The implicit measurement of destination image: The application of Implicit Association Tests

The previous studies about destination image measurement mainly focused on measuring tourists’ explicit cognitive processes without measuring their implicit cognitive processes. This study introduces the Implicit Association Test (IAT) into the domain of destination image measurement, and utilizes a traditional questionnaire to measure Chinese tourists’ perceived image of Japan and Hong Kong both at explicit and implicit level. Results show that Chinese tourists’ explicit preference between Japan and Hong Kong is insignificant, but there is significant implicit preference for their perceived image of Hong Kong over that of Japan. This study advances the research on destination image and enriches the method on the measurement of destination image.     

Influence of popular culture on special interest tourists' destination image

In this study the role of pop-culture on shaping destination image was derived from focus groups and interviews with 24 fans from different nationalities of the Korean pop star Ahn Jae-wook. Three main theses emerged from the study: 1) the destination image induced by pop-culture was changed in a positive way; 2) the pop-star's event reinforced a positive place image through experiences of the event and travels in South Korea; and 3) the positive image from pop-culture experiences had a strong impact on future behavior. Results of the study suggest that pop-culture as an autonomous agent delivers a more powerful and stronger influence on destination image than previously recognized in the literature. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.     

Dimentions of tourist satisfaction with a destination area

Pizam, Abraham, Yoram Neumann, and Arie Reichel.. “Dimensions of Tourist Satisfaction with a Destination Area,” Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. V, No. 3, July/September 1978, pp. 314–322. This paper empirically identifies eight factors of tourist satisfaction with Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA) as a tourist destination area; and it suggests the means to measure them. By using a factor-analytic approach based on data obtained from a survey of 685 vacationing tourist, the following factors of tourist satisfaction were derived: beach oppurtunities, cost, hospitality, eating and drinking facilities, accommodation facilities, environment, and extent of commercialization.     

Sequential choice behavior: Going on vacation and type of destination

The literature of destination choice has so far studied multi-stage decision making processes that are more representative of the general choice behavior of tourists (e.g. going on vacation, going abroad, and destination country). Alternatively, this study proposes a multi-stage decision process to the choice of tourist destination types (going on vacation, coastal character, and urban character of the destination) as these choice sets are more idiosyncratic to tourists who prefer a specific type of tourist destination (e.g. Spain with clear coastal and inland variations). In order to test this multi-stage choice process as well as the sequential order of both decisions, coastal character and urban character, the current study analyses decision processes vs. different hierarchical multi-stage processes (going on vacation and coastal character preceding urban character; and going on vacation and urban character preceding coastal character). The empirical findings support the existence of a multi-stage choice process where coastal character precedes the urban character destination choice. The main implication of these findings is that, given the limited human analytical capability, a hierarchical choice process can be useful to handle the information overload and the complexity inherent to the destination type choice.     

Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature

This article presents the first narrative analysis of the areas of research that have developed within the destination marketing field since its commencement in 1973. Given the broad extent of the field, and the absence of any previous reviews in four decades, a key challenge is in providing a focus for such a disparate body of knowledge. The review is structured around one principal question: ‘To what extent is the Destination Marketing Organisation (DMO) responsible for the competitiveness of the destination?’. In pursuit of this underlying question, we address a number of themes including nomenclature and the DMO, the evolution of the destination marketing literature, competitiveness as the DMO reason d'être, and DMO effectiveness including issues of branding and positioning, and future research themes in the field.     

A model of destination image formation

Image has been shown to be an important influence in the selection of vacation destinations. A model that represents the important determinants of destination image formation was developed based on previous studies in a number of fields. The research reported in this article presents the results of an empirical test of the model using path analysis. A major finding of the study was that a destination image is formed by both stimulus factors and tourists' characteristics. The results of this investigation provide important implications for strategic image management and can aid in designing and implementing marketing programs for creating and enhancing tourism destination images.     

Measurement of destination brand bias using a quasi-experimental design

Image of a country as tourism destination brand can involve a biased or distorted view that is different from its objective reality. Although several destination image studies make references to negative destination images and stereotypical perceptions, bias in images of destination brands has been overlooked by researchers so far. A modified version of Gensch's methodology is used to measure three different spaces of destination image and identify potential biases in it. A quasi-experimental design is applied on three groups of students, using a promotional movie as the stimulant, representing the destination brand, Turkey, known to have a rather distorted image. The results show that the applied methodology can be used effectively in measuring the negative bias in the images of tourism destination brands. Negative bias was found in the perception of both Attractions and Basics factors of Turkey as a tourism destination brand. Managerial and theoretical implications are provided along with limitations and future research suggestions.     

When less is more: Sustainability messaging,destination type,and processing fluency

The purpose of this research is to explore consumer responses to hotel sustainability messages based on the congruence of preexisting cognitive schemas with newly presented information. Based on information processing theory, this research proposes that variations in the processing fluency of a sustainability message will interact with the cognitive perception of the hotel’s destination (NBT versus urban) to affect the perception of the message and the attitude toward the hotel. Results suggest that under conditions of low fluency, consumers are less skeptical of messages presented by hotels in NBT destinations than of similar messages presented by hotels in urban tourism destinations. Low fluency messages also generate more positive attitudes toward NBT destinations than toward urban destinations. These results suggest that the most effective sustainability messages depend not only on the presentation of the message, but also on the type of the destination.     

Toward an integrated model of tourist expectation formation and gender difference

This study aims to build and test a theoretical model of tourist expectation formation and seeks to explore the gender differences regarding how tourists form their expectations toward a travel destination. Survey data were obtained from 774 outbound Chinese tourists to Macao, and structural equation modelling was used to test the model and proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that travel motivation, advertising, and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations influence travelers' cognitive image and cognitive image interacts with affective image to form individuals' expectations toward travel destinations. Notably, the impacts of travel motivation and advertising on cognitive image, and of cognitive image on tourist expectations were significantly stronger for males than females, while the effects of WOM on cognitive image and of affective image on tourist expectations were stronger for females than males. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.     

What makes a city cool? Understanding destination coolness and its implications for tourism

Cool cities have an appeal with tourists and destination managers intuitively know that being considered cool pays out. Yet, existing literature does not provide an answer for what ‘destination coolness’ is and what attributes characterize cool cities. The current research is the first to address these important questions. The author employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies to conceptualize destination coolness and thereby identify what makes a city cool in the eyes of tourists: Cool cities are perceived as authentic, rebellious, original and vibrant. In two consecutive quantitative studies, the author develops a multi-dimensional reliable, valid and parsimonious coolness scale, and documents its importance for research and practice empirically. Coolness is an important driver behind relevant attitudinal and behavioral phenomena, such as intention and actual visit behavior, a destination's social return and city-self connection. The author concludes by explaning the implications of the study and paving new research avenues.     

Fashioning a destination tourism future: The case of Slovenia

Achieving competitive advantage for any destination in times of rapid global change requires tourism stakeholders to have a clear understanding of the direction of change and its implications for business or destination management. The challenges are particularly acute for emerging destinations such as Slovenia. The paper discusses tools for measuring destination performance with particular focus on Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA). Using IPA the paper develops a priority ordering for Slovenian tourism stakeholders to debate, modify and to adopt actions that can help them prepare for the challenges arising from global trends. The survey instrument used for this study asks respondents to highlight both the important areas that should be addressed by tourism stakeholders in Slovenia and also the performance of Slovenia in respect of the success or otherwise of the strategies that are currently being pursued to enhance destination competitiveness. The findings reveal that there are a number of areas in which the Slovene tourism industry considers itself to be underperforming in the implementation of strategies to eliminate drift. The paper explores some of the implications of the findings for strategic action and implementation, making some concluding comments on destination development strategy while highlighting areas for further research.     

Expanding theory of tourists’ destination loyalty: The role of sensory impressions

What shapes tourist's attitudes towards destinations most, abstract destination image or concrete sensory impressions? This exploratory research investigates the unique role played by sensory impressions in understanding destination loyalty through a multi-level validation process utilizing three progressive studies. Study 1, based on online reviews found that positive sensory impressions have a positive effect on loyalty while negative sensory impressions have a negative effect. A field study then revealed that sensory impressions can be distinguished from destination image and provides incremental explanatory power on loyalty. Through a survey of actual tourists, Study 3 verified the robustness of the conclusions of the first two studies and provides evidence that sensory impressions are related to other outcome concepts (perceived quality, value and satisfaction). This research illustrates the mechanisms behind the influence of this emerging construct on destination loyalty, and more importantly, verifies its importance and necessity through a more rigorous multi-level validation.     

Dual-route communication of destination websites

To understand the communication route of destination websites, this study employed the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) which is a dual-route, multi-process model of persuasive message processing. That is, this study proposed a theoretical model for the dual-route persuasive process based on ELM, investigated its antecedents and consequences, and identified the moderating effect of involvement. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to test the validity of the conceptual model. The results indicate that highly involved people are inclined to elaborate on information (central route), while people with low involvement are likely to make judgments based on simple cues (peripheral route). Website design characteristics are an important antecedent of both central and peripheral-route persuasions. Attitudes resulting from careful consideration via the central route are more predictive of conation and behavior (further information searching and travel intentions) than those formed via the peripheral route. The study provides a foundation for further tourism research investigating the Internet as a persuasive tool, and suggests strategies for website designers.     

Representing tourists’ heterogeneous choices of destination and travel party with an integrated latent class and nested logit model

Aiming at a better understanding of heterogeneous interdependencies between destination and travel party choices in tourism, this study attempts to simultaneously represent these two choices by integrating the nested logit model with the latent class modeling approach to accommodate both types of nested model structures together. Empirical analysis confirmed the effectiveness of the developed model, using a data collected from more than 2000 tourists in Japan. It was observed that on average the two types of nested model structures are almost equally shared by samples and the model structures could significantly vary with income level and gender. Influential factors related to choices of destination and travel party were also explored. Concretely speaking, travel time, attractiveness of destination and number of tourism spots were found to be important influential factors in destination choice, and gender, age, marital status have important effects on travel party choice.     

The functional-psychological continuum in the cognitive image of a destination: A confirmatory analysis

This paper analyses the cognitive component of the image of a destination from a dual perspective. Firstly, we study its composition by positing three positions on a continuum: functional, mixed and psychological, which are analysed using confirmatory factor analysis. Secondly, we study the influence of these components on tourists' overall image of the destination and on their future behaviour intentions, using structural equation analysis. The results show that the psychological and functional components exercise the greatest influence on the overall image of the destination. Overall image was found to influence future behaviour intentions consistently, while the functional component is relevant for revisit intention and the psychological component for the intention to recommend.