Tourism destination images of Turkey, Egypt, Greece, and Italy as perceived by US-based tour operators and travel agents

Abstract

This study emphasized the importance of travel intermediaries' images for international travel destinations, and examined structured (scale items) and unstructured (open-ended) images of selected Mediterranean destinations (Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy) as perceived by US-based travel intermediaries. The results found significant differences in images of tour operators/travel agents promoting these destinations and those not promoting. The findings indicated that tour operators and travel agents promoting these destinations have differentiated images of the four destinations. The structured and unstructured images helped identify common and unique characteristics as well as strengths and weaknesses of the four tourist destination countries. The results provided important implications and directions for the governments and tourism authorities of Turkey, Egypt, Greece and Italy for developing a marketing strategy targeting distribution channel members.