Business managers have frequently been called upon to develop relationship marketing programmes, with little guidance about what relationship marketing means or of the resulting benefits. To some, relationship marketing is seen as little more than a tactical programme of database management, while to others it is seen as an integral part of a customer care strategy which goes to the core of the marketing concept. This paper reviews alternative perspectives from which relationship marketing has been viewed and argues that not all types of relationship building activities can be expected to achieve similar returns on investment. Exploratory research is reported which seeks to evaluate the benefits resulting from different aspects of relationship development among a sample of UK travel agents. It is tentatively concluded that although relationship marketing at the tactical level may be relatively easy to implement, much greater benefits may arise where relationship marketing has been interpreted as an underlying philosophy of caring for customers.