Measuring the gap between projected and perceived destination images of Catalonia using compositional analysis

Abstract

Tourist destination image (TDI) is considered crucial when planning a trip. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology to analyse and measure the (in)congruity or gap between the two sides of the TDI (supply-side projected vs. demand-side perceived) based on the difference between proportions of appearance. This method is applied to an outstanding Mediterranean destination, Catalonia, based on three different information sources: induced (Catalan Tourist Board dossier), autonomous (Lonely Planet travel guide), and organic (UGC: user-generated content). UGC consists of a random sample of 80,000 online travel reviews written in English by tourists who visited Catalonia during 2015. Our findings emphasize discrepancies in three aspects of the TDI, namely spatial, cognitive and affective image. The measurement of the gap between these TDI components shows that organic images (perceived) are significantly different from autonomous and induced images (projected), and that, the last two resemble one another much more.