A New Approach to Image Analysis Through Multidimensional Scaling

Traditionally, images of tourist regions have been described by way of (a) content analysis of respondents' answers to open-ended questions about their per ceptions of various tourist areas and (b) through comparison of averages and per centages of responses to statements measured along some sort of Likert-type scale andlor semantic differential. This article describes a new approach to portraying images of tourist regions through use of J. B. Kruskal's multidimensional scaling program called M-D-SCAL 5-a technique hitherto unreported in the tourism and travel literature.