Reverse Country-of-Origin Effects of Product Perceptions on Destination Image

Via two experiments, the authors meld research in travel destination image (TDI) and country-of-origin image (COI) to investigate whether consumers’ perceptions of a country’s products influence their perceptions of the country as a travel destination. In the first experiment, the authors show that reverse COI effects may occur, where participants use product beliefs to imbue destination beliefs. More positive product beliefs lead to more favorable perceptions of and greater intentions to tour the destination. The second experiment follows on to show that destination familiarity may moderate the product beliefs–destination beliefs relationship established in the first study. As familiarity increases, participants rely less on product beliefs to evaluate the destination. A key implication for exporters, tourism policy makers, and tourism businesses is that foreign products not only are competing with each other for domestic customers but also are competing through their products for a share of the outbound tourism market.