The role of tour operators' promotional material in the formation of destination image and consumer expectations: The case of the People's Republic of China

Abstract

Image formation has been seen as important in destination marketing. However, image formation and development is a complex process that is intricately entwined with the destination selection process. A variety of sources helps to form the image of a destination in the mind of a potential holidaymaker. Similar factors will also influence consumer expectations. This paper uses the People's Republic of China as an example, and explores the role tour operators play in creating and developing image and expectations when there is lack of personal experience or word-of-mouth communications. Content analysis is used to examine the role of promotional materials used by tour operators in forming image and expectations. Results indicate that tour operators use their promotional material to create a heritage tourism image in China. This image may also result in inappropriate expectations of the holiday experience overall and hence potentially result in elements of dissatisfaction.

Tourist clusters from Flickr travel photography

“…"Content analysis has occupied a privileged position in the social sciences as a method for studying photographic media" (Albers & James, 1988: 145), being used by a great number of authors to analyse destination image (Dilley, 1986;Camprubí, Guia & Comas, 2012;Pritchard & Morgan, 1995, 1996Santos, 1998;Galí & Donaire, 2005;Govers & Go, 2005;Choi, Letho & Morrison, 2007). Generally, a categorisation is used in order to systematise content analysis, and a set of suitable parameters and rules established to maintain congruency and validity of data (Albers In this study, four categories were used to classify pictures based on previous research (Camprubí et al, 2012;Dilley, 1986;Donaire & Galí, 2011;Galí & Donaire, 2005;Govers & Go, 2005;Pritchard & Morgan, 1995;Santos, 1998).…”

“…Generally, a categorisation is used in order to systematise content analysis, and a set of suitable parameters and rules established to maintain congruency and validity of data (Albers In this study, four categories were used to classify pictures based on previous research (Camprubí et al, 2012;Dilley, 1986;Donaire & Galí, 2011;Galí & Donaire, 2005;Govers & Go, 2005;Pritchard & Morgan, 1995;Santos, 1998). These categories were nature, heritage, culture and tourist services (see Table 1 for detailed descriptions), and were chosen on the basis of two criteria: firstly, they were four of the most common categories for analysing tourism image; and secondly, they are the four categories that include the main tourist characteristics of the destination used as a case study.…”

“…Previous research on tourist photographs has commonly followed a classification of photograph content, beginning with Dilley (1986) and continued by, among others, Pritchard and Morgan (1996), Santos (1998) complemented by a semiological analysis so as to interpret the composition of photographed elements (Markwick, 2001;Jenkins, 2003;Galí & Donaire, 2005).…”

Destination Marketing Organizations and destination marketing: A narrative analysis of the literature

“…Indeed, it is now an axiom that all marketing communications should reinforce the brand identity. There has been little research building on early work by Lawton and Page (1997), Santos (1998) and Gartner and Bachri (1999) The relationship between advertising and sales has yet to be established in the marketing literature (see Schultz & Schultz, 2004), and so it should not be surprising that this represents another important gap in the destination marketing literature. A number of studies have concluded the link between destination advertising and tourist receipts was tenuous (see for example Faulkner, 1997, p. 27).…”

Hidden messages: A polysemic reading of tourist brochures

“…Examples of this include the prevailing age-discrimination found in tourist brochures, which repeatedly focus on young to middle-aged travellers whilst neglecting senior travellers in the pictures employed [22,23]. Other examples highlight the often male-dominated heterosexual-framework brochures confine themselves to [24][25][26][27][28][29]; the promotion linked to nation building [24,[30][31][32][33][34]; and the dominant Caucasian perspective that is found in tourist brochures [5,6,[35][36][37].Not only written text has been analysed in terms of the messages communicated.Pictures and films are equally filled with narratives that shape tourists' perceptions.Albers and James [38] did a thorough investigation of pictures on postcards depicting ethnic minorities in America. They outlined a methodology for how photographs can be used to investigate tourist practice as well as stereotypes born through recurring themes in travel photography.…”