Destination stereotypes: a phenomenon of destination image

Abstract

PurposeDespite years of research on destination image (DI), studies have surprisingly failed to investigate how tourists perceive and approach destinations that they are not cognizant about. While prodigious amount of information is available on the dimensionality and nature of DI, little is known about the construct with reference to cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Understanding such an aspect would help destination management organizations (DMOs) in refining their marketing strategies and in improving their destination's competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThrough an extensive review of literature in areas pertinent to the phenomenon being investigated, this article puts forward a series of propositions, which are then used in the framework entailing the proposed construct of destination stereotypes (DS).FindingsWhile identifying an overlap in concepts pertaining to the fields of marketing and tourism, this study postulates that DS facilitate the extension of a destination's dominant impressions to that of another based on various parameters. It further discusses several courses through which impressions of a particular destination are extended to that of another, thereby putting forward DS as a missing link in tourists' reception of destinations.Practical implicationsDS as a construct helps in identifying the source of an impression which may not be the destination in question but instead another destination. Upon construct validity, the proposed framework would yield insights into other competing destinations and thereby effectively help in altering the extant DI.Originality/valueWhile there have been many studies on tourist stereotypes and DI, it is amongst the first few studies to have discussed stereotypes in the context of destinations and their image, especially with an emphasis on cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Therefore, it acts as a meaningful piece of work towards the progression of the DI literature.

Mapping of Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights themes: a retrospective overview

“…A total of 1,178 keywords were used between 2018 and 2022 by the authors in JHTI to compose their research articles. For instance, previous studies published in JHTI have addressed medical tourism (Ediansyah et al ., 2022), Covid-19 (Khawaja et al ., 2022; Shukla et al ., 2022; Şengel et al ., 2023), satisfaction (Feng et al ., 2021; Genc and Gulertekin Genc, 2022), trust (Boğan and Dedeoğlu, 2019; Ahn and Kwon, 2020), motivation (Shi et al ., 2019; Omo-Obas and Anning-Dorson, 2022), attitude (Wan et al ., 2022), perceived value (Duong et al ., 2022) behavioural intention (Çelik and Dedeoğlu, 2019), social media (Ampountolas et al ., 2019), destination marketing (Nakayama, 2022), destination image (Karri and Dogra, 2022; Uner et al ., 2022) and authenticity (Genc and Gulertekin Genc, 2022). In the meantime, Pang and Zhang (2019) argue that keywords appearing over four times reflect the overall scope well.…”

“…Cluster 4 (Blue) – The documents included in the collection related to destination image (Jeannie Hahm and Tasci, 2020; Valduga et al , 2020; Karri and Dogra, 2022), tourism destination (McLeod, 2020; Moradi et al , 2022b) and affective image (Ferreira and Giraldi, 2020; Uner et al , 2022).…”

Empirical Analysis of Destination Image Through Tiktok Video Comments

“…). Organic attributes refer to information or perceptions formed without being influenced by marketing efforts (Crompton, 1979;Karri & Dogra, 2023). With technological advances, these attributes can come from online reviews (Song et al, 2021), travel blogs (Gholamhosseinzadeh, Chapuis, & Lehu, 2023), and social media content (Lam et al, 2020) created by tourists.…”

Antecedents influence choosing tourism destination post-COVID-19: young people case

“…The way a destination looks and how it looks affects the choice of destination, but the layout and distance between nearby destinations are not fully explained. This lets travel agencies focus on improving the destination's image and natural beauty so they can be more competitive (Karri and Dogra, 2022). Since advertising will affect the number of tourists who visit a destination (Uner et al , 2022), tourism officials should tailor their strategies in international advertising for different countries and audiences because they may have different perceptions of a destination.…”