Tourism destination images of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy as perceived by US-based tour operators and travel agents

Abstract This study emphasized the importance of travel intermediaries’ images for international travel destinations, and examined structured (scale items) and unstructured (open-ended) images of selected Mediterranean destinations (Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy) as perceived by US-based travel intermediaries. The results found significant differences in images of tour operators/travel agents promoting these destinations and those not promoting. The findings indicated that tour operators and travel agents promoting these destinations have differentiated images of the four destinations. The structured and unstructured images helped identify common and unique characteristics as well as strengths and weaknesses of the four tourist destination countries. The results provided important implications and directions for the governments and tourism authorities of Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy for developing a marketing strategy targeting distribution channel members.

[1]  D. Brinberg,et al.  Affective Images of Tourism Destinations , 1997 .

[2]  J. Russell.  A circumplex model of affect. , 1980 .

[3]  Joseph T. O'Leary,et al.  Communication channels to segment pleasure travelers. , 1994 .

[4]  J. N. Goodrich,et al.  The Relationship Between Preferences for and Perceptions of Vacation Destinations: Application of a Choice Model , 1978 .

[5]  David Gilbert,et al.  Tour operators and destination sustainability. , 1997 .

[6]  S. Wiseman,et al.  Education and Environment , 1965 .

[7]  A. Woodside,et al.  A General Model Of Traveler Destination Choice , 1989 .

[8]  I. Altman,et al.  Handbook of environmental psychology , 1987 .

[9]  Brian E. Niven,et al.  Measuring tourists' destination perceptions , 1994 .

[10]  S. Page,et al.  Evaluating travel agents' provision of health advice to travellers , 1997 .

[11]  F. Buttle,et al.  A Repertory Grid Analysis Of Austria's Image As A Summer Vacation Destination , 1989 .

[12]  Michael D. Reilly.  Free Elicitation Of Descriptive Adjectives For Tourism Image Assessment , 1990 .

[13]  C. A. Gunn.  Vacationscape;: Designing tourist regions , 1972 .

[14]  Daniel R. Fesenmaier,et al.  Communication and Channel Systems in Tourism Marketing , 1994 .

[15]  Gwen Dianne Reimer,et al.  Packaging dreams: Canadian tour operators at work , 1990 .

[16]  William C. Gartner,et al.  Tour operators' role in the tourism distribution system: an Indonesian case study. , 1994 .

[17]  J. Crompton,et al.  Attitude determinants in tourism destination choice , 1990 .

[18]  R. McLellan,et al.  Negative Images of the United States as Expressed by Tour Operators From Other Countries , 1983 .

[19]  Seyhmus Baloglu,et al.  The relationship between destination images and sociodemographic and trip characteristics of international travellers , 1997 .

[20]  William C. Gartner,et al.  Tourism Image: Attribute Measurement of State Tourism Products Using Multidimensional Scaling Techniques , 1989 .

[21]  Andrew M. Chan,et al.  A qualitative and quantitative assessment of Hong Kong’s image as a tourist destination , 1999 .

[22]  R. Gitelson,et al.  The Planning Horizons and Sources of Information Used by Pleasure Vacationers , 1983 .

[23]  M. Paxson.  Increasing survey response rates: Practical instructions from the total-design method , 1995 .

[24]  Daniel R. Fesenmaier,et al.  Recent Advances in Tourism Marketing Research , 1996 .

[25]  D. Walmsley,et al.  Appraisive images of tourist areas: application of personal constructs. , 1993 .

[26]  A. Morrison,et al.  The Tourism System , 2002 .

[27]  Charlotte M. Echtner,et al.  The Measurement of Destination Image: An Empirical Assessment , 1993 .

[28]  Mary Jo Bitner,et al.  Trends in Travel and Tourism Marketing : The Changing Structure of Distribution Channels , 1982 .

[29]  A. Pizam,et al.  The Role of Awareness and Familiarity with a Destination: The Central Florida Case , 1995 .

[30]  A. Haahti.  Finland's competitive position as a destination. , 1986 .

[31]  D. Snepenger,et al.  Information Search Strategies B y Destination-Naive Tourists , 1990 .

[32]  W. Roehl.  Travel Agent Attitudes Toward China After Tiananmen Square , 1990 .

[33]  R. N. Maddox.  Measuring Satisfiaction with Tourism , 1985 .