Exploring Factors that Affect Destination Brand in the Tourism Industry

Abstract

The tourism industry has gained attention by being the most feasible and sustainable area of economic development and also earnings of foreign currency (http://www2.unwto.org). Destination brand as a feature of national identity has received attention with a strategy of building a unique and differentiated identity for a given destination (Morrison & Anderson, 2002). The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of different perceptions, intentions, satisfaction, loyalty, and brand equity in the tourism industry. In particular, this study measures the relationships of i) functional, experiential, and symbolic perception to attitude, ii) travelers’ attitude to satisfaction and intention to visit, iii) satisfaction level of travelers’ to loyalty, iv) loyalty to destination brand equity, and v) intention to visit to destination brand equity. This study was performed with an online survey and applied statistical analysis methods such as factor analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses. This study provides both theoretical and managerial implication for the tourism industry.