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Top2. Literature Review
Promoting tourist destination image is important as Ahmed (1996), stated that the image of a tourist destination is the sum of ideas, perception, impressions, expectations and beliefs that a tourist has about a determination destination. Tourist promotion plays an important role in boosting the competitive advantage of one tourist destination over another. Only possessing outstanding tourism resources are not enough to attract the optimal number of tourists to a tourist destination. Tourists’ image of destination and the attitude of tourists toward that destination seem to be two of the most important factors liable for this variation. That is why the assertiveness and pro-activeness of the promotion campaign launched by tourist destinations has added a new dimension to competitiveness and has resulted in enhancing numbers of image.
The most direct link between a positive destination image and economic growth is tourism. Being an own marketing discipline, it is commonly recognized that nations can appeal to tourists by managing their images. Correspondingly, there is proof that places with negative images have difficulty in attracting tourists. The second important benefit of a positive nation image mentioned in the literature is the ‘halo-effect’ or country-of-origin effect. (Stock, 2009).
Foreign tourists perceived favorable destination image, they are more willing to disperse positive recommendations as well as to experience repeated visitations in the future. The term attraction means tourist destination is perceived to be offering an adventurous and fascinating destination, with couple of places of interest to visit that contain its architecture, impressive scenery, unique customs and culture. The factor labeled as amenities and activities reflect tourists’ perception that tourist destination has first class inns, hotels and restaurants while provide opportunities to learn new things from the organized festival and celebrations, ceremonies and its historical places. Heritage attraction refers to the local architectural styles and foods, while nature attraction means for good beaches. (Mohamad et al., 2012)
Dore et al., 2003 contended that promoting tourist destination and image can be undertaken through various media such as consumer advertising, personal selling, publicity and public relations, direct marketing and sales promotion partnership. Tourism industries are widely utilizing websites, internet and communication technology since those methods have an advantage to bypass the intermediaries e.g., travel agents. However, initially, the tourism industries were slow to adopt internet technology. (Hudson et al., 2002).