How Country Image Affects Tourists’ Destination Evaluations: A Moderated Mediation Approach

Abstract

Limited tourism research has as yet drawn attention to the differences and interactions between country image and destination image. Therefore, this research explored the relationships among country image, destination image, familiarity, and destination evaluation. Based on an empirical study of international tourists in Beijing, China, a model was proposed covering these four variables. Country image mainly affected international tourists’ evaluations of China as a destination in a conditional indirect way, mediated by destination image and especially by psychological image, and moderated by familiarity. Moreover, familiarity directly and positively influenced functional destination image and negatively moderated the relationship between country and psychological destination images.