A Study on Country Images, Destination Beliefs and Travel Intentions: A Structural Equation Model Approach
: Lindblom Arto, Lindblom Taru, Lehtonen Miikka, Wechtler Heidi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
: 2018
: International Journal of Tourism Research
: 20
: 1
: 1
: 10
: 10
: 1099-2340
: 1522-1970
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2148
: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jtr.2148/full
This study explores how individuals' cognitive and affective country images influence destination beliefs, and how these beliefs are associated with individuals' travel intentions. With the product country image and tourism destination image literature, we develop four hypotheses that are tested using structural equation modeling. We use a sample of 605 Japanese respondents. Our results indicate that the cognitive country image is positively associated with the affective country image. The findings suggest that both the affective and cognitive country images are positively related to the destination beliefs, and the destination beliefs are positively associated with the travel intentions.