engleski

Tourism Destination Image Formation - The Case of Dubrovnik, Croatia

Competitiveness in the tourism industry has been increasingly demanding, implying competitiveness, not only between geographically close countries, but also between regions and even at the global level. A large number of existing and new destinations are competing for tourists in order to enhance their results, with destination image being one of the key sources of competitive advantage. When planning destination development, an emphasis must be placed on the formation of a positive image of the destination for targeted markets, in order to achieve a competitive edge over competing destinations. This paper analyzes elements that influence destination’s image. Research context is the city of Dubrovnik as a tourism destination. The objective of this research is to test a model of antecedents and consequences of tourism destination’s image. Empirical research was employed using a survey on a sample of 355 randomly-chosen tourists visiting Dubrovnik. The results indicate a lack of importance of an image as a deciding factor in the creation of tourism policies for the tourism destination, which could have negative implications on competitive tourism markets in the long run. For this reason, the paper also shows the need for further and continuous research on determining factors that could have an affect on the formation of a positive image for the Dubrovnik as a tourism destination.

image; tourism destination; path analysis; Dubrovnik

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