Marketing Implications in Building Ghana’s Destination image – A Tourism Perspective

Abstract

Tourism has become a prominent global industry. In light of this, it is a fiercely competitive industry, with countries constantly working to identify various means of increasing their attractiveness. Destination image is one primary means that destinations use to distinguish themselves and draw more tourists. This study seeks to understand how tourists‟ cognitive, affective and conative perceptions of a destination influence the image formation. Data is collected from a sample of international tourists through focus group discussions and interviews, and analyzed thematically. Findings show that tourists‟ cultural or societal orientations influence how they evaluate their experiences of destination attributes. These resultant evaluations (cognition) in turn influence visitors‟ feelings (affection) about the destination and ultimately determine their behavioural intentions (conation) towards the destination. Furthermore, the study shows that Ghana‟s strongest tourism attributes are the country‟s culture, people, history and natural resources. The study recommends that destination marketing organizations design their campaigns around these attributes and consider potential visitors‟ motivations and cultural values and orientations.