Resumen de Destination image and risk perception: an integrative perspective
This doctoral thesis explores the perception of tourism destinations though two major lines of research, destination image and risk perception, by a compendium of publications. The first article compares the cognitive evaluations of risk and image literatures. A content analysis was conducted and results revealed that although the cognitive attributes assessing each concept separately often coincide, they are described differently, with image studies using positive terms and risk studies, negative terms. The second article explores the primary risk dimensions associated with international travel and what influences them. Results revealed five dimensions and these were influenced by gender, age, education and past travel experience. The third article offers an integrated approach to destination perceptions by merging the cognitive and affective evaluations of image and risk perceptions. A travel behavior model was developed, a Structural Equation Modeling was used to analyze the data and findings supported the proposed model.
