Destination stereotypes: a phenomenon of destination image

Abstract

Purpose

Despite 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/approach

Through 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).

Findings

While 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 implications

DS 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/value

While 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.

Citation

Karri, V.R.S. and Dogra, J. (2023), "Destination stereotypes: a phenomenon of destination image", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 1290-1308. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-03-2022-0111