Tourism Destination Image and Motivations: The Spanish Perspective of Mexico (2010),

Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, Volume 27 Issue 4, 3491

Franco Sancho Esper and Jorge Álvarez Rateike

Introduction

Nowadays the economic benefits related to tourism are the subject of extensive research. The

importance of tourism as a generator of development, because attracting visitors to a region produces

more incomes for its population, employment, and a major inflow of currency for the government that

can be used to finance development projects. In this line, the concept of tourist destinations image has

become a very relevant topic of research, since great part of tourists are attracted by specific

destinations. The perceptions that a tourist have of certain destination is clearly conditioned by the

vision they have of it, and this is because the behaviour of each consumer is the result of his

perceptions. For this reason, a favourable decision for choosing a tourist destination depends on how

positive that image is. Moreover, the tourist destination has been considered, from a psychological

point of view, as a mental construction, which is based on the process of evaluating information; this

information comes from various sources, whose main context is the destination itself.

Conclusions and managerial implications

The current investigation has focused on analysing the destination image that Spanish tourists have of

Mexico. The revised model is mainly based on the one proposed by Baloglu and McCleary (1999).

The adaptation of this model tries to explain the existing relationship between the cognitive and

affective component in the formation of the global image of the destination and the influence of the

cognitive component over the affective component. In the proposed model, other variables such as

motivations and the socio-demographic variables level of education and age are incorporated, which

could influence the components that form the images of the destination.

The results reveal that the tourists’ motivations have a direct effect on the cognitive evaluation

and the global image; however, they do not directly influence the affective evaluation. The cognitive

evaluation in turn, does not have a direct effect on the global image, but it is mediated by the affective

evaluation. The affective component has a direct and significant effect on the global image. This

highlights the importance that they have, not only the physical attributes which a destination counts

on, but also the psychological and emotional elements when developing a more detailed global image.

This is seen because both components, as mentioned before, complement each other. For this reason, it

is necessary not only that a destination relies on its necessary infrastructures to offer something eye-                                                                                                                          1 For more detail about techniques and data visit: Link: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t792306980~db=all

 

catching to the consumer, but also, that projects a suitable image: a real, coherent image that is easy to

be interpreted by the consumer; which will make it be seen in a positive light in the consumer’s mind

and will perceive it as much more competitive than others. On the other hand, the statement of direct

influence on the cognitive component on the affective component is clear in the current analysis. As a

result the consumer’s valued responses (affective image) depends on his knowledge of the objects

(cognitive image). Taking this into consideration, it is possible to say that the importance of the

emotional component of the image is such, that the dimension can exert a greater influence on the

tourist’s behaviour than the elements that form the cognitive component of the image.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that the studied socio-demographic variables (age and

level of education) showed to have a slight degree of relation to the proposed model, especially to the

level of education of the surveyed tourists, so it was this variable that had a greater influence in the

cognitive evaluation.

It is to be emphasized that this type of investigation are furthers step to understand of the

strengths and weaknesses that a specific destination can have in the minds of the consumers in its

target market. These studies contribute to identify if the image projected by the destination, is the

image that really is being processed and understood by the consumer. If they do not agree, it would be

necessary to propose a new communication and promotion strategy of the destination.

The relationship between the cognitive and affective found in this investigation, suggests that

when promoting tourist destinations is not only necessary to concentrate on their physical and tangible

attributes, but also incorporate intangible and affective elements such as emotions, experiences that a

tourist could have when visiting the destination, and by doing so, a destination will be complete and

more differentiated in the eyes of the consumers.

The motivations of the tourists, which were analysed in this investigation, must be taken into

account when promoting the destination and dividing the target market, because these are of great

importance when selecting a destination, as they are the ones that drive people to travel.

It is also essential to note that when promoting tourist destinations, the consumers with different

socio-demographic characteristics, motivations, cultural levels, etc. have to be taken into account;

given that not everyone has the same perceptions, and hence the promotion and communication

strategies of the destination, must be approached differently for each type of segment of consumers.

Finally, it is necessary to stress the importance of the development of this topic, especially in

countries which are eminently tourism-focused like Mexico. Investing in subjects of research and

development in the sector, will have positive repercussions on the regions where they are generated;

which will allow a greater economic and human development.