Affective Images of Tourism Destinations

Abstract

The destination image and positioning studies in tourism have been limited to those dealing with the image's perceptual or cognitive component. This study examined the applicability of Russel and his colleagues' proposed affective space structure to large-scale environments (i.e., tourism destination countries) as well as its potential as a positioning structure to study affective images of tourism destinations. The multidimensional scaling analysis of 11 Mediterranean countries along with proposed affective space structure indicated that Russel and his colleagues' proposed affective space can also be applied to places that are not perceived directly. It also showed potential for studying the affective image positioning of tourism destinations. The article concludes with some theoretical and practical implications and future research areas regarding tourism destination images.