Examining the role of familiarity, information sources, length of stay and satisfaction to the image perception model

Abstract

This study examines the effect of familiarity on information sources and the length of stay in a destination, and how these concepts, in turn, affect the image perception model. Data was collected from 603 structured personal interviews carried out in Barcelona (Spain) and structural equation modelling methodology was used to test the hypotheses. Results show that tourists familiar with Barcelona are less likely to consult tourist information. The paper also presents evidence to suggest that the length of stay is the same whether tourists are familiar with the destination or not. Furthermore, we argue that tourist satisfaction is influenced by both cognitive and affective evaluations and that information sources partially influence cognitive evaluations, affective evaluations length of stay and satisfaction. Until now literature has only indicated a tentative relationship between length of stay and destination image, however the outcomes of this study prove that the length of stay in a destination alters its tourism image.