Image, satisfaction, destination and product post-visit behaviours: How do they relate in emerging destinations?

Abstract

This study proposes a conceptual model that sheds light on how the destination image of emerging tourist destinations relates to tourism satisfaction and intention to subsequently recommend the place and purchase its products. Destination image is studied through three components – cognitive, affective, and unique. Unique image has been overlooked in previous research and few studies focus on its measurement. This study uses a new method of measuring it through text-mining of user-generated blog posts. Findings from a sample of 314 foreign visitors to Sofia, Bulgaria, reveal that the affective image influences tourist satisfaction and post-visit behaviour; the cognitive component has a significant effect on all the constructs, except for tourist satisfaction, whereas unique image only influences the intention to recommend and purchase destination country products. Joining together two streams of research, this study also argues that the intention to recommend a destination spot influences the intention to buy its products. • The study analyses how the destination image relates to satisfaction and intention to recommend the place and its products. • A conceptual model is proposed which adds key variables and relationships to already tested frameworks. • Besides the cognitive and affective components of destination image, unique image is incorporated in the model. • The image components of emerging destinations have different effects on the model evaluative and behavioural variables.