"She is sophisticated, he is exciting”: Applying Aaker’s brand personality on archaeological tourism destinations

Abstract

The motivations to visit archaeological tourism destinations vary, ranging from history enthusiast, leisure lover, adventurer to conservationist. However, not all archaeological sites are able to capture the tourists’ attention since there are many other famous archaeological sites competing against one another. Thus, developing a strong and unique brand identity for a destination is significantly important in order to be distinctive from other destinations. Hence, this present study aims to examine the dimensions of brand personality of archaeological sites in Malaysia and to evaluate its prediction on tourists’ revisit intention. This study employs exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression to analyze the data collected from Bujang Valley (305) and Lenggong Valley World Heritage Site (300). Findings indicate that tourists ascribe different personality dimensions to these archaeological sites. The brand personality of Bujang Valley is translated to sophistication, sincerity, contemporary, ruggedness, and excitement, while the brand personality of Lenggong Valley World Heritage Site is translated to excitement, contemporary, sophistication, ruggedness, and sincerity. The results from this present study further enriches the tourism literature and provides noteworthy solutions for destination marketing organizations in utilizing brand personality to build a unique identity for these archaeological sites in Malaysia.