The Hierarchical Effects of Affective and Cognitive Components on Tourism Destination Image

Abstract Understanding how tourism destination image (DI) is formed may assist destination promoters in developing appropriate images for their destination products. This study develops and empirically tests a measurement model of tourism destination image. Through a second-order factor analysis in LISREL, the results confirm that destination image can be operationalized as a second-order factor model that includes an affective image (AI) and a cognitive image (CI). These constructs are governed by a second-order construct of tourism destination image. The results of this study suggest that the affective construct has more impact on building destination image than does the cognitive construct. Finally, theoretical implications and practical suggestions are discussed.