Assessing consumer perceptions of destinations: A necessary first step in the destination branding process

This dissertation examined variables that were hypothesized to affect the level of consumer perceptions of tourism destinations. Perceived quality, perceived price, perceived value, perceived satisfaction, country image, and destination image, were postulated to affect the level of the repurchase intentions of the tourist.; The relationships between the above mentioned exogenous variables, the endogenous variables and the repurchase intentions outcome variable were hypothesized within a perceptions model framework derived from a review of the literature in tourism and in the consumer behavior field. A questionnaire measuring the variables, as well as gathering demographic information was developed based on the literature review, a pretest as well as discussions with practitioners in the tourism field and marketing professors.; The data set consisting of 400 usable surveys was collected at an international airport in the Caribbean and was analyzed for scale validity and reliability using exploratory factor analysis. The fit of the proposed destination perceptions model with the data was also analyzed using path analysis in LISREL V111, and provided an estimate of the extent and significance of the relationship between the variables in the model. Based on T-Values, the fitted destination perceptions path model showed that 8 of the 9 hypotheses were significant at the .05 level. The findings suggest that behavioral intentions were affected by perceived satisfaction and destination image. Although 8 of the 9 hypotheses were supported, the model itself did not fit very well, suggesting issues relating to model specification.; The results from the study show that the model has promise but requires further work to develop better measures that offers greater levels of discriminant validity.