Strategic positioning of tourist destinations- analyzing the role of perceived meaningfulness

Title

Strategic positioning of tourist destinations- analyzing the role of perceived meaningfulness

Creator

Rejikumar G.; Ajitha A.A.; Jose A.; Mathew S.

Description

This study analyzed the cognitive and affective components of destination image in the perception of foreign tourists visiting Indian destinations by exploring conceptual constructs, namely Post-visit Destination Image and Perceived Meaningfulness. The exploratory factor analysis of the responses of foreign tourists (n = 242) on items related to the major constructs significant in tourist behavior such as destination quality, perceived meaningfulness, and post-visit destination image confirmed the existence of multi-dimensional structure. Additionally, the empirical validation of the theoretical framework developed on the tenents of stimulus-organism-response paradigm with the constructs using structural equation modeling established significant relationships helpful to understand many new travel motivations. The study established that perceived meaningfulness has a significant mediating role in predicting tourist referral/revisit intentions from positive perceptions about destination quality and post-visit destination image. The observations from the study helped to identify six types of travel motivations useful in developing niche markets for positioning Indian destinations. The identified travel motivations, namely physical meaningfulness seeking, eternal meaningfulness seeking, social meaningfulness seeking, nature-loving, hospitality appreciating, and uniqueness exploring, offer directions to destination marketers to revamp destination attributes for destination marketing. 2021 The Authors

Source

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Vol-49, pp. 140-151.

Date

2021-01-01

Publisher

Elsevier Ltd

Subject

Destination quality; Niche markets; Perceived meaningfulness; Positioning; Post-visit destination image; Travel motivation

Coverage

Rejikumar G., Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, India; Ajitha A.A., Indian Institute of Management Amritsar, Amritsar, India; Jose A., Department of Professional Studies, Christ University, Bangalore, India; Mathew S., School of Business and Management, Christ University, Bangalore, India

Rights

Restricted Access

Relation

ISSN: 14476770

Format

Online

Language

English

Type

Article

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.08.025

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85114810668&doi=10.1016%2fj.jhtm.2021.08.025&partnerID=40&md5=b8c6669d27608dbe680910d54efef1bf