An Assessment of the Image of Mexico as a Vacation Destination and the Influence of Geographical Location Upon That Image

A sample of 617 student respondents was drawn from 12 universities, in different parts of the United States. Semantic differential instruments were used to measure respondents' descriptive and importance dimensions of thei.- image of Mexico. The analysis indicated major differences between the two image dimensions. Those image attributes which respondents considered to be important when considering a vacation in Mexico were related primarily to sanitation and safety. The most positive attributes respondents reported about Mexico related to climate and low costs. Measurement of respondents' descriptive image of Mexico indicated that the farther away respondents resided from Mexico, the more favorable was their image of that country as a vacation destination. Analysis indicated that the regional differences were not significant. However, significant differences were found on 12 of the 30 individual attributes which were used to measure image.