Destination Personality, Destination Image, and Intent to Recommend: The Role of Gender, Age, Cultural Background, and Prior Experiences

• Main Authors: WooHyuk Kim, Kristin Malek, NamJo Kim, SeungHyun “James” Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-12-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: destination; personality; image; intent to recommend; Gangnam; age; culture; district area
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/1/87

When tourists chose destinations, they usually select locations that satisfy the subjective criteria of their requirements. The purpose of this study was to delineate those criteria by analyzing the interrelationships among destination personality, image, and intent to recommend while examining the effects of gender, age, cultural background, and prior tourist experience. The data were collected from a major tourism destination in South Korea. A total of 316 usable surveys were analyzed using structural analysis. The results show that three of the four factors for destination personality significantly affected destination image. In turn, destination image influenced intent to recommend. Subsequent tests for metric invariances showed differences in the moderating role of cultural background, gender, age, and prior experience.