Destination image building & its influence on destination preference & loyalty of Chinese tourists to Australia

This thesis examines the relationship between destination preference and loyalty, and the destination image building process. It aims to establish and quantify the critical link between destination image building and loyalty formation, which has not been adequately addressed in the literature to date. A conceptual framework was developed to model these relationships, which was validated with an empirical data set.The concept of destination preference was introduced and defined as the priority for potential tourists choosing to visit one destination over others available in the market. Preference has been used as a crucial concept in study of customer loyalty in the retail industry. Destination preference was found to be a major factor influencing destination satisfaction and loyalty in this study. The major factors influencing destination preference were found to be travel motivations, destination images and travel inhibitors.A two-dimensional loyalty concept was defined, consisting of word-of-mouth and destination attachment. The major factors influencing destination loyalty was identified. Factors contributing to destination attachment were cognitive images, travel inhibitors, destination preference and destination satisfaction. Word-of-mouth was jointly affected by travel motivation, cognitive image and destination satisfaction. Destination satisfaction was the most important factor influencing both dimensions of destination loyalty.The empirical data set was collected from Chinese group tourists travelling to Australia. The research instrument was developed from the preliminary findings of interviews and a pilot study. Using the data set, the study first validated the latent constructs of each concept in the hypothesized model by conducting exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis on split samples. An overall measurement model and structural models were assessed using the complete sample. The hypothetical relationships were tested between latent constructs.This study contributes to the theoretical advancement by connecting the image building process to destination loyalty. It consolidated the major concepts in image building process using scale development and also confirmed their important effects on destination preference and loyalty. The study findings can be used by tourism destinations to analyze their strengths and weaknesses in the image building process. It also provides a way for tourism organizations to develop an effective loyalty scheme.