ADVERTISING RECALL AND PERCEPTIONS OF CARTAGENA AS TOURIST DESTINATION: A RELATIONAL STUDY

Abstract

The city of Cartagena in Colombia is recognised worldwide as a tourist destination with great wealth in terms of historical and cultural heritage. Tourists from all over the world visit the city and have diverse experiences and opinions about the city. Advertising communication and the media contribute to the positioning of the city-brand with members of the tourist communities, understanding that each of them has separate places of origin, varied ages, and different consumption of media. The objective of this study was to investigate the perception that a selected tourist community has about Cartagena as a tourist destination, considering demographic factors and the recall of advertising communication about the city in different media. After analysing the results from a survey of more than 400 tourists during a three-month period in 2023, it is concluded that their perception of the city is structured by a combination of positive and negative opinions. The place of origin, the age range and the various media have different relations with regard to the recall of advertising messages about the city, which encourages the development of tourism promotional strategies based on demographic and psychographic factors.