Portrayed and perceived online destination personality of select island destinations

This study intends to delineate the match or mismatch between portrayed and perceived online destination personality of select tropical island destinations such as Barbados, Fiji, Seychelles, Hawaii and Mauritius considering their destination marketing organization (DMO) websites as a stimuli. A computer-aided content analysis using WordStat software was employed to uncover the portrayed destination personality dimensions, while the perceived personality dimensions were measured with the help of an online survey using Aaker's [Aaker, J. L. (1997). Dimensions of brand personality. Journal of Marketing Research, 34, 347-356] brand personality scale. This study demonstrates an online approach to assess a destination's brand personality dimensions. It offers insights to DMOs on the transfer of destination personality online through their websites. It also offers the means and measures to assess the association between the portrayed and perceived destination personality.