Eureka! Institutional Repository

Destination marketing may develop at the city, region, or country level. The present study investigates the image of a destination, the city of Thessaloniki, drawing upon the destination marketing approach. The image of the city is an intermediate variable that works on two levels. On the supply side, the key issue becomes how city providers and destination planners wish to position the city to target tourists and other internal and external publics. On the demand side, the perceptions and predispositions of tourists regarding the city are crucial in choosing the destination and/or deciding to revisit. The present study employs mainly a demand-oriented perspective through the use of a questionnaire and supplements it a supply perspective consisting of in-depth interviews with three key tourism officials-managers. The structured questionnaire was administered to 83 visitor during the period December 20 2011 to January 12 2012. The analysis of the questionnaires reveals tourist perceptions regarding Thessaloniki as well as their evaluations regarding services being rendered. Findings depict the current image of Thessaloniki as a safe hospitable destination with most visitors willing to revisit and/or recommend the city to a friend or relative. Furthermore, in depth interviews with key tourism administrators took place in order to reveal the intentions of local authorities regarding the branding of Thessaloniki and to grasp a sense of the desired image promoted by the city’s tourism managers and administrators. All of the above quantitative and qualitative data point in the direction that Thessaloniki could be promoted as a city break destination combining business with pleasure. In this sense, congress-convention tourism holds great development potential and should be a key ingredient in devising a destination strategy for Thessaloniki