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Destination image – the foundation for effective destination management strategies

2020-11-19 14:09
Destination image is one of the most important factors helping to understand travelers’ perceptions as well as reflecting core values and building the destination’s brand positioning. Therefore, destination image is the indicator of the success or failure of destination management.

What is destination image?

According to some tourism studies, destination image is defined as “the expression of all objective knowledge, impressions, prejudice, imaginations, and emotional thoughts an individual or group might have of a particular place” (Lawson and Baud Bovy, 1977). Or according to Murphy, Pritchard and Smith (2000), destination image is “a sum of associations and pieces of information connected to a destination, which would include multiple components of the destination and personal perception”.

Thereby, destination image can be understood as the overall perception, personal impressions of travelers to a destination based on their knowledge, information or real experiences of a particular destination.

The roles of destination image

  • Towards travelers

Destination image is a leading factor that influences the decision-making process of choosing a destination for a trip. Knowledge of the destination based on information or reviews from others will help travelers shape their personal perception of the destination’s image and base on that, travelers will choose a destination that suits their interests, meets their needs and purposes in the trip.

The destination image also affects the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of travelers to the destination as well as the tour. With initial perception and fantasies, travelers will have certain expectations for their upcoming experiences at the destination. Therefore, travelers will tend to compare the real experiences in the trip with the expectations about the destination image that has been shaped before departure. The level of meeting the initial expectations will be a measurement of traveler satisfaction of the destination and experiences there.

In addition, the satisfaction of travelers is also a factor affecting customer loyalty and motivating travelers to visit the destination again in the future.

  • Towards Destination Management Organizations (DMOs)

To effectively manage and marketing a destination, DMOs should understand and exploit the destination’s attributes and core values. Based on that, DMOs need to evaluate how travelers perceive the images associated with the destination, the consistency between travelers’ perception and the destination brand communication as well as travelers’ feelings for the destination. Thereby, DMOs can find out the factors that create travelers satisfied or unsatisfied to improve their management strategies.

Understanding the destination image also helps DMOs correctly communicate core values of the destination, and create an optimal management plan to build and maintain the positive destination image as well as create effective marketing strategies to increase competitiveness for the destination.

  • Towards tourism businesses

Destination image in the travelers’ perception is valuable insights for tourism businesses because this is the source of information to help businesses understand the preferences, behaviors and perceptions of customers. This will be the foundation for tourism businesses to provide products that meet travelers’ needs, reach the right target consumers at the right time and build effective marketing strategies.

Given the important roles of the destination image above, measurement of destination image is important for managing and marketing destinations better.

Destination image is measured through two major groups of attributes, the cognitive image attributes and the affective image attributes. Cognitive image refers to the beliefs or knowledge a person has of the attributes or characteristics of a destination. An affective image is an individual's feelings about it.

In order to determine the fixed attributes to measure every destination, the researchers attempted to unify the attributes from many existing studies. In the research with the topic "The meaning and measurement of destination image" published in 1991 by Echtner and Ritchie, they built a particular model about components of the destination image divided into two main groups:

  • Functional attributes: traits which most places can be compared such as attractions, activities, accommodations and mental pictures of physical aspects.
  • Psychological attributes: travelers’ evaluation of functional attributes such as quality of services, safety, hospitality and aspects that express travelers’ general feelings about a place.

In addition, measurement of destination image needs to be combined qualitative and quantitative research for comprehensive assessment and effective to destination management.

Conclusion

Destination image plays an important role not only in travelers’ decision-making processes but also in the effectiveness of DMOs’ destination management and effectiveness of tourism businesses’ marketing plans. Therefore, understanding destination image in travelers’ perception will be the foundation factor to help stakeholders shape and increase the competitiveness of the destination.

For more insightful news in hospitality and tourism, please visit: https://destination-review.com/

Source: Destination Review