Purpose The process of understanding a tourist begins with an extensive evaluation of tourist’s perceptions about a destination. Though destination image has been widely discussed in tourism literature since the 1970s, little attention has been given to organic image despite its relative significance. First, this study aims to clear the existing ambiguity in the cognitive component of destination image by organizing and structuring the extant literature. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study then seeks to identify the salient organic image attributes in tourists’ consideration for travel options through the application of repertory test. Respondents’ statements on 25 competing destinations in Madhya Pradesh, India were transcribed verbatim for analysis. A measure of frequencies and commonality among 12 construct themes was then carried out. Findings Along with history, heritage and culture, this study found tourists to have considered organic image attributes associated with destination stereotypes as important discriminators between competing leisure tourist destinations. Moreover, the elicitation of context-specific attributes along with a note in the pattern of tourist responses highlighted the merits of repertory test when presented with different category triads. Originality/value This study differs from other organic image studies as it evaluates the prominence of organic image in the context of leisure tourism. Being one of the few studies to have extensively discussed the organic image component, this study contributes to the progression of organic image literature.

PurposeDespite years of research on destination image (DI), studies have surprisingly failed to investigate how tourists perceive and approach destinations that they are not cognizant about. While prodigious amount of information is available on the dimensionality and nature of DI, little is known about the construct with reference to cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Understanding such an aspect would help destination management organizations (DMOs) in refining their marketing strategies and in improving their destination's competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThrough an extensive review of literature in areas pertinent to the phenomenon being investigated, this article puts forward a series of propositions, which are then used in the framework entailing the proposed construct of destination stereotypes (DS).FindingsWhile identifying an overlap in concepts pertaining to the fields of marketing and tourism, this study postulates that DS facilitate the extension of a destination's dominant impressions to that of another based on various parameters. It further discusses several courses through which impressions of a particular destination are extended to that of another, thereby putting forward DS as a missing link in tourists' reception of destinations.Practical implicationsDS as a construct helps in identifying the source of an impression which may not be the destination in question but instead another destination. Upon construct validity, the proposed framework would yield insights into other competing destinations and thereby effectively help in altering the extant DI.Originality/valueWhile there have been many studies on tourist stereotypes and DI, it is amongst the first few studies to have discussed stereotypes in the context of destinations and their image, especially with an emphasis on cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Therefore, it acts as a meaningful piece of work towards the progression of the DI literature.

In 2014, the Union Government of India has set a target to achieve 1% share in global tourism arrivals in India, as expressed by the then Union Minister State for Tourism. In this regard, the role played by Social Media to influence the foreign tourist was significant. To analyze the causality between India, as a tourist destination and its presence on social media platform, a research study has been done which was fully funded by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. The main objective was to study all the foreign tourists visiting India duly influenced by the social media. Due to the nature of the study, the technique of the focus-group interview has applied and then structured questionnaire has prepared to achieve the six objectives of the study. With a total sample size of 2,351 inbound tourists, collected in four phases during peak inbound tourist seasons from 2015 to 2016. The sample had consisted of the respondents from 93 nationalities and influenced by social media to visit India. The major outcomes were that majority of the inbound tourists came to know about India as a tourist destination through social media and then they explored more information specifically tourists attractions, to plan their trips to India. The majority of the tourists got influenced by Tripadvisor and Facebook platforms and reasonably satisfied with the information generated by the other social media sources. The results and conclusions have accepted by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India and utilized appropriately to gain the competitive advantage.

In the current decade, there is a drastic increase in the active social network users which simultaneously raised the interest of destination management organizations (DMOs) to increase their e-visibility on social network sites (SNS), specifically to promote their tourism destinations. The main aim of DMOs is to reach the target market and create a brand image of the destination to increase the tourist footfalls. The purpose of this chapter will be to analyze the utilization of Instagram as a network of smart tourism ecosystem by state tourism boards in India. The network analysis will be done between state tourism boards by using UCINET 6 which is a software package developed for social network analysis. This chapter will give an insight into the Instagram account used by states tourism boards for the promotion of their respective tourist destinations. The findings of the study will help to improve the utilization of SNS for online content creations, managing the social media campaigns, marketing, branding and promotions of tourism destinations.

Given the relative proliferation of social media users and the significance of information collection in a consumer's decision journey, this study tried to identify the most widely used social media platforms for India's travel information. To evaluate the general trustworthiness of inbound tourists on social media platforms, focus group interviews were conducted across 12 Indian states in which 300 foreign tourists from 85 countries took part. Tripadvisor and Facebook were the two social media platforms with the greatest number of users seeking India's travel information. The findings of the study conclude the use of multiple social media platforms for varied information and destination choice.