DESTINATION IMAGE SATURATION

Abstract

Offering travel information sources to potential tourists can be expensive, although the importance of the amount and variety of travel information sources has been stressed in many studies. Therefore, it would be useful to examine how much exposure to travel information would lead to optimal results. Effects of exposure time to travel information on destination image were examined in this study. Two hypotheses were suggested to account for the relationships between exposure time to travel information and destination image. Specifically, the first hypothesis was related to a linear trend, while the second one was related to a quadratic trend in the conceptual relationships. A posttest-only control group design was used, and 312 undergraduate students were recruited at six colleges. Multivariate analysis of variance and a series of quadratic regression analyses were used to test the two hypotheses. Results demonstrated that there were both linear and quadratic trends in the relationships between exposure time to travel information and destination image. Findings also provided empirical evidence for a saturation effect on perceived destination image formation. Therefore, an optimum level between information exposure and perceptions was suggested.