Abstract
Destination image and city branding are accumulating a growing body of knowledge in urban studies and tourism literature. Although several visitor destination image models have been proposed, the most prevalent in Asia remains the comprehensive destination image model. This is the first research to test the applicability of this model beyond the United States and with international (rather than domestic) visitors. Jakarta is chosen as the geographical test area for this study, which incorporates structural equation modeling on a data sample of international leisure visitors in Jakarta. The findings indicate that the destination image model could be generalized beyond the US and applied to Jakarta. This study finds that tourism policymakers in Jakarta should focus on promoting the friendliness of local residents and improving the city’s cleanliness, as these are the two most positive and negative perceptions. Overall, this study showed that a unique destination image—a largely under-researched topic in place branding—is a variable that should be considered when formulating the overall place image of city destinations around the world.
Highlights
Place branding has been applied to the promotion of nations, with a growing trend toward the more specific branding of urban destinations
The highest number of respondents originated from the Netherlands (80), representing 25% of the sample, which may be due in part to the historical links between Indonesia and the Netherlands
A competing model was analyzed and the results showed that the relationships between cognitive image and intention to recommend as well as the intention to revisit were significant (Figure 3)
Summary
Place branding has been applied to the promotion of nations, with a growing trend toward the more specific branding of urban destinations. Nation and city branding are anchored in similar processes, albeit at different levels of governance [1,2,3,4]. This research uses destination branding to encapsulate these processes at differing levels, including cities. Regardless, destination branding can be reduced to the concepts invoked in people’s minds when branding principles are applied to a place [8]. These associations can be modified to develop new and more desirable destination images. Scholars have developed and tested several models, items, and scales to analyze destination branding, with much of this focusing on cities [9,10].
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