Framing Tourism Destination Image: Extension of Stereotypes in and by Travel Media

Abstract

While the important relationship between media and tourism has long been recognized in general (Beeton, Croy and Frost, 2006; UNWTO, 2009), less is known about the specific role media play in the creation of destination image. Besides tourism motivation, destination image is one of the most extensively researched areas in tourism studies. However, most image studies focus on tourists’ perceptions of destinations, despite the fact that it has been established that a destination’s image is formed through many agents (Gartner, 1993). To create a distinguishable, uniform and favorable image of a destination, for example, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) must collaborate widely with media (Beerli and Martin, 2004). Within tourism studies, mass media tend to be considered as examples of brokers of tourism (Miller and Auyong, 1998). Brokers are defined as those who ‘receive monetary remuneration for an involvement with tourism production’ (Cheong and Miller, 2000, p. 379), and they are important for the success of a tourism program (Cheong and Miller, 2000).