ABSTRACT
Forty years of research have clearly demonstrated that destination image (DI) is nowadays an important field of tourism studies, more specifically destination marketing inquiry. However, an apparent absence of homogeneity related to DI theory and empirical work have led to a lack of theoretical framework, continuously pointed out by several researchers in the field (Baloglu & McCleary, 1999; Echtner & Ritchie, 1993; Fakeye & Crompton, 1991). This is mainly due to the fact that DI can be classified as an ‘umbrella construct’ which requires an evolutionary approach when investigating this field of research (Rodrigues, Correia & Kozak, 2011, 2012).
