Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics on their perception of destination personality and emotional experience on the example of the city break tourism destination. Design/methodology/approach To examine this relationship, survey research was conducted on a sample of 203 national and international tourists who visited Novi Sad, the second-largest city in Serbia. Findings Research results confirmed the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in shaping their emotional experience and destination personality perception. The findings pointed out significant divergences in the perception of emotional experience in the case of respondents’ education level, previous visits to the city and travel companion. On the other hand, the analysis showed that repeat visitors significantly differed from first-time visitors regarding destination personality perception. In addition, differences in both destination personality and emotional experience assessment were found between national and international city break travelers. Originality/value The current study is first to focus on the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in simultaneous modeling of their perception of destination personality and emotional experience within the city break destination context. Besides, results revealed some new influencing factors of both destination personality and emotional experience perception, thus contributing to the existing tourism literature. In addition, this paper offers useful practical implications for city break marketers to adapt promotional activities, more effectively present the desired brand personality of the city to different sociodemographic categories of tourists and sustain repeat tourists’ perception of Positive surprise.

The main aim of the paper is to determine if there is a difference in image and brand personality perception of the Roman heritage sites in Serbia between tourism stakeholders and tourists who have visited those sites. The initial assumption was that stakeholders in tourism have a more realistic perception of the current destination brand and image and that they are more aware of advantages and disadvantages related to the development of the analyzed Roman sites. To achieve the main aim of the study, the research has been done in two phases. The first phase included the survey done on the sample of 502 tourists who have visited some of the Roman sites in Serbia, while the second phase included an interview with 10 tourist stakeholders. The results show that tourism stakeholders have a more positive perception of both cognitive and affective image, with a special emphasis on affective image where the differences are quite large. In addition, the results indicate that tourists and tourist stakeholders equally perceive the analyzed Roman sites as Exciting. On contrary, tourist stakeholders have a better perception of all other dimensions of the brand personality, with the biggest difference being noticed in the perception of Ruggedness and Competence. Further differences will be discussed in the paper.

PurposeThe primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on support for the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project development of residents’ perception of the project’s sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust.Design/methodology/approachSurvey research was conducted among 303 residents of Novi Sad, which has been selected to be the ECoC for the year 2022.FindingsThe findings confirmed the positive roles of three aspects of the event’s sustainability and three facets of emotional solidarity in shaping local people’s support for the ECoC event development. Besides, findings show the positive effect of residents’ community attachment and ECoC brand trust in predicting their supportive attitudes for the event development. Finally, results highlight which areas of the event’s sustainability are still unsatisfactory from the residents’ perspective, making it easier for event practitioners to optimally focus their attention and resources on enhancing problematic areas of the event’s sustainability.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to existing tourism literature as it is the first to explore the role local people’s perception of event sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust plays in their support for the ECoC event development. In addition, a unique contribution lies in the confirmation of brand trust as a significant antecedent of residents’ support, as this relationship remained an unexplored area in tourism literature. Practical implications, specifically derived for ECoC event practitioners, which should also find their place in securing residents’ support toward the development of any cultural event that attracts visitors, are discussed in the paper.

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Nowadays, the research focus is mainly on how tourists perceive the destination image, while the local community, as a very important key actor, is very often neglected in the studies. In light of the fact that Novi Sad has been declared the European Capital of Culture 2021, great attention has been placed on the local community and its perception of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) influence on all aspects of the city's life, including city image. In this regard, during April and May 2018, a survey of residents of Novi Sad was conducted to explore their perception of the city's image - cognitive, affective, and overall. Moreover, the paper is focused on identifying the differences in the image perception on the basis of the respondents' socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, which is the beginning of a longitudinal study aiming to follow the influence of the ECoC project on the city image, a total of 797 respondents participated. The results of the research on the cognitive image indicate that the local community mostly agrees with the claims that Novi Sad is a pleasant place to live in, that it has a good gastronomic offer, is an attractive place for education, and that people are kind and hospitable. On the other hand, the smallest degree of agreement is observed with claims which refer to the living standard in the city. When it comes to tourism and culture, significant differences are observed between individual attributes. Also, research on the affective image shows that the city is perceived as relaxing, pleasant, exciting, and lively. The paper also shows that residents sociodemographic characteristics (age, education, monthly income, employment status) influence the image perception.