Different tourists – different perceptions of different places: accounting for tourists’ perceptual heterogeneity in destination image measurement

We suggest that differences between tourists be evaluated as part of any destination image study. In doing so, one can avoid the potential pitfall of deriving one single destination image by averaging over individuals with possibly very different perceptions. A typology of destination image measurement approaches is presented that provides a framework for the evaluation of past destination image studies and shows directions for future developments of destination image measurement. The perceptions based market segmentation (PBMS) framework and indices derived from this approach are proposed as one possible way to explore differences in destination images between tourist groups. An empirical data set is used to illustrate the proposed approach. The data consists of perception statements of 575 respondents who evaluated six Australian tourism destinations along four dimensions.