Title: Images of Italy, France and Morocco as tourist destinations

Authors: Abdullah Okumus, Bahar Yasin

Addresses: Faculty of Business Administration, Istanbul University, Avcilar Campus, 34320, Avcilar, Istanbul, Turkey. ' Faculty of Business Administration, Istanbul University, Avcilar Campus, 34320, Avcilar, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: For a geographic area to become successful as a tourist destination, it is crucially important to recognise the tourist destination|s perceived images since they effect the individual|s subjective perception and consequent behaviour and destination choice. This importance has led to a growing body of research on tourism destination image. In this research, image differences of three competing Mediterranean destinations – Italy, France and Morocco – were examined in terms of how they are perceived by university students. Research data were analysed by stepwise discriminant analysis. According to research results it was found that perceived images of the three destinations are significantly different. Also, results showed that, potential customers for Italy, France and Morocco destinations could be predicted by using a discriminant function.

Keywords: tourism marketing; destination images; cognitive images; affective images; discriminant analysis; Italy; France; Morocco; tourist destinations; university students.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTP.2009.028716

International Journal of Tourism Policy, 2009 Vol.2 No.4, pp.306 - 318

Published online: 25 Sep 2009 *

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