Tourists' opinions and their selection of tourism destination images: An affective and motivational evaluation

Image is an important component of tourism destination marketing because it influences tourists' behavior by stimulating multiple creative activities and experiences. Previous studies have shown that destination image formation affects travelers' thinking and feeling. Therefore, exploring the role of destination images is vital for the promotion of tourist destinations as holiday resources. We were interested in exploring the tourist's opinion in selecting touristic images used for promotional aims. Hence, the aim of this study is to investigate the affective and motivational factors with regard to a case-tourist destination, comparing two sets of images. The results showed that tourists considered the images in the first set to be stereotypical, while those in the second set evoked more affective and motivational attributes, increasing their desire to visit the represented places. The results of logistic regression analyses underlined that tourists are more influenced by the images in the second set. Finally, marketing implications are discussed.

► Two sets of case-tourism destination images were analysed by the subjects to evaluate their communicative relevance.
► Logistic regression results showed that subjects considered as conventional the images currently used for promotional aims.
► We conclude that subjects perceived the images not used for promoting the case-tourism as more significant.