Designing a human-to-human marketing model in the Iraqi hotel Industry

RESUMO

Ahmed Al-Darraji, Morteza Movaghar*, Mohammad Safari, Aboalhasan Hosseini

This study aims to design a Human-to-Human (H2H) marketing model tailored to the religious hospitality industry in Iraq. Recognizing the limitations of traditional marketing frameworks such as B2C and B2B in capturing the emotional, ethical, and spiritual dimensions of guest experiences, the study employs a qualitative research design based on Strauss and Corbin's grounded theory methodology.

Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 25 hotel professionals in major religious destinations. The coding process (open, axial, and selective) revealed H2H marketing as the central phenomenon, characterized by human relationship building, humanize customer service, personalized experience building, and respect to cultural-religious contexts.

The study identified key causal conditions, including the changing expectations of Gen Z travelers, Society emphasis on human relation and respect, Impact of cultural and religious values on customer behaviors, emergence of need to experience building in religious journeys, Weakness of machine marketing in real loyalty building, and Media impact on mental image. Contextual and intervening conditions-such as organizational culture, ethical commitment, infrastructure, legal environment, and media influence-were found to either enable or restrict the implementation of H2H strategies.

Emergent strategies include service humanization, employee training on ethics and empathy, trust-building efforts, material-spiritual integration, and culturally aligned marketing approaches. These strategies lead to a range of outcomes such as increased customer loyalty and satisfaction, enhanced revenue, stronger brand identity, social credibility, and the growth of pilgrimage tourism.

This research contributes a culturally grounded and operationally actionable H2H framework for religious hospitality services, offering practical insights for hotel managers, policymakers, and tourism planners in Iraq and similar socio-religious contexts