A memorable tourism experience and its effect on country image

ABSTRACT

This study explores the importance of memorable tourist experience for the formation of positive image traits and behaviours for a country image in a tourism context, recognizing the central role played by experiential satisfaction. Given the significance of experience design for academia and practitioners, it focuses on how memorable tourism experiences impact on image, satisfaction and behaviour. The proposed conceptual model is tested in a quantitative study that took place in Athens, Greece. The findings confirm the direct and indirect impact of memorable tourism experience on country image formation. Thus, the study offers a reliable empirical justification of a theoretically grounded model that contributes to scholarly thought and practitioners’ understanding on how to best inspire future behaviour through experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Memorable tourism experience
• country image
• cognitive image
• affective image
• conative image
• experiential satisfaction
• structural equation modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stella Kladou

Dr. Stella Kladou is a Postdoctoral researcher (Hellenic Mediterranean University). She has served as an Assistant Professor in the Tourism Administration Department at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey and a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. She has published in academic journals and books of prominent international publishers (e.g. Elsevier, Emerald, CABI), and presented at well-esteemed international conferences.

Irini Rigopoulou

Dr. Stella Kladou is a Postdoctoral researcher (Hellenic Mediterranean University). She has served as an Assistant Professor in the Tourism Administration Department at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey and a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. She has published in academic journals and books of prominent international publishers (e.g. Elsevier, Emerald, CABI), and presented at well-esteemed international conferences.

Mihalis Kavaratzis

Dr. Mihalis Kavaratzisis Associate Professor of Marketing (University of Leicester). Mihalis has co-founded the International Place Branding Association and he is a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Place Management. His publications include the books ‘Inclusive Place Branding’ (2017) and ‘Rethinking Place Branding’ (2015).

Eleftheria Salonika

Eleftheria Salonika is the Digital Marketing Manager at Decostar S.A. and specializes in Digital Marketing. She has completed her B.A. at the Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences and M.A. studies at the Athens University of Economics and Business.