Tourists’ characteristics and the perceived image of tourist destinations: a quantitative analysis—a case study of Lanzarote, Spain

Abstract

This paper is set in the context of tourism marketing, more specifically in the process of tourist destination image formation. By means of empirical research applied to a representative sample of tourists visiting the island of Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain), the influence of tourists’ internal characteristics or personal factors on the different components of perceived image have been analyzed. More precisely the relationships between the perceived image and the tourists’ motivations, their accumulated experience of vacation travel and the socio-demographic characteristics referring to their gender, age, level of education, social class and country of residence are assessed. The results indicate that: (1) motivations influence the affective component of image; (2) the experience of vacation travel has a significant relationship with cognitive and affective images, and (3) the socio-demographic characteristics influence the cognitive and affective assessment of image.