ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to identify the personality of Labuan Bajo and then compare the personality perceptions between local and foreign visitors. Labuan Bajo is one of the priority destinations designated by the Indonesian government located in East Nusa Tenggara. This paper adopted the brand personality construct from Aaker (1997), which has five basic dimensions, namely sincerity, excitement, competence, sophistication, and ruggedness. A total of 200 valid responses were obtained in this study and then analyzed using descriptive statistic. Independent t-test was also employed to unravel significant differences in local and foreign perceptions about the destination. The findings revealed that both local and foreign respondents perceived Labuan Bajo as ruggedness, sincerity, and excitement. Local visitors more portrayed the destination with ruggedness personality, while foreign visitors were on sincerity. The dimension personality of competence was perceived to be the least by the two cohorts. Among the five dimensions of destination personality, the two groups were significantly different particularly in their perception of sincerity, excitement, and sophistication. The results of the study may assist destination providers building appropriate branding and positioning strategies for Labuan Bajo.
