The Formation Process Of Country Image Perceptions

Since being gained the attention of marketing scholars in 1960s,country image or country-of-origin effects studies have become a popular research area.There are lots of publications focusing on this topic and show that country image acts as a signal of product quality and affects purchase intention.Similarly,destination image plays an important role in tourists' decision making and subsequent travel behavior,so,it has been examined extensively in the tourism literature.There are also lots of publications on destination image,but just like country image construct,the literature has not reached a consensus on how to define destination image.Country image and destination image are two different constructs but with many similarities and overlapping,especially when the image of the country as a tourist destination.Although it is recognized that the country with a good image can attract the visit of international tourists,very few studies from the perspective of dynamic development empirically test the formation process of country image perception in tourism research.By integrating the two concepts of country image and destination image,the former is from international trade and marketing,the latter is from tourism field,this study reconstructs country image concept in tourism context.In the field of tourism research,we defined the country image as international tourists' mental representation of overall cognitive and affective about a given country as a tourist destination.And country image is divided into two components,namely,macro country image and micro country image.This study examines South Korea as a tourist destination country,it examines Chinese tourrists' the formation process of country image perception of South Korea.The study is composed of eight chapter,and divided into the following five parts:The first part(chapter one)is an introduction,mainly clarify that the research background,significance,contents and technical route.The second part(chapter two)is literature review and research hypotheses,research on the systematic combing the concept and measurement of variables and relationships.And providing theoretical basis for design and implementation of the third part of this study.The third part(chapter three)is research methods,research on the operation of the variables measurement,questionnaire design,survey identified,payment and recovery,data analysis methods of questionnaire,the general characteristics of the sample.And poviding data for part of empirical analysis and methodological basis.The fourth part(chapter four,five,six and seven)is empirical study.Chapter four analyzes the Chinese tourists' motivation dimensions,Chinese tourists types to South Korea,country image perception differences with different types of Chinese tourists.Chapter five examines the relationship between a country image dimensions and travel intentions,and the relationship between country cognitive image and countiy affective image.Chapter six tests the relationship between country image perception and revisit intention.Chapter seven dissects tourists country image perception changes in three tour stages,from two aspects of the items and factors analysis on variation characteristics of country image perception.The fifth part(chapter eight)is conclusion and discussion,summarizes the main conclusion of this study,points out the limitations of this study.After three questionnaires,gets the data of Chinese tourists(potential Chinese tourists,before and after tour tourists)country image perception of South Korea.Using the methods including exploratory factor analysis,confirmatory factor analysis,reliability&validity,ANOVA,cluster analysis,regression analysis,and so on.Carrying out the impact of tourist motivation for the country image perception,country image perceptions and tourists' visit(revisit)intention,changes in country image perception.And drawing the following conclusions:(1)Different types of motivations of tourists to country image perception exists significant differences.(2)Affective country image has a significant positive impact on the potential tourists visit intention.Cognitive country image has no direct effect on visit intention,but taking affective country image as a mediating variable,it exerts an indirect effect on visit intention.(3)Tourist satisfaction has significant direct influence on revisit intention.Tourist attraction factor had significant direct influence on revisit intention.(4)Tourist at three stages of the country image perception is dynamic throughout their trip,and there are significant differences.Chinese tourists' perception of the country image of South Korea,on the whole present the following characteristics:Chinese tourists in post-trip more than pre-trip,and Chinese tourists in pre-trip stage is greater than potential tourist stage.These conclusions provide certain reference for South Korea and China tourism management departments to enhance the country image,meet the challenges of the globalization of tourism market,participate in international tourism competition,increase tourist satisfaction,promote the sustainable development of tourism in the country of destination.On one hand,it is helpful to generalize and develop country image theory in a new tourism field,and enrich content and method of tourist behaviour research,it will drive interdisplinary integration.The limitation of this study is also discussed in the latter of the article.