Table 1.

Highlighted definitions of destination image

Author(s)Definition
Hunt (1975)Impressions that a person or persons hold about a state in which they do not reside
Lawson and Bond-Bovy (1977) An expression of knowledge, impressions, prejudice, imaginations and emotional thoughts an individual has of a specific object or place
Crompton (1979) The sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person has of a destination
Assael (1984) Total perception of the destination that is formed by processing information from various sources over time
Moutinho (1987) An individual’s attitude toward the destination attributes based on their knowledge and feelings
Echtner and Ritchie (1991) The perceptions of individual destination attributes and the holistic impression made by the destination
Kotler et al. (1994) The image of a place is the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions that a person holds of it.
Baloglu and McCleary (1999) An individual’s mental representation of knowledge, feelings and global impressions about a destination
Murphy et al. (2000) A sum of associations and pieces of information connected to a destination, which would include multiple components of the destination and personal perception
Tapachai and Waryszak (2000) Perceptions or impressions of a destination held by tourists with respect to the expected benefit or consumption values
Bigné et al. (2001) The subjective interpretation of reality made by the tourist
Kim and Richardson (2003) A totality of impressions, beliefs, ideas, expectations and feelings accumulated toward a place over time
Bigné et al. (2009) It consists of all that the destination evokes in the individual; any idea, belief, feeling or attitude that tourists associate with the place.
Matos et al. (2012) Image is a set of complex mental impressions and total feelings that a potential tourist holds of a product, place or tourism destination.
Lai and Li (2016) A voluntary, multisensory, primarily picture-like, qualia-arousing, conscious and quasi-perceptual mental (i.e. private, nonspatial and intentional) experience held by tourists about a destination. This experience overlaps and/or parallels the other mental experiences of tourists, including their sensation, perception, mental representation, cognitive map, consciousness, memory and attitude of the destination

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