Purpose

This paper aims to identify the factors that foster an interest in opera and Opera Houses as a specific form of cultural capital and how the Opera House tourist constructs images of destinations from the cognitive, affective and conative dimensions.

Design/methodology/approach

A social constructivist methodology was adopted, and data was captured through online qualitative questionnaires from 226 Opera House tourists using a simple random sampling approach. These enquired about the development of their interest in opera and Opera Houses and the influence this exerts on their destination image formation process.

Findings

This form of cultural capital is mainly developed by exposure to art forms through family, social and further reference groups. Opera Houses project cognitive images of cosmopolitanism, affective images of social belonging and conative images of further opportunities to experience culture and leisure fostering destination loyalty and place attachment.

Research limitations

Productions of both opera and ballet are staged at Opera Houses, opening avenues for further research on either the opera or ballet tourist markets specifically using case studies across the ample spectrum of Opera Houses around the world.

Practical implications

In addition to the visual appeal and quality of cultural produce, tourism practitioners can use an Opera House’s projected affective images of social cohesion and togetherness to attract the Opera House tourist market. Opera Houses enrich a destination’s visual and cultural landscapes, cementing the need to preserve and promote their contributions to the destination’s cultural identity.

Social implications

This study highlights the need for cultural policy and audience development strategies that cultivate this type of cultural capital resulting in demand for and supply of cultural products that in turn stimulate the development of this niche cultural tourism market segment.

Originality/value

To the best of author’s knowledge, this is the first study that has approached the Opera House tourist from the destination image formation context.

中文翻译：

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文化资本和目的地形象：来自歌剧院游客的洞察

目的

本文旨在确定培养对作为特定文化资本形式的歌剧和歌剧院的兴趣的因素，以及歌剧院游客如何从认知、情感和意蕴维度构建目的地形象。

设计/方法/方法

采用了一种社会建构主义方法，并使用简单的随机抽样方法通过在线定性调查问卷从 226 名歌剧院游客中获取数据。他们询问了他们对歌剧和歌剧院的兴趣的发展以及这对他们的目的地形象形成过程的影响。

发现

这种形式的文化资本主要是通过家庭、社会和其他参考群体接触艺术形式而发展起来的。歌剧院投射出世界主义的认知形象、社会归属感的情感形象和进一步体验文化和休闲的机会的意蕴形象，以培养目的地的忠诚度和地方依恋。

研究局限

歌剧和芭蕾的作品都在歌剧院上演，为进一步研究歌剧或芭蕾旅游市场开辟了道路，特别是利用世界各地大量歌剧院的案例研究。

实际影响

除了文化产品的视觉吸引力和质量外，旅游从业者还可以利用歌剧院投射的社会凝聚力和团结的情感形象来吸引歌剧院旅游市场。歌剧院丰富了目的地的视觉和文化景观，巩固了保护和促进其对目的地文化特征的贡献的需要。

社会影响

本研究强调了文化政策和受众发展战略的必要性，以培养这种文化资本，从而导致文化产品的需求和供应，进而刺激这一利基文化旅游细分市场的发展。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是第一次从目的地形象形成背景接近歌剧院游客的研究。