The Role of Mentoring Process in the Internal Marketing of Tehran Travel Agencies

Travel agencies are the largest intermediate circle between tourism service providers. The knowledge, experience, and skills of the staff of travel agencies are valuable resources that, if left unattended, can lead to consequences such as the departure of valuable staff, customer dissatisfaction, and service failures. Counseling by a mentor assigned to a travel agency can reduce the stress and worries of starting a business. Facilitating some unfamiliar processes in travel agencies, sometimes encountered by new and inexperienced staff, provides high-quality services for customers. Mentors try to give young people hope for the future by coaching and protecting them. This study examines the role of mentoring in improving the internal marketing of tourism agencies in Tehran. The study’s statistical population is the staff of travel agencies in Tehran. Assuming it is unlimited, 251 people were selected by the available sampling method. To analyze the results, structural equations and LISREL software were used. The results show that the dimensions of the mentoring process (including consulting, facilitation, protection, and coaching) have a positive and significant effect on improving internal marketing and creating experienced, young, and reliable human resources for agencies. In a way, increasing employee satisfaction and its impact on improving internal marketing can increase customer satisfaction and improve sales.