Destination personality: how to make the metaphor simpler?

ABSTRACT

A well-established destination personality facilitates differentiation of destinations and helps to create emotional loyalty and increase repeat visitors. Although destination personality and brand marketing have become increasingly important, there is still a lack of applied research that simplifies the salient dimensions of destination personality. This study applies parsimony analysis to help establish the simplest possible determination of destination personality to identify the top destination personality traits of Kansas. Participants (N = 209) were recruited by an online marketing company, and descriptive statistics, Garrett ranking analysis, and Mann-Whitney U-tests were conducted. The top brand personalities of Kansas identified amongst all visitors included hardworking and reliable. Compared to first-time visitors, repeat visitors perceived Kansas as contemporary, outdoorsy, and less sincere.

KEYWORDS:

• Garrett ranking
• rural tourism
• emotional loyalty
• first-time visitors
• repeat visitors
• destination personality

Acknowledgments

Publication of this article was funded in part by the Kansas State University Open Access Publishing Fund.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

The supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Naiqing Lin

Naiqing Lin, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Hospitality Management at Kansas State University.  His research interest focuses on food safety behavior and organizational behavior.  Dr. Lin has published two book chapter and many prestigious academic journals across disciplines.  He is a member of Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Sigma Xi.

Kevin R. Roberts

Kevin R. Roberts, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Hospitality Management Program Director in the Department of Hospitality Management, Kansas State University.  Dr. Roberts has garnered over $8 million in funded research and has published in many academic journals across disciplines.  He serves as co-director of the Center of Excellence for Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition Programs.