Tourism destinations need to continuously improve in quality to succeed, if not to survive. To improve quality, current levels need to be measured to identify areas requiring improvement. However, no adequate technique for measuring the quality of a tourism destination has yet been developed. More importantly, tourists' understanding of the meaning of the term 'quality of a tourism destination' has not been investigated; a pre-requisite step for developing a technique for measuring the quality of a tourism destination. This thesis aims to ascertain the attributes and dimensions of quality of a tourism destination and to specify implications for the development of a technique for measuring its quality. To achieve this aim, a qualitative research approach is employed in the first stage of the thesis. The findings from this stage are used to inform the ensuing, mainly quantitative phase. The main results are summarised here. Firstly, seventy-five attributes and twelve dimensions of quality of a tourism destination were revealed in the qualitative phase of the study. Secondly, in the quantitative stage, an analysis of mean score values revealed that tourists strongly associated all seventy-five attributes and twelve dimensions with the quality of a tourism destination. Thirdly, it was established that the twelve dimensions of quality of a tourism destination differ in either breadth or scope from both service quality dimensions widely used in tourism and product quality dimensions from the quality management field. This thesis suggests that the quality of a tourism destination can best be defined as 'conformance to tourist requirements'. The main hypothesis; that there are significant differences in interpretations of the meaning of 'quality of a tourism destination' within groups oftourists, is rejected. Finally, the thesis ascertains that a tool for measuring the quality of a tourism destination can be developed based on the findings of the thesis. Such a tool, though predominantly quantitative, should include open-ended questions. This would allow changing tourist needs to be captured periodically and the results used to update the tool for measuring the quality of a tourism destination.

Destination image is of great importance in the decision-making process when selecting a tourist destination. This thesis analyzes the approaches to the image, the possibilities of evaluation and measurement of destination image. The aim of this thesis is to measure image of selected tourist destination Republic of Sakha Yakutia based on existing knowledge and measurement models.

IKEA is a brand that is known around the world and because it features many markers in their products, operations, and marketing that showcase its country of origin, Sweden has gained worldwide recognition simultaneously. The tourism industry could benefit from this positive image that Sweden has gained through IKEA’s popularity, by marketing themselves among the brand’s consumers using that positive image. Recently, Visit Sweden, the national DMO of the said country, has developed the campaign ‘Discover the Originals’ that responds to IKEA’s link with Sweden and tries to include tourism in that image among consumers. This quantitative study aims to see whether such campaigns that respond to the product-country image of private companies are effective in impacting the travel intention of the companies’ consumers. The first research question aims to find out the impact of IKEA’s product-country image on the intention of Belgian IKEA customers to travel to Sweden. This will be analysed by interpreting the correlation between brand image and country image as the independent variable and travel intention as the dependent variable. The second research question on the other hand will evaluate whether the ‘Discover the Originals’ campaign that is developed by Visit Sweden to respond to IKEA’s strong relationship with its country of origin, is increasing intention to travel to Sweden. The study confirms the applicability of previous research on the specific case of Belgian IKEA customers, given that the positive product-country image of IKEA on other foreign markets was already supported. Using the results of an online questionnaire that was distributed in relevant Facebook groups with members that were residing in cities spread over Belgium, analyses were made and interpreted. This delivered results that are aligned with the findings from existing literature. Positive product-country image impacts visit intentions after being exposed to the campaign, which indicates that the campaign is in particular valuable when targeting IKEA customers as brand familiarity and -image play an important role in how the audience reacts to it. These results reveal the opportunity for DMOs and private companies to work together and strengthen each other’s brands while contributing to the further development of the country as a tourist destination.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:51:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarcioMC_DISSERT.pdf: 2917876 bytes, checksum: 6618176c63435f1be7b0c9123c48f4cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-04-05 / This dissertation aims to analyze the causal relationship between the quality of tourist services, satisfaction with the attributes and globally, fidelity and image of tourist destinations. Therefore, it was conducted an exploratory, descriptive research with quantitative analytical approach. Data collection was performed by a questionnaire addressed to tourists at the Augusto Severo International Airport and Bus station of Natal, the main points of entry and exit of tourists. The composition was simple random sampling by reaching the final number of 400 tourists interviewed. Among the main results, is an assessment of the quality of the components of the destination. It was noted that nine are the dimensions of perceived quality of tourism products and services of ―Sun and Sand‖ segment, that is, Beaches and Facilities, Public Equipment, Catering Services, Transportation, Hotel Equipment, Hotel Services, Entertainment & Attractions, Access to the Hotel and Hospitality. Moreover, it was concluded that the Preview Tourism Destination Image has little direct influence in the Consumer Satisfaction, and only indirectly in the Post-Purchase Behavior. While the Complex Tourism Destination Image exerts strong and direct influence on both factors, in the Customer Satisfaction Process and Loyalty, the dimensions of quality also claimed to be strongly influences both factors / Esta disserta??o pretendeu analisar a rela??o causal entre a Qualidade dos Servi?os Tur?sticos, a Satisfa??o com os atributos e de forma global, a Fidelidade e a Imagem de Destinos Tur?sticos. Para tanto, se realizou um estudo explorat?rio-descritivo, do tipo Survey, com enfoque anal?tico quantitativo. A coleta de dados foi realizada atrav?s de question?rio aplicado junto aos turistas nacionais no Aeroporto Internacional Augusto Severo e na Rodovi?ria da Cidade do Natal, principais locais de entrada e sa?da de turistas. A composi??o amostral foi aleat?ria simples chegando-se ao n?mero final de 400 turistas entrevistados. Dentre os principais resultados, encontra-se um diagn?stico da qualidade dos componentes do destino tur?stico Natal. Observou-se, tamb?m, que s?o noves as dimens?es da percep??o de qualidade dos produtos e servi?os tur?sticos de Sol e Praia, ou seja, Praias e Facilidades, Equipamentos P?blicos, Restaura??o, Servi?os de Transportes, Equipamentos do Hotel, Servi?os do Hotel, Entretenimento e Atrativos, Acesso ao Hotel e Hospitalidade. Al?m disso, concluiu-se que a Imagem Pr?via do Destino Tur?stico exerce pouca influ?ncia direta junto a Satisfa??o do Consumidor, e apenas indireta no Comportamento P?s-Compra (Fidelidade). Enquanto que a Imagem Complexa exerce influ?ncia forte e direta tanto no processo de Satisfa??o do Consumidor quanto no de Fideliza??o dele, as dimens?es da qualidade encontradas tamb?m se apresentaram como fortes influenciadoras de ambos os fatores

This doctoral thesis approaches literary tourism initially from an historical perspective in order to define the phenomenon through a review of the existing academic literature in the field. The forms of literary tourism are analysed to provide a typology and from this the value of literary tourism is explained both from the visitor's point of view and the destination manager's. Current theories underpinning the existing literature on literary tourism, including Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital are reviewed. To extend the current state of research and to answer the research questions a case study of successful urban literary tourism is identified, in this case in Brittany, France. The uses of French literature in literary tourism are reviewed to provide a sound basis on which to examine French texts and tourist destinations. Novel methods of field research are developed to formalise and to make reproducible the methodology for this study and for future work drawing on, and seeking to combine both literary theory and ethnography. Following a pilot study on the French Riviera the full discovery instruments are designed and applied in fieldwork on the case destination, Concarneau, using the detective novel, The Yellow Dog, which is set in Concarneau. Analysis of the findings from this provide a new contribution to the field of literary theory, in the area of reader interpellation, and answer the research questions in the form of a new set of recommendations for DMOs and tourism stakeholders. From the empirical study that used Web 2.0 social media, only available since 2013, an analysis of which novels do stimulate literary tourism is presented for the first time. Out of the research process new methods have been evolved, and are presented in the conclusion, for the DMO to synthesise and leverage digital resources. This provides DMOs with interpretation processes for its managed heritage to use with its local stakeholders in hotels and in tourism businesses. Finally, an innovative conceptualisation of what constitutes tourism knowledge is proposed.