Destination brand image and destination brand choice in the context of health crisis: Scale development

Abstract

Several recent destination crises have brought difficult challenges to the world’s travel, hospitality, and tourism activities. We explore how the brand image of a tourist destination is influenced by health crises, specifically within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted interviews and online data collection in China. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to develop, purify, and verify scale items that measure perceived destination brand image, destination brand self-congruence, destination brand engagement, destination brand love, and perceived risk of destination health crisis. We identified key associations among the constructs of the study. This study offers a tested and validated destination brand image and tourist behavior (DBITB) scale to understand tourist behavior toward destination brands during and after health crises. Important theoretical and practical implications are discussed to inform future research on destination branding.