What factors influence Generation Y’s employee retention in the hospitality industry?: An internal marketing approach

•Individuals from Generation Y are entering in the hospitality job market, but little is known about their intentions to remain in the hospitality business.•The purpose of this study is to examine what factors affect a Generation Y employee’s intention to remain with a hospitality company with respect to internal marketing factors.•Qualtrics, an online survey service company, was used to distribute and collect a self-administered questionnaire survey.•A theoretically proposed model was tested using structural equation modeling.•The results of this study indicated that “work environment” significantly influence Generation Y employees’ job satisfaction, followed by “empowerment,” “pay,” and “relationships with managers,” which in turn, influences “employee commitment” and “intention to remain in hospitality business”.