ABSTRACT

Today there are around 1.6 billion Muslims worldwide, which constitute 23 per cent of the world population, and Indonesian Muslims make up 12 per cent of the global Muslim population. In 2015 about 5.9 million Umra visas were issued. The vast number of pilgrims creates a great demand for Umra and Hajj travel agents. Initial studies on Umra and Hajj travel agencies tend to overlook the service quality of travel agencies and relationship quality of the salespeople. The purpose of this study is to build a comprehensive model for Umra and Hajj travel agencies with the main variables of loyalty, word-of-mouth, service quality, and relationship quality. Using structural equation modelling with partial least squares estimation, this study found that word-of-mouth is affected by satisfaction, which is further affected by service quality. Loyalty is affected by trust, commitment, and satisfaction. Trust and commitment are affected by relationship quality with the sales people, which in turn are affected by customer orientation and expertise of the salespeople.