Destination image and tourist behavioural intentions: A meta-analysis

Abstract

This article aims to understand the relationship between destination image and tourist’s behavioural intention. In this study, we used a meta-analysis to synthesize the effects of destination image from 87 studies. The results reveal that destination image plays significant role in predicting tourist’s intentional behaviour, in different magnitudes. To be more precise, overall and affective images have the greatest impact on behavioural intention, followed by cognitive image. Of the different dimensions of behavioural intentions, destination image has the greatest impact on intention to recommend. Implications are provided for destination management and tourism researchers based on meta-analysis.