Journal
TOURISM MANAGEMENT
Volume 68, Issue -, Pages 236-249Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2018.03.020
Keywords
Destination image; Multiscalar destination; Image gaps; Image components; Projected image; Perceived image; Compositional distance
Funding
- Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [TURCOLAB ECO2017-88984-R]
- Catalan Autonomous Government [2014SGR551]
- FEDER / Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry [MTM2015-65016-C2-1-R]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Tourist destination image (TDI) is considered crucial when planning a trip. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology to analyse and measure the (in)congruity or gap between the two sides of the TDI (supply-side projected vs. demand-side perceived) based on the difference between proportions of appearance. This method is applied to an outstanding Mediterranean destination, Catalonia, based on three different information sources: induced (Catalan Tourist Board dossier), autonomous (Lonely Planet travel guide), and organic (UGC: user-generated content). UGC consists of a random sample of 80,000 online travel reviews written in English by tourists who visited Catalonia during 2015. Our findings emphasize discrepancies in three aspects of the TDI, namely spatial, cognitive and affective image. The measurement of the gap between these TDI components shows that organic images (perceived) are significantly different from autonomous and induced images (projected), and that, the last two resemble one another much more.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available