An exploratory study of destination branding for the state of Oklahoma

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model of destination branding by identifying current image of the state of Oklahoma as a travel destination in the minds of travelers. The target population of the survey was all the visitors who stopped at the selected five welcome centers located in Oklahoma during the months of July and August 2002. A two-stage sampling approach, proportionate stratified sampling and Systematic Random Sampling (SRS), was administered to randomly select the samples of the study. Univariate (descriptive statistics, frequency, independent t test, and A NOVA) and multivariate approaches (MANOVA, factor analysis, and LISREL) were performed to analyze the data.Findings and conclusions. Two factor analyses were performed to determine the underlying dimensions of perceptual/cognitive and unique images of Oklahoma as a travel destination. With respect to perceptual/cognitive image, five factors were extracted through principal component analysis. Another three dimensions associated with unique image of Oklahoma were identified through the same procedure. A series of MANOVA tests were assessed whether an overall difference is found between various demographic groups and those factors extracted from factor analyses. The results indicated that two factors, "environment and infrastructure" and "cultural traditions" in perceptual/cognitive image were found to be significantly different in age group and state of origin group, respectively. For hypotheses testing, structural equation modeling (SEM) including measurement and structural models was performed through LISREL program. The tests of overall model fit measures for both models provided support to the results of an acceptable representation of the hypothesized constructs. The results of hypotheses testing were also supported, indicating that all five hypotheses paths were significant at 0.05 significance level.