Cool cities have an appeal with tourists and destination managers intuitively know that being considered cool pays out. Yet, existing literature does not provide an answer for what ‘destination coolness’ is and what attributes characterize cool cities. The current research is the first to address these important questions. The author employs a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies to conceptualize destination coolness and thereby identify what makes a city cool in the eyes of tourists: Cool cities are perceived as authentic, rebellious, original and vibrant. In two consecutive quantitative studies, the author develops a multi-dimensional reliable, valid and parsimonious coolness scale, and documents its importance for research and practice empirically. Coolness is an important driver behind relevant attitudinal and behavioral phenomena, such as intention and actual visit behavior, a destination's social return and city-self connection. The author concludes by explaning the implications of the study and paving new research avenues.

凉爽的城市吸引着游客，目的地管理者凭直觉就知道被视为凉爽的支出。但是，现有文献并未提供关于“目的地凉爽”是什么以及凉爽城市所具有的特征的答案。当前的研究是第一个解决这些重要问题的研究。作者采用定性和定量研究相结合的方法，将目的地的凉爽度概念化，从而确定了使游客感到凉爽的城市的原因：凉爽的城市被认为是真实的，叛逆的，原始的，充满活力的。在连续的两次定量研究中，作者建立了多维可靠，有效和简约的凉爽量表，并从经验上证明了其对研究和实践的重要性。冷静是相关态度和行为现象（例如意图和实际访问行为，目的地的社会回报和城市与自我的联系）背后的重要推动力。最后，作者通过阐述研究的意义并铺平了新的研究途径。