Marketing and management scholars agree that organizations should focus on their core resources and capabilities in their effort to create a competitive advantage. However, tourism researchers and practitioners need more empirical evidence from emerging tourism destinations, viz. under what conditions can core destination resources and capabilities deliver this edge more effectively. Consequently, this paper examines the effect of core destination resources, namely natural resources, heritage resources and created resources on destination image, and the moderating effects of customer value and destination satisfaction. International tourists to Qatar (an emerging tourism destination) provided the data for the study. The results show that natural resources and heritage resources are significantly related to the destination image, but created sources are not. Customer value positively and negatively moderates the association of natural resources and heritage resources respectively with destination image. Destination satisfaction positively moderates the relationship between heritage resources and destination image. The findings suggest a preponderance of inimitable endowed resources over imitable created resources in explaining destination image, thus justifying a focus on the former when crafting destination benefits proposal to international tourists. Practitioners and policymakers should also emphasize the unique value of these resources, be mindful of price in/sensitive customers when making destination resources cost/benefit decisions, and deliver delightful experience to customers to enhance destination image. Detailed managerial and theoretical implications of the study are presented.

市场营销和管理学者一致认为，组织在努力创造竞争优势时应专注于其核心资源和能力。然而，旅游研究人员和从业者需要更多来自新兴旅游目的地的实证证据，即。在什么条件下核心目的地资源和能力可以更有效地提供这种优势。因此，本文考察了核心目的地资源，即自然资源、遗产资源和创造资源对目的地形象的影响，以及客户价值和目的地满意度的调节作用。前往卡塔尔（新兴旅游目的地）的国际游客为这项研究提供了数据。结果表明，自然资源和遗产资源与目的地形象显着相关，但创建的来源不是。客户价值分别正向和负向调节自然资源和遗产资源与目的地形象的关联。目的地满意度正向调节遗产资源与目的地形象之间的关系。研究结果表明，在解释目的地形象时，不可模仿的先天资源优于可模仿的创造资源，从而证明在为国际游客制定目的地利益建议时将重点放在前者上是合理的。从业者和政策制定者还应强调这些资源的独特价值，在做出目的地资源成本/收益决策时注意价格/敏感客户，并为客户提供愉快的体验以提升目的地形象。