Abstract
Abstract Although destination image is one of the most studied topics in tourism literature, little is known about how it is formed in the minds of people and how destination image evolves through destination life cycle stages. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical approach to the destination image formation process. In this conceptual paper, the co-created destination image (CoDI) approach was introduced. Co-creation and tourism area life cycle (TALC) approaches were used as the theoretical frameworks. The main elements of CoDI are interaction value, self-regulated image, and the co-creation process. Twelve CoDIs were developed for the four main stages of the TALC model—namely, exploration, development, stagnation, and decline. The CoDI approach shows that destination image formation evolves throughout the destination life cycle. Co-creation of the destination image is first introduced in this paper, which is used to explain how the image of destinations evolves.
Highlights
Destination image (DI) is one of the most studied subjects in destination management literature
The role of different information sources—for example, induced, autonomous, and organic sources—in the destination image formation process has attracted many researchers (e.g., Beerli & Martin, 2004; Baloglu & McCleary, 1999; Gartner, 1994; Hanlan & Kelly, 2005; Lee, Busser, & Yang, 2015; Yacout & Hefny, 2015). These studies shed light on our body of knowledge about the image formation process, their impacts on destination image formation are limited due to the contradictory findings reported in such studies (Yilmaz & Yilmaz, 2020) and their insufficient theoretical basis in explaining how these sources affect destination image formation. Another point to note is that destinations are different because they offer different products and because they may be in different life cycle stage (Andergassen, Candela, & Figini, 2013)
This study aims to provide a theoretical perspective to answer the following questions: What is the role of co-creation in the destination image formation process? And, why do images of the destinations in different stages occur in different ways? In this paper, a new theoretical approach named ‘Co-created Destination Image (CoDI)’ is introduced to explain the destination image formation process, which is grounded and based on the co-creation approach and tourism area life cycle (TALC) theory
Summary
Destination image (DI) is one of the most studied subjects in destination management literature. The affective and cognitive dimensions of images are the tools that are used to understand the image of a destination, with all its tangible and intangible features (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999; Beerli & Martin, 2004; Echtner & Ritchie, 1991; Gartner, 1994). Two destinations that offer similar products, for instance, 3S (sea, sand, and sun), may have different images due to their development level, as one might be a mature destination and the other might be an emerging destination in the market Their image formation processes follow different paths.
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