The well-established literature emphasized the significant role that destination image plays in shaping tourists ' travel behavior and the potential benefits that can be derived for both the tourist ...destination and the entire country. Thus, the main goal of this research was to explore how foreign and domestic tourists perceive Serbia's cognitive, conative, and overall images, as well as the effectiveness of its promotional efforts. The survey research was conducted in the major destinations of Serbia, and it involved a total of 956 tourists. The findings revealed significant differences between the two tourist segments and shed light on lesser-perceived aspects of the destination image, highlighting areas that require attention in the future. The paper offers valuable implications that can address the identified issues effectively.
Nowadays, the research focus is mainly on how tourists perceive the destination image, while the local community, as a very important key actor, is very often neglected in the studies. In light of ...the fact that Novi Sad has been declared the European Capital of Culture 2021, great attention has been placed on the local community and its perception of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) influence on all aspects of the city's life, including city image. In this regard, during April and May 2018, a survey of residents of Novi Sad was conducted to explore their perception of the city's image - cognitive, affective, and overall. Moreover, the paper is focused on identifying the differences in the image perception on the basis of the respondents' socio-demographic characteristics. In this study, which is the beginning of a longitudinal study aiming to follow the influence of the ECoC project on the city image, a total of 797 respondents participated. The results of the research on the cognitive image indicate that the local community mostly agrees with the claims that Novi Sad is a pleasant place to live in, that it has a good gastronomic offer, is an attractive place for education, and that people are kind and hospitable. On the other hand, the smallest degree of agreement is observed with claims which refer to the living standard in the city. When it comes to tourism and culture, significant differences are observed between individual attributes. Also, research on the affective image shows that the city is perceived as relaxing, pleasant, exciting, and lively. The paper also shows that residents sociodemographic characteristics (age, education, monthly income, employment status) influence the image perception.
The environment often suffers harmful consequences caused by the irresponsible behavior of individuals and businesses. In this sense, neither the tourism industry nor tourists are spared these ...accusations. Therefore, tourism literature highlights the significance of exploring tourists' eco-friendly attitudes and behavior and determinants of the formation of both eco-friendly attitudes and behavior. Additionally, consumer literature sheds light on how important green marketing is in changing consumers' behavior and leading them towards greener consumption behavior. Nevertheless, existing tourism literature on the role of green marketing approaches in predicting tourists' eco-friendly attitudes and behavior is quite scarce. Hence, the principal aim of the research was to investigate whether the green marketing tool - green packaging and branding, influences tourists' eco-friendly attitudes and behavior. Additionally, the present paper focused on tourists' preferences toward green packaging. In an effort to establish this, survey research was conducted among 368 Serbian tourists. The results showed that green packaging and branding positively shape tourists eco-friendly attitudes and behavior, and that attitudes represent significant predictor of behavior. The valuable contribution of this paper lies in practical implications for destination marketers, which highlight how the promotion of green products in tourism could enhance potential tourists' eco-friendly attitudes and behavior.
The principal aim of this paper was to investigate the roles of tourists' personality traits and personal values in shaping their travel motivation. Although previous literature has recognized these ...constructs as predictors of people's travel motivation, existing tourism literature lacks studies that combined tourists' personality, their personal values, and travel motivation within one research framework. Moreover, this paper contributes to existing tourism literature as it was the first to investigate the relationship between personality traits, measured with six personality factors (Big Five plus Honesty/Humility) and travel motivation. Specifically, the present study provides evidence on how the sixth trait - Honesty/Humility interacts with travel motivation. Besides, all nine investigated personal values were confirmed to positively influence travel motivation. Practical implications are discussed in the paper.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects on support for the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project development of residents’ perception of the project’s ...sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey research was conducted among 303 residents of Novi Sad, which has been selected to be the ECoC for the year 2022.
Findings
The findings confirmed the positive roles of three aspects of the event’s sustainability and three facets of emotional solidarity in shaping local people’s support for the ECoC event development. Besides, findings show the positive effect of residents’ community attachment and ECoC brand trust in predicting their supportive attitudes for the event development. Finally, results highlight which areas of the event’s sustainability are still unsatisfactory from the residents’ perspective, making it easier for event practitioners to optimally focus their attention and resources on enhancing problematic areas of the event’s sustainability.
Originality/value
The present study contributes to existing tourism literature as it is the first to explore the role local people’s perception of event sustainability, emotional solidarity toward tourists, community attachment and brand trust plays in their support for the ECoC event development. In addition, a unique contribution lies in the confirmation of brand trust as a significant antecedent of residents’ support, as this relationship remained an unexplored area in tourism literature. Practical implications, specifically derived for ECoC event practitioners, which should also find their place in securing residents’ support toward the development of any cultural event that attracts visitors, are discussed in the paper.
Purpose>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics on their perception of destination personality and emotional experience on the example ...of the city break tourism destination.Design/methodology/approach>To examine this relationship, survey research was conducted on a sample of 203 national and international tourists who visited Novi Sad, the second-largest city in Serbia.Findings>Research results confirmed the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in shaping their emotional experience and destination personality perception. The findings pointed out significant divergences in the perception of emotional experience in the case of respondents’ education level, previous visits to the city and travel companion. On the other hand, the analysis showed that repeat visitors significantly differed from first-time visitors regarding destination personality perception. In addition, differences in both destination personality and emotional experience assessment were found between national and international city break travelers.Originality/value>The current study is first to focus on the role of travelers’ sociodemographic variables in simultaneous modeling of their perception of destination personality and emotional experience within the city break destination context. Besides, results revealed some new influencing factors of both destination personality and emotional experience perception, thus contributing to the existing tourism literature. In addition, this paper offers useful practical implications for city break marketers to adapt promotional activities, more effectively present the desired brand personality of the city to different sociodemographic categories of tourists and sustain repeat tourists’ perception of Positive surprise.
The main focus of this research was to explore the relationships between tourists' emotional experience, destination personality, place attachment, satisfaction, and destination loyalty within the ...same research framework. The research was conducted among 304 Serbian tourists who visited the coastal destination in Greece (Paralia). The results confirmed that destination personality positively shaped place attachment while negatively shaping tourists' satisfaction and destination loyalty. Also, both satisfaction and emotional experience were found to positively influence place attachment. Moreover, results highlighted the role of destination personality as the mediator of the relationship between emotional experience and loyalty. Practical implications will be discussed further.
The tourism industry contributes greatly to stakeholders at tourism destinations, yet leaving negative prints on the environment. Besides, both tourism providers and tourists are often associated ...with unfavourable treatment of nature and disrespectful behaviour towards the destination's natural resources. Hence, understanding what influences tourists' attitudes and behaviour towards the environment is of great significance. Previous literature has already shed light on the importance of people's sociodemographic characteristics in molding their environmental attitudes and behaviour. Thus, this paper attempted to investigate whether tourists' sociodemographic variables influence their eco-friendly attitudes and behaviour when at tourism destinations. Similarly, such personal characteristics have been confirmed to assist consumers in their preferences towards product packaging. Based on this, and the fact that green products could enhance the quality of the environment and modify consumers' behaviour, the present study also focused on tourists' perception of green packaging and branding. The survey research was carried out among 368 Serbian tourists. The results confirmed differences in eco-friendly attitudes between male and female tourists, as well as between travelers of different occupational statuses and monthly income. Moreover, the findings pointed out that tourists' age correlates positively with their eco-friendly attitudes and behaviour. Interestingly, no significant differences were detected in the perception of green packaging and branding. Practical implications for destination marketers will be discussed in the paper.
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