Destination image: Identifying baseline perceptions of Brazil, Argentina and Chile in the nascent Australian long haul travel market

While the popularity of destination image research has increased exponentially in the literature, there has been relatively little published about perceptions held by international consumers of destinations in South America. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a research project that aimed to identify the baseline market perceptions of Brazil, Argentina and Chile amongst Australian residents, at the time of the emergence of this long-haul market. Of interest was the extent to which Australians differentiate the three distinct countries versus perceiving the continent as a gestalt. These baseline perceptions enable the effectiveness of future marketing communications in Australia by the three national tourism offices to be monitored over time. Importance-performance analysis is used as a practical analytical tool to guide decision makers. In terms of operationalising destination image, a key research finding was the very high ratio or participants using the 'Don't know' option for each destination performance scale item. This finding has practical implications for the destination marketers, as well as for researchers engaged in destination image research in long-haul and/or emerging markets.