Tourism and Destination Management Individual Assignment
Statement of authorship
I certify that this dissertation is my own work and contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any degree or diploma in any institute, college or university. Moreover, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the dissertation.
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Introduction
The topic of “tourist destination image” and its relevant meaning has been explored and approached differently. The term itself has been used in various contexts and as a result, coming up with a precise definition isn’t an easy task and is considered as problematic (Jenkins, 1999, p. 1).
Throughout this paper, the image of a touristic destination and its relevance to the countries branding strategy will be explored. The first part begins with theoretical analysis of tourism destinations image exploring various author’s research and opinions on the topic. In the second part of the assignment, a comparative analysis is done investigating the image of Burundi and Switzerland and at what stage of the tourism areal life cycle (TALC) they currently stand at. Furthermore, before concluding, a discussion on the SoLoMo experience will be made by discussing its importance and relevance to the tourism image of a destination.
Theoretical research of the concept of tourism image
When exploring the image of a tourism destination, one can approach it from two different perspectives. From a psychological point of view, it is seen as a visual representation, whereas from a behavioral geographical perspective, it is seen as being more holistic and includes a combination of various impressions, knowledge emotions and beliefs.