Reexamination of the role of destination image in tourism: An updated literature review

Research on destination image has progressed quite significantly over the past decade. Analyzing these advancements was our main inspiration to create an updated literature review on destination image. In this paper, we update the literature reviews on destination image introduced in the former review papers (Chon, 1990; Echtner & Ritchie, 1991; Gallarza et al., 2002; Pike, 2002) and establish research gaps that have to be researched in the future. The goals were to execute an in-depth review of the relevant literature, to take a look at the current findings associated with the challenge of destination image and also to identify the methodological issues and implications of new information for potential research in the future. To achieve these goals, a detailed investigation of selected destination image research released from 1991-2011 was performed to review the latest findings. The result is a brief summary of the relevant literature developed on the subject of destination image, in the last 20 years.