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of the ideology of the picturesque and its effect
upon tourism practices.)
Selwyn, T. �ed.) �1996) The Tourist Image:Myths and
Myth Making in Tourism, London: Wiley. �Articles
examining ideological meanings in international
tourism representations.)
image
A.V. SEATON, UK
Image may be defined as the perceptions, beliefs,
impressions, ideas and understanding one holds of
objects, people, events or places. An image is a
simplified, condensed version of which the holder
assumes to be reality. Held and stored images are
the means humans use to organise the various
stimuli received and processed on a daily basis, and
help to make sense of the surroundings and the
world in which one lives.
Image has been an important topic in tourism
research since the 1960s, and it is believed to be the
key underlying factor in destination site selection.
People hold different images of different
destination areas. These images become the main
determinant for maintaining or eliminating a
particular destination as a possible choice, once
the list of all known alternatives is subjected to a
winnowing process using more tangible considerations
�such as time and money).
The image formation process is more important
to tourism than to other industries. Since tourism
products are an amorphous mass of experiences,
produced and consumed simultaneously, with no
opportunity to sample the product prior to
purchase, the images someone holds act as a
surrogate for product valuation. Because of the
importance of image in the tourism decision
process, marketers will spend an inordinate amount
of time, effort and expense presenting particular
destination images to target markets �see target
marketing) with the hope that their choice will
rise above the clutter of other destinations, all vying
for a share of the tourism expenditures.
Place images are comprised of three distinctly
different but hierarchically interrelated components.
The first one is cognitive. The sum of beliefs
and attitudes toward some object, place or thing
image 295
leading to some internal evaluation of its attributes
is the basis for the cognitive component. It is object
evaluation based on fact or what is believed to be
the facts surrounding the object under consideration.
These facts most likely have been acquired
over time from a number of sources and may or
may not form a realistic image of the object.
`Perception is reality' is an often heard phrase
which means simply that reality is the cognitive
image one holds toward any object, place or thing.
The second component of image is effective.
This component is how one values the object under
consideration based on personal feelings or motives.
Motives determine what one wishes to obtain
from the object which then determines the value
placed on the object �see motivation). The third
component is conative, which is the action
component of image. A decision to purchase a
product or choose a destination is made after the
cognitive and affective components of the objects
image are evaluated and valued. The conative
component is the decision stage.
Image research is probably as old as the
discipline of psychology, but received more
attention as a result of the attitude measurement
work conducted during the 1930s, and in the mid-
1950s with the publication of Boulding's seminal
work, The Image:Knowledge in Life and Society. With
the advance of the consumer age following the
Second World War, marketing research began to
devote more attention to product attribute measurement
and by association, image. In the early
1970s the first tourism image research articles and
books began to appear, and this has been a prolific
area of inquiry since.
The generally accepted findings on this research
theme are several, five of which may be described
here. First, people residing in different geographic
areas will hold different images of the same
destination. Second, the further one lives from a
particular place, the less likely one is to have a
distinct image of the place. Third, images change
slowly, and in the absence of a major event will take
years to modify using conventional image modification
techniques. Fourth, the smaller the
destination is the more likely its image is that of
the larger political entity in which it is located.
Fifth, images are formed and modified continuously
through various means.