Purpose

Understanding the multifaceted images of tourism destinations is critical for effective destination marketing and management strategies. Traditional approaches, including conceptualization of destination images or analysis of their antecedents and consequences, are commonly used. This study aims to advocate the inclusion of visitors’ latent profiles based on cognitive images to enrich the evaluation and formulation of destination marketing and management strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis focuses on Serbia, an emerging destination, that attracts an increasing number of first-time, repeat and prospective visitors. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the potential dimensions (tangible and intangible cultural destination; infrastructural and accessible destination; active, nature and family destination; sensory and hospitable destination; and welcoming, value for money (VFM) and safe destination) of the cognitive destination image factors scale while subtypes (profiles) were obtained using latent profile analysis (LPA).

Findings

The cognitive image component encompasses the perceived attributes of a destination, whether derived from direct experience or acquired through other means. The study identified the following profiles: conventional destination; sensory and hospitable destination; welcoming, VFM and safe destination; secure and active family destination and accessible cultural destination, which are presented individually with their sociodemographic assets.

Originality/value

The main contribution of the paper is the application of a novel method (LPA) for profiling visitor segments based on cognitive destination image. From a theoretical perspective, this research contributes to the extant body of literature pertaining to the destination image, thereby facilitating the identification of discrete latent visitor segments and elucidating noteworthy differences among them concerning a cognitive image.

中文翻译：

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我所知道的——目的地认知图像潜在特征分析

目的

了解旅游目的地的多方面形象对于有效的目的地营销和管理策略至关重要。通常使用传统方法，包括目的地图像的概念化或对其前因后果的分析。本研究旨在倡导基于认知图像纳入游客的潜在档案，以丰富目的地营销和管理策略的评估和制定。

设计/方法论/途径

该分析重点关注塞尔维亚这一新兴旅游目的地，吸引了越来越多的首次游客、回头客和潜在游客。采用探索性因素分析和验证性因素分析来测试潜在维度（有形和无形文化目的地；基础设施和无障碍目的地；活跃、自然和家庭目的地；感官和好客目的地；以及热情、物有所值（VFM）和安全目的地）的认知目的地图像因素规模，而亚型（配置文件）是使用潜在配置文件分析（LPA）获得的。

发现

认知图像成分包含目的地的感知属性，无论是源自直接经验还是通过其他方式获得。该研究确定了以下概况： 传统目的地；感官愉悦且热情好客的目的地；热情、VFM 和安全的目的地；安全、活跃的家庭目的地和无障碍的文化目的地，这些目的地以其社会人口特征而单独呈现。

原创性/价值

该论文的主要贡献是应用一种新方法（LPA）来分析基于认知目的地图像的游客细分。从理论角度来看，这项研究有助于现有有关目的地形象的文献，从而有助于识别离散的潜在游客群体，并阐明它们之间关于认知形象的显着差异。