The development of a destination through the image assessment of six geographic markets

The purposes of this study are to assess the image of a newly developed nature-based tourist destination and investigate the influence of distance on the image of the destination. The image was assessed on a seven-point Likert scale and the sampling comprised six dominant market areas (DMAs) that were various distances from the nature-based destination. The internet survey resulted in 610 respondents and a 45 per cent response rate of the log-in panelists. The analysis used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the information sources, positioning, and the 28 image attributes with the DMAs, and the image attributes were used in a discriminant analysis. The analysis indicated that not all nearby and long-distance geographic markets are uniform. On-site visitation apparently was a factor in creating complex perceptions of the image of the destination. A differentiated message that is cost-effective should be pursed with individual DMAs and clusters of DMAs.