engleski

Destination Image: Differences between Various Tourists Segments

Due to high competition on tourism market is has become crucial for destinations to be perceived as areas with positive image. In order to achieve better position on tourism market, destinations must find a way to fulfil special tourists’ needs better than others and also to be aware of importance of researching various tourist segments. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the existence of differences between various tourist segments in a perception of destination image based on satisfaction with cognitive and affective dimensions of image and to define the profile of each segment. The empirical research was conducted using highly structured questionnaire on a sample of 600 tourists in a period of April to October 2016 in the City of Dubrovnik, Croatia resulting in 547 correctly fulfilled questionnaires. In order to achieve the main purpose of the paper descriptive and inferential statistics together with latent class model have been applied. The main aim of LC analysis is to define the smallest number of classes that are appropriate to explain the associations observed among the manifest variables. To define the number of dimensions, several LC factors models were estimated. According to the p-values, L2 and BIC index and considering the amount among observed variables, the eight-factor and eight-factor models were selected. The results indicate an existence of eight clusters with different level of satisfaction with cognitive and affective dimensions of image. The results can be useful for local tourism policy makers in a process of developing marketing strategies and local entrepreneurs, in creation of local offerings.

destination image ; segmentation ; tourists ; Latent Class ; City of Dubrovnik.

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