The contribution of website design to the generation of tourist destination image: The moderating effect of involvement

• The effect of tourist destination website design on destination image is analyzed.
• The destination image is more positive when emotional messages are employed.
• The destination image is more positive when the individual does not feel overloaded.
• The moderating effect of consumer involvement on message type is demonstrated.
• The moderating effect of consumer involvement on overload is demonstrated.

The question of how tourist destination image is generated is an issue of significant interest in the tourism management field. The present work analyzes the effect of the design of a tourist destination website, and the effect of the tourist's processing of information, on the destination image that the tourist creates. In order to achieve this objective, an experimental design was carried out, in which a destination website was specially created in order to manipulate message type and information-overload. The results demonstrate that destination image is more positive when emotional messages are employed on the website and when the individual does not experience overload. The work also demonstrates the moderating role of involvement, in the effect of the factors manipulated in the study (message type and information-overload) on tourist destination image. The conclusions reached in this study hold some interesting implications for practitioners working in tourist destination management.