Images, affective evaluation and personality traits in tourist behaviour: An exploratory study with Italian postcards

• The theoretical framework of the paper was the tourism destination image.
• The postcards and personality traits of tourists were introduced.
• We discussed the function of postcards from the personality, affective, and tourist behaviour point of view.
• Results showed that postcards play an important role in recalling the holiday experience.
• We concluded that postcards could be used to investigate the tourism destination image.

The purpose of this study was to explore which kinds of emotions were evoked by the postcards of an Italian tourism destination and whether their affective components influenced the perception of the tourism destination's identity. The study also explored the relationship between personality traits and emotions. The empirical data was obtained by a convenient sample of 110 tourists who were asked to evaluate two of ten selected postcards of Polistena (located in the South of Italy). After a preliminary evaluation, two postcards were analysed in terms of affective feeling and personality traits. The findings reveal that the postcards evoked emotions that encouraged tourists to travel. The personality traits conscientiousness and emotional stability highlighted the fact that tourists are accurate in selecting and sending exclusive postcards for communicating ideas about the holiday destination that they visited to others. Finally, some considerations regarding the role of postcards in improving tourism are discussed.