Eureka! Institutional Repository

In today’s global, informational economy of rapid change, opportunities and threats arise equally for tourism organisations as well as tourism destinations. Unexploited Emerging Consumer Markets (ECM’s) on the one hand, and fragmented, dominated markets in the western world on the other call for a more than ever need for competent and effective management and strategy. ‘As tourism destinations become more substitutable due to increasing competition in global tourism markets, destination personality is seen as a viable metaphor for building destination brands and crafting a unique identity for tourism places’ (Caprara, Barbaranelli, and Guido 2001; Crask and Henry 1990; Morgan, Pritchard, and Piggott 2002, Triplett 1994 adapted from Ekinci, Hosany, 2006, p 127) Following this latter, the purpose of our study is firstly to identify and compare the destination personality of Greece and Turkey as perceived by respondents who have visited the country as well as by those who have not and secondly to analyse the relationship between destination personality and respondents’ intention to recommend. The contribution of the study hopefully will provide nutrition to improve the marketing strategy of the destinations and to provide data for further research regarding the perception of destination personality both on the pre-purchase and postconsumption phase.