Analyzing the influence of firm-wide integrated marketing communication on market performance in the hospitality industry.

• A strategy of integrated marketing communication requires a holistic approach. • Hospitality businesses benefit from the effective implementation of IMC. • Integrated marketing communication positively relates to sales-related performance. • Integrated marketing communication impacts positively on brand advantage. • Integrated marketing communication enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty. Over the last decade, scholars have recently emphasized the need for tourism marketers to orchestrate the wide range communication activities and forms via the adoption of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC). However, prior research has almost neglected the role of IMC in hospitality management. This paper adopts a broad organizational approach conceiving IMC as a concept that involves the whole organizational entity and aims to analyze the effects of IMC on market performance, in terms of superior sales and financial results, greater brand advantage and customer-related outcomes for those businesses providing lodging services. To pursue this research purpose, a survey has been conducted among corporate-level senior managers of lodging businesses operating in Spain. The findings provided further and more compelling empirical proof of the positive influence of IMC on market performance, responding to the call for more rigorous empirical research to demonstrate the beneficial effects of firm-wide IMC on market performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]