The driving force of the tourism industry is represented by the attractions at destination. Travelers have no reason to visit destinations that have nothing to offer. Tourism research has demonstrated that attraction studies are necessary in the understanding of the elements that encourage people to travel. Achieving the goal of measuring destination attractiveness requires the understanding of its components and their relationships. There are two ways of examining attractiveness: by studying the attractions or by exploring the attractiveness perceptions of those who are attracted by them. As competition among tourism destinations increases and tourist funding decreases, it is of vital importance to understand how the inventory of existing attractions at destination relates to the perceptions that travelers have of those attractions. Tourism literature provides only a limited number of studies addressing destination attractiveness. Those studies focus exclusively on the measurement aspect of attractiveness and ignore the analysis of its components. The purpose of this study was to generate a new measurement tool for destination attractiveness and to examine the relationship between its elements. The principles of regional analysis, tourism planning, and tourism attraction research provided the foundation for a measurement and hypothesis testing model. This model is based on the assumption that tourism is a system, which is a function of supply and demand interaction. Four attraction dimensions - tourism services and facilities, cultural/historical, rural lodging, and outdoor recreation - were found to represent the attractiveness portfolio of the destination. According to the findings, no correlations were found between demand and supply importance of the four dimensions. Among demand representatives, market segments perceive and value attractions in different ways. The study explored the attractiveness evaluation of eight tourist regions and discovered correlations between demand and supply indicators. Additionally, it was established that the overall regional measures of demand and supply destination attractiveness explain the economic benefits of tourism in the same region. Among the contributions of this study is the development of a model that allows the simultaneous empirical assessment of demand and supply indicators of destination attractiveness. The findings of this study provided important implications for the development of robust tourism plans, promotional strategies, and resource allocation policies. / Ph. D.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Past studies are focused on measuring competitiveness factors that are significant to a destination, while lesser focus is provided to capturing specific tourists’ attractiveness factors. The purpose of this study was to explore Millennials’ perception of destination attractiveness (DA) and their propensity to visit a destination. The objectives of this research include 1) To explore the perceptions of the millennial tourist when deciding on visiting a destination, 2) To determine which destination attractiveness factors are significant to the millennial tourist, 3) To identify Millennials propensity to visit a destination and 4) To explore other preferences that affect propensity to visit a destination. To accomplish the purpose and objectives, millennial college students and recent graduates from multiple universities in the USA were surveyed. A total of 103 Millennials participated in the study. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of this study will contribute to the existing knowledge in the areas of Millennials’ propensity to visit a destination and their perception of destination attractiveness.

Superstitious beliefs date back thousands of years and continue to the present, and research suggests that superstitious beliefs have a robust influence on product satisfaction and decision making under risk. The study therefore examines how superstition attitude will impact potential tourists' intention to visit a destination so that relevant organizations (e.g. destination management/marketing organizations) could better understand potential tourists' behaviors, identify a niche market encompassing those prone to superstition, and tailor the tourism products to the needs and beliefs of potential tourists. The study used a survey instrument which consists of four components: the scale of Superstition as Destination Attractiveness (SADA), the revised Paranormal Belief Scale, the measurement of Intention to Visit, and respondents' demographics and travel experiences. A mixed-method data collection procedure was adopted to populate the sample. A total of 323 questionnaires were collected from Virginia Tech students, at both undergraduate and graduate level. A multiple regression analysis method was employed for hypothesis testing. The result of the data analysis supported both hypotheses, and the study finds that the more positive potential tourists' attitude is about superstition, the more likely they are to visit a destination with superstition as its attractiveness, and the more trait of superstition a potential tourist bears, the stronger the relationship between potential tourists' attitude about superstition and their intention to visit a destination with superstition as its attractiveness. Implications and future studies were suggested based on the findings of the study. / Master of Science

Notions "attractiveness" and "friendliness" in the context of a tourism destination are currently not too researched and developed. Due to increasing competition in the tourism market, tourism destination try to determine the level of their general attractiveness and try to identify specific factors, that determine whether the target visitors consider just this destination as attractive and friendly. Although they are an important indicators, for destination management as well as for public management and regional development, the approaches to their measurement are not generally accepted and identified, because they are subjective focused and specific characterized. This diploma thesis provides fundamental and comprehensive overview of attractiveness and friendliness tourist destination measured approaches.