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| THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING ON DESTINATION IMAGE RESOURCE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT |
| LI Xiang, HUANG Zhen-fang |
| Tourism Department, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China |
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Abstract With a literature review on some widely-used definitions of tourism resources, the authors conclude that most of these definitions are confined within the physical beings, while other important qualities such as reputation, atmosphere, atc. are ignored. Can these abstract characteristics also become a part of the resources? With the development of the society, can our definition and understanding of the resources also incorporate some new factors? The authors try to give an answer. Destination image is widely accepted as one of the most effective destination marketing tools. It is estimated that the future destination marketing competition will mostly be carried out on an overall level, rather than single entities like hotels, parks or historic sites. After a discussion on the definition and formation system of the destination image, the authors put forward a new concept of estination image resource. In this paper, destination image resource is practically defined as the attraction to tourists based on the image of a destination. For a tourist product, which offers a period of experience as its core interest, destination image plays an important role in communicating the core interest to travelers. A positive image itself can create an attraction power and shall hence be considered as an unseparatable part of the resource. According to the roduct hierarchy theory, an image can be understood as the augmented part to the actual resources, which has been a new marketing concern. On the other hand, destination image(e.g. the reputation of a destination) may meet the psychological needs of travelers, and provide a sense of satisfaction from a mental and social perspective. Different from the traditional methods of tourism resource development, image resources development is a marketing-oriented practice. The authors suggest that image measurement, image projection, image building should be incorporated into the development process. The study of the image of one destination is supposed to take the specific social and cultural background into consideration. A table of ethods used in destination image communication is provided based on the authors' years of industry experiences. The authors maintain that image communications can be classified as eneral communication and vent communication. The former mainly refers to different promotion materials, while the later refers to different kinds of festivals and events. As a conclusion, the destination planner should fully utilize image as a part of tourism resources.
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Received: 16 October 2000
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2002, Vol. 17 
