreement among the respondents that Halal food and drinks are offered in the hotel are tasty (mean = 4.38).

Feel
The second dimension feel (mean=4.11), the respondents were slightly agreeing that Shariah-compliant hotel provides security and Islamic hospitality feel. With the highest score on a sense of security (mean=4.29). Respondents are also agreed with another two factors such as staff sharia appearance and the comfort in the room has given an more feel staying at sharia compliant hotel.

Think
For the third dimension think, finding showed that respondents slightly agree (mean=3.86) with how halal product innovation being communicate, however respondents perceived neutral the promotion of room.

Act
The fourth-dimension act components mostly of respondents are agreeing about the level of services (mean=3.93), they perceived that Shariah-hotel is very useful and the rooms are easy to be booked. They also agree that the price level is in line with services that has been deliver according to the customer needs.

Relate
The last dimension is related to valuable experience in sharia compliant hotel with the indicator of staff friendliness, guest prestige, and ease of use of electronic media (mean=3.84). However, respondents still perceived neutral for Shariah-compliant hotel as an indication of their prestige.

Customer Loyalty
The results also showed us that all variables in customer loyalty relatively neutral or slightly agreeing (mean=3.64-4.05) repurchase intention, choosing, recommend and loyal with Shariah-compliant hotel. The highest value for the loyalty indicator is the desire of guests to stay back at Shariah Hotel with an average value of 4.05. for the lowest average value recorded by Shariah-compliant hotel, products and services are a priority with an average of 3.64.  R Square is the squared multiple correlations and represents the strength of the predictive relationship here, its value is .677 (the Pearson r 2 ) and suggests that about 67.7% of the variance of customer loyalty is explained by experiential marketing.
While the other 32.3% is explained by another variance. Adjusted R 2 , which accounts for the number of explanatory variables in relation to the number of observations and number of parameters, is also computed to be .674.  Table 6 presents the Coefficients of the variable in the regression model, the unstandardized (raw score) regression coefficient for experiential marketing is .348 (this is the slope of the unstandardized model) and is statistically significant (p<.001) as assessed by a t-test.
Because it is positive, we can say that an increase of one unit on the experiential marketing measure is expected to be associated with an increase in customer loyalty value of 0.348 units. This may seem like a small increase in customer loyalty until we recall (Table 4) that experiential marketing scores average about 3.9415 and customer loyalty scores average about 3.8688.
The beta (standardized) regression coefficient for Experiential marketing is .823; this is also the value of the Pearson r between Experiential Marketing and Customer loyalty.
Based on the value of this coefficient, we can say that an increase of 1.00 z score (one standard deviation unit) on the Experiential marketing measure is expected to be associated with an increase in Customer loyalty of .823 z score (standard deviation) units.

CONCLUSION
This study has found the assessment of guests staying on loyalty to Shariah Hotel is based on an analysis of the four dimensions of making regular purchases, buying between product lines and services, referring to others and showing immunity to move from competitor pull is in the sufficient category. Simultaneously, there is a positive and significant influence of experiential marketing on guest loyalty in Shariah Hotel. Collectively, these studies outline a critical role for that experiential marketing approach is an experience of products, services and brands to increase the level of sales and ultimately brand image, and customer loyalty wherein its implementation can provide an opportunity to be able to increase the level of emotions and feelings of the customers in Shariah-compliant hotel. Experiential marketing can be used to increase consumer loyalty if the performance of services and product offered, can satisfy guests expectations, and provide valuable experience. Halal tourism is affected by tourists religiosity, which is evidenced by their awareness and application of Islamic preaching in their daily lives and also unforgettable encounters when experiencing events and attractions in destinations (Amalia & Yahya, 2018).
To increase guest loyalty to Shariahcompliant hotel, it is necessary to evaluate and improve the quality of products, services by the management based on the Hilal categorisation and DSN-MUI halal standard (Permana, 2018). Accommodation of Muslim Friendly needs to pay attention to the hospitality of the staff who becomes the image of the hotel their standard appearance that conforms to Islamic law and attitudes to service will provide marketing stimulation more optimal. With the slightly neutral value on the immunity against other products from competitors, provides evidence that there should be more effort to increase customer loyalty towards Shariah-compliant hotel products and services. In the future, research can be conducted by examining more number in samples, comparing with different category of Shariah-compliant hotels, as well as more extensive operational area coverage both in Indonesia and in other countries.