The international journal of tourism research tập 13, số 02, 2011 03 + 04

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
Published online 2 September 2010 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.802

Deterrents to Tourism Development
in Iran
Yeganeh Morakabati*
School of Tourism, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, UK
ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

There are parts of the Middle East that can
be regarded as being among the least
preferred tourism destinations in the world.
Research shows that travellers’ perceptions
of the region, as a whole, have been
damaged and that, for some nations, the
situation has gone from bad to worse. The
combination of a hard-line attitude towards
religion, oil and water shortages have led to
the onset of war and conflict, either among
countries within the region, or have resulted
in countries from within the region having
conflicts with countries located outside of
the region. This paper looks at the Middle
East in general and Iran in particular in
order to review its tourism potential and
explains how the process of its development

as a tourism destination has been hampered.
This research also attempts to discover why,
in spite of several attempts by the Iranian
government, tourism has failed to develop
to its true potential. The research is
informed by a questionnaire survey of
travellers together with a Mini-Delphi
Study of tourism academics. Copyright ©
2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

here are some regions of the world that
are stereotypically perceived to be subject
to greater risks of a specific nature than
others, where such risks may not even enter into
the mind of a potential tourist. For instance,
there are probably not many tourists who are
concerned about the risk of hurricanes when
booking their trip in Europe, although hurricanes (infrequently) do occur in that region.
However, there may be some concerns about
such natural phenomena if they are considering
booking a vacation between June and November in, say, the Caribbean. Similarly, the Middle
East may give rise to enhanced travel-risk perceptions because of political unrest and terrorism. However, one might expect that people
travelling within their own region of the world
to have lower travel-risk perceptions than if
they are travelling to a different region with
more unknowns and less familiarity. This is
because the assessment of travel risk is relative,
with people judging the risk of a potential destination partly based on their own sense of
norm. This paper examines the factors that may
give rise to enhanced travel-risk perceptions

and the damage to the image of the Middle East
in general and to Iran in particular.

Received 8 January 2010; Revised 23 July 2010; Accepted 23
July 2010

Keywords: Middle East; Iran; tourism; image;
risk.

T

THE TOURISM SYSTEM
Taking the tourism system into account
(Oppermann and Weaver, 2000), Leiper (1995)
defined it (see Figure 1) as having three fundamental elements as follows:
1. Tourists;
2. Geographical elements; and
3. The tourism sector.

*Correspondence to: Dr. Yeganeh Morakabati, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole,
Dorset BH12 5BB, UK.
E-mail:

In examining the attraction of a destination,
there are two main forces that can be influential in the mind of potential tourists. At its most
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


104

Y. Morakabati
destinations because it will form the basis of
the ‘pull’ effect and result in different demand
schedules (Glaesser, 2003). This knowledge
and image will also be coloured by the perception of travel-related risk for various destinations and vice versa. There are various kinds
of definitions adopted to describe the word
‘image’ in tourism research, and the World
Tourism Organizations (UNWTO) defines
it to be:

Figure 1. A basic tourism system. Adapted from
Leiper (1995) in Cooper et al. (2003).

elementary, without push factors, the decision
to travel does not take place; the pull factors
are necessary when determining the destination to which the traveller will go. The geographical elements are key features within the
tourism system, acting as the main motivating
factor to stimulate tourism activity. The
volume, value and type of tourism will depend
on many factors, such as quality, diversity,
accessibility of the location and the attractions,
accommodation and facilities offered. The destination is at the receiving end of the tourism
system and consequently benefits and/or
suffers from the events that may take place
between the start and the end of the vacation
journey. The following are the main pull factors
for a destination:
•
•
•

•
•
•
•
•
•

Geographic proximity to a market;
Accessibility to markets;
Availability of attraction;
Cultural links;
Availability of services;
Affordability;
Pro-tourism policies;
Peace and stability; and
Positive image.

This paper tends to focus upon the last two of
these factors.
Like any individual, the tourist’s knowledge
of the world is made up of experience, acquired
information, learning emotions and perceptions, and yield a specific image of the world.
This image is crucial in forming an individual’s travel preferences, their motivations and
their behaviour towards tourist products and
Copyright â 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ã The artificial imitation of the apparent form
of an object;
• Form resemblance, identity; and
• Ideas, conceptions held individually or

collectively of the destination.
Trommsdorff (1990, p. 121) describes image
as ‘a multidimensional construct made up of
denotative and connotative product characteristics, which simultaneously reflects the structure of a one dimensional attitude phenomenon’.
If the attitude towards characteristics was
illustrated along a good–bad range, ‘the image
has characteristics on several dimensions,
namely the subjective impressions of the product’s individual (non-material) characteristics’.
Image may be defined as the sum of beliefs,
attitudes and impressions held by a person or
group of people towards some phenomenon
(Crompton, 1979; Baloglu and Brinberg, 1997).
In general, images can be either descriptive
or evaluative (Walmsly and Jenkins, 1993).
Images are of immense importance in discretionary forms of tourism such as recreational
vacations, where the destination is not predetermined by business demands or social necessities. This is because the product, at least for
the first-time visitor, is an intangible one that
cannot be directly experienced prior to its
consumption. In these cases, potential visitors
must rely on their images in choosing one destination over another.
According to Glaesser (2003), the general
image of a country is built routinely and separately to the issue of whether or not the country
in question is a holiday destination. The image
is a result of ‘background data’, general information that consumers continually take in
during their everyday lives. It is the constant
news stream of political, economic and social
events as well as the impressions that have
been gained about the country’s products
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr

Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran
when actively seeking a destination. The
result of this background data is a nontourism-specific country image. As a rule, this
image is closely related to political or geographical borders that emphasise a country’s
characteristic details, including the population
characteristics, countryside, culture and landmarks, etc. (Meyer, 1981; Fakeye and Crompton, 1991; Mayerhofer, 1995). Glaesser (2003)
also points to the country’s political system
and its relationship with other nations as ingredients that help form the image in the mind of
the potential tourist. In that case, it is perhaps
important to include a national component of
consumers when trying to determine a country’s image assessment, similar to the way in
which cultural differences need to be taken on
board when undertaking analyses of risk
assessment.
Many tourists may consider Iraq and
Afghanistan to be high-risk destinations as a
result of the lasting political tensions. Therefore, they are likely to prefer products from
‘free’ countries rather than those from ‘un-free’
countries (Lebrenz, 1996; Sonmez and Graefe,
1998). A similar dimension is when consumers
judge products from more developed countries to be of a higher quality than those produced in developing countries (Lebrenz, 1996).
It can be argued that the use of these factors is
biased because it is based on stereotyping destinations into risk or quality categories, but this
is part of the process that often prevails when
individuals consciously or subconsciously
assess their travel risks. Baloglu and McCleary
(1999) define the categories of factors that
influence destination image (see Figure 2).

Destination factors

Perceptual/cognitive
Affective
Global factors

Personal factors

Psychological
Values
Motivations
Personality

Social factors

Ease of access
Age
Education
Marital status
Other including

Stimulation factors
Information sources
Quantity of
information
Type of information
Previous experience

Figure 2. Influences of destination image.

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

105
The issues of political stability and political
relations within and between states are
extremely important because they compound
the uncertainty elements that arise as a result
of the intangible nature of the travel experience; effective tourism depends heavily on
positive images (Chon, 1990; Echtner and
Ritchie, 1993; Gartner 1993; Bramwell and
Rawding, 1996; Dann, 1996a, 1996b). As far as
the tourism originating country is concerned,
the perceived risk of a particular destination is
really important because it is that perception
that may convert potential demand into effective demand. The reality is that tourists often
travel in order to experience travelling attributes such as relaxation, pleasure, peace, calm,
enjoyment, comfort, etc., and not to be exposed
to risks, other than where the travel is for
acceptable risks such as skiing or white water
rafting for instance. Anything that might
suggest exposure to enhanced risk levels, other
than those normally associated with their
activity, is not considered to be on the positive
side of the travellers’ equation. The way in
which tourists handle risk assessment is also
questionable because, often, the tourists’ basis
for fear is poor and has little to do with logic.
An example of this break between reality and
perception could be Egypt during the Gulf
war. Although in fact it was safe to travel, tourists perceived the risk to be too high and stayed

away (Santana, 2003).
Factors that also influence the risk equation
for potential tourists include the role that the
public sector plays in tourism development
and their attitude towards, and response to,
incidents. The media is also an important component in helping to form the tourists’ perceptions of a destination and determining the
effective attitude towards the political characteristics of a destination and its tourist image
(see Figure 3).
When tourists make their travel decisions, an
aspect of that decision will focus on travel risk,
of which there are a variety of forms including
those relating to physical harm, financial loss
and the risk of dissatisfaction from their travel
experience (Hall, 1994; Reisinger and Mavondo,
2005). For some tourists, this may be considered to be a positive aspect, but for the majority, the exposure to risk will be considered a
negative element (Roehl and Fesenmaier, 1992).
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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106

Y. Morakabati
World of mouth

Tourists

previous experience

Media reporting

Destination
Region

Media
and marketing

intergovernment

Generating
Region

government policies

Government
relation

and interest

Figure 3. Political instability, violence and image-making process. Adapted from Hall (1994) in Pizam and
Mansfeld (1996).

Although travellers may be informed about
various risks through media exposure or from
travel advisories issued by their governments,
this information tends to be partial and sometimes biased, in that often only the more spectacular incidents are brought to attention
(Bastide et al., 1989; Keown, 1989; Kone and
Mullet, 1994).
THE MIDDLE EAST
‘The image of the Arab world as gleaned

through the eyes of Western media is largely
negative’ (Aziz, 2001 in Harrison, 1992, p. 151).
The view of Islamic society in the 21st century
is one painted by brush strokes of oppression
(patriarchal), religious fundamentalism, political extremism, female suppression, violence
and lethal terrorist activities. This image results
from a number of terrorist attacks in the 21st
century by minority groups carrying the
Islamic banner. Furthermore, the image of the
Middle East is one that has been portrayed as
a theatre of war and conflict, from the Arab–
Israeli conflicts to the more recent war against
terror in Iraq, terrorism in Yemen, the Israel/
Palestine conflict and the nuclear issues in
Iran. All of these issues have coloured the
region’s image to one that is not the safest or
most stable region in the world. These conflicts
have, at times, been high intensity and, at
others, low intensity, masking the underlying
political failures, the resource disputes and the
refractive interface with western societies
where sanctions have provided ‘the unnatural
friction to development’ (Milton-Edwards and
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hincheliffe, 2001). Dobson and Marsh (2001)
describe the Middle East as ‘a theatre of violent
competition and high stakes’.
The Middle East, when isolated from the
political turmoil, offers a vast collection of

unique tourist sites, diverse climate, exotic
food and hospitable hosts, where hospitality is
fundamental to the way of life. The region can
reasonably be referred to as one of the world’s
original and most significant tourist attractions. Balch et al. (1996) reported:
Many people rank the region’s attractions
among the most important places to visit
in the world. The opportunities for expansion of cultural tourism, given the region’s
concentration of religious and historic
sites, can hardly be overestimated. At the
same time, there are tremendous opportunities in leisure tourism development
that capitalize on the region’s suburb
climate and other natural gifts. (pp. 5–6)
Some countries within the Middle East have
worked hard to overcome the low volume of
tourism activity through extensive marketing
campaigns and major investments and, as a
result, are doing well, such as the United Arab
Emirates or Saudi Arabia (the latter specialising in mass pilgrimage tourism). Indeed, in
spite of the hindrances to tourism development, the Middle East, as a whole, has recorded
quite strong growth rates in recent times,
ranking as the fastest growing region in the
world (2008–2007; see Figure 4). However, it
should also be remembered that this strong
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran

107

20
18
16
14

%

12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Middle East

Africa

Americas

Asia and the
Pacific

Europe

Figure 4. Regional growth (2008/2007). Adapted from UNWTO (2009).

60

50

Million

40
30
20
10
0
1990

1995

2000

2005

2006

2007

2008

Figure 5. Middle East international arrivals for selected years. Adapted from UNWTO (2009).

growth rate is being applied to quite a small
tourism base, and the absolute growth in
numbers (less than 60 million) is relatively
small (see Figure 5).
Table 1 shows tourist arrivals to the main

destination countries of the Middle East. Many
of the countries in the Middle East are dependent upon intra-regional tourists or pilgrimage
tourists and have limited traffic from outside
the region. Evidence from the literature suggest
that the perceived levels of travel-related risk
increases if the destination is outside the region
of the traveller’s normal place of residence
given (Morakabati, 2007). Taking this factor
and adding to it the specific concerns regarding travel to the Middle East provides some
explanation for the region’s relatively poor
inter-regional tourism flows. The exceptions to
this being Egypt, which has an abundance of
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

unique attractions and has had a more favourable political situation for western visitors than
many of its neighbours, and the Emirates that
have continued to increase their share of
tourism from Europe (see Table 1; Figure 6).
INTRODUCTION TO IRAN
The country of Iran, known as Persia until
1935, described by Baum and O’Gorman (2010,
p. 1) as a ‘combination of Persia and Islam’, has
its roots firmly embedded in over 5000 years
of civilization. However, it was also one of the
first countries to be occupied by the Islamic
armies coming out of Arabia in the seventh
century. In spite of this occupation, Iran has
managed to hold on to its distinctive culture
by, for example, retaining its own language
and attaching itself to the Shia interpretation

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108

Y. Morakabati

Table 1. Tourism in the Middle East and some selected countries
Rank

Country

2003

2004

2005

Political stabilitya

Control of corruptiona

20 273
9100
—
8244
3914
3368
2987

—
1903
—
1140
—
336
—
—
88

−0.53
−0.63
0.61
−0.91
0.06
−0.89
−0.2
−1.1
−1.1
0.76
−1.1
0.7
−1.42
0.1
0.06
−1.67

0.01
−0.02
0.89

−0.45
0.54
−0.66
0.34
−0.52
0.82
0.64
−0.50
0.93
−0.84
−0.78
0.79
−0.99

In thousands
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

17

Turkey
Saudi Arabiaa
UAE
Egypt
Bahrain
Syria
Jordan
Iran
Israel
Oman
Lebanon
Qatar
Yemen
Libya
Kuwait
West Bank Gaza

13 341
7332
5871
5746
2955
2788
2353
1546
1063
1039
1016

557
155
142
94.00
37

16 826
8599
—
7795
3514
3032
2853
1659
1506
1195
1278
732
274
149
91.00
56

Source: Adapted from UNWTO (2006) and adapted from World Bank (2009) (available from: />facts/menu.htm)
a
The two governance indicators are measured in units ranging from about −2.5 to 2.5, with higher values corresponding
to better governance outcomes.
UAE, United Arab Emirates.
90
80

70
60

%

50
40
30
20
10
0
Egypt

Saudi Arabia

Bahrain

Jordan

Syria

Figure 6. Market share of regional tourism arrivals (2007). Adapted from UNWTO e-library (2009).

of Islam (U.S. Department of State, 2005; BBC,
2006). The countries that are identified as being
in the Middle East are fluid, and it often
depends on the purpose at hand (Alavi and
Yasin, 2000). Iran is neither an Arab country,
nor one, according to the definition of the
UNWTO, that resides in the Middle East, and

yet it is often perceived otherwise. This misperCopyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

ception, however, may be a reflection of the
Islamic regime’s failure to generate a strong
positive country image. Internally, the poor
performance of the tourism industry in Iran
may not be seen as a depressing outcome, particularly from the point of view of the Iranian
government, which may feel that low levels of
tourism activity is a blessing and keeps the
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran

109

Figure 7. Iran’s complex political system. Source: BBC (2005).

country away from the poison of the western
culture and help preserve the traditional
Islamic culture (Harrison, 1992). Furthermore,
Said (2000, p. 189) noted that the failure of the
US media and officials to understand and
explain the Arab and Muslim world has created
a bigger gap between the West and perhaps
Iran. In particular, Said (2000) argued that
‘Muslims and Arabs are essentially covered,
discussed, and comprehended either as suppliers of oil or as potential terrorists’. Iran may
not have the tourism, but its oil export revenues account for around 80–90% of its total

export earnings and 40–50% of the government’s total budget (Burke, 2007).
Iran’s late 20th century developments, particularly since the 1979 revolution, has created
a volatile backdrop to the balance of ‘Persia
and Islam’ (Baum and O’Gorman, 2010), resulting in many Iranian’s referring to themselves
as being Persian rather than Iranian in order to
either protect themselves from the negative
image created by the current regime or to make
a statement about their opposition to the direction in which Iran is travelling. The revolution
brought forward the idea that ‘religion and
politics are inseparable’, introducing a complex
system of government in Iran (see Figure 7)
that has compounded the hindrance towards
tourism development. However, since Mossadegh (Iranian Prime Minister, 1951–1953), who
established the National Front of Iran or Jebhe
Melli, there have been some attempts to create
a policy of secular government, thereby separating political and religious destinies, but
under the Islamic regime, this idea has faded.
Some argue that a handful of religious extremists are holding the entire population of Iran to
ransom, although others (Simpson, BBC, 2006)
believe that some kind of democracy still exists.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The period since the revolution has not been
conducive to fostering tourism development.
Difficulties in relationships with the USA have
become common news fodder. The seizure and
holding of the US Embassy in Tehran for 15
months, the term ‘axis of evil’, the disastrous
war with Iraq from 1980 through to 1988 and
the nuclear development in Iran have added to

the pressures on the country and its destination image. Hoffman (1997) in Enders and
Sandler (2000) noted that the takeover of the
US embassy in Tehran changed the nature of
terrorism, and there has been an increase in the
severity of terrorist attacks from that time
onwards, and that event, according to Norris
and Ken (2003) and Aburish (1997), stereotyped Muslims and Arabs as being the instigators of terrorism and violence. The external
sanctions placed on Iran also hinder tourism
development, and Simpson (2006) and Hiro
(1985) suggest that the sanctions do not directly
hurt those in power, but hurt the poor and
unprotected and provide the right breeding
conditions for black markets and corruption.
THE TOURISM INDUSTRY IN IRAN
It is generally said that Iran’s backward
tourist sector is the product of ill-advised
and harmful attitude of some local officials and the propaganda campaign
launched against the country by hostile
powers. Seeing the state of affairs, one is
bound to think that officials in charge of
this industry do not know what they are
in for, nor do our policy-makers realize
how helpful tourism can and should be
in attaining higher growth and create
jobs. (Iran Daily Newspaper, 25 March
2005).
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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110

Y. Morakabati

Iran’s tourism pedigree stretches back to the
time of Marco Polo and beyond. Its location as
a land bridge between Asia Minor and Asia
made it a natural transit route before air transport for world travellers for trade, religious
endeavours or leisure. The country’s environmental assets and exotic culture, combined
with a versatile climate and major heritage
assets, provide it with a sound platform from
which to build a diverse, unique and dynamic
tourism industry. In spite of the fact that Iran
ranked in the top 10 countries with respect to
its ancient and historical sites United Nation
Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), experts believe that its costal
areas, mountains, deserts and rivers have
remained untapped because the state has either
ignored or given too little attention to the
tourism industry. Following the political
changes in 1979, there was a significant fall in
the level of tourism activity as tourists, particularly those from outside the region, voted with

their feet and sought alternative destinations
such as Turkey.
To give some idea of Iran’s past performance
with respect to tourism, it was considered to
be ‘the Middle East’s top tourist destination
during the period 1967–1977, when Egypt,
which has one of the world’s Seven Wonders,

was (only) ranked 14th in the region’. In 1977,
the country attracted 70 000+ US visitors
(reduced to only 800 visitors in 1995; Alavi and
Yasin, 2000, p. 13). The various tourism sectors
in Iran also reflected this performance when,
in the 1970s, Iran Air was seen to be the fastest
growing airline in the world and one of the
most profitable (Iran Chamber Society, 2008).
By 1976, Iran Air was ranked second only to
Qantas as the world’s safest airline. Currently,
with respect to its safety record, Iran Air cannot
secure a place in the top 30 airlines in the world
(see Figure 8), which can, to a large extent,
be attributed to the lack of availability of
bona fide spare parts and maintenance

30

25

20

15

10

5

Air Zimbabwe

EgyptAir

ValuJet/AirTran

Nigeria Airways

Garuda Indonesia

Midwest Express Airlines

Avianca

Iran Air

SilkAir/Singapore Airlines

Olympic Airways

Swissair

Aerolineas Argentinas

Malaysia Airlines

Iberia

Braathens SAFE

South African Airways

American Airlines/Eagle

United Airlines/Express

Lufthansa

All Nippon

0

Figure 8. Air accident rate by some selected airline (2004). Adapted from />statistics/
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran

111

200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0

1970

1978

1979

1980

2007

IRAN

2,209

20,213

26,218

13,385

93,440

UAE

605

10,384

14,991

23,087

165,358

Turkey

794

2,965

3,475

3,734

138,629

Egypt

985

4,762

4,583

7,263

41,243

Figure 9. GDP by export of goods and services: current prices (millions US$). GDP, gross domestic product.
Adapted from: />pcFlag%3a0

activity through the operation of the economic
sanctions.

In terms of gross domestic product (GDP) by
export of goods and services, Iran’s performance paints an even more depressing picture
(see Figure 9). As can be seen, in the 1970s, Iran
recorded the highest GDP from the export of
goods and services among its competing countries such as Turkey, Egypt and the Emirates.
However, this position has been reversed, following the revolution in 1979, and despite an
increase in oil exports, Iran has fallen behind
Turkey and Egypt with respect to the value of
its exports of goods and services and behind
Egypt, Turkey and the Emirates when tourism
receipts are included in the measurement.
Over the past 30 years, concurrent with the
organised expansion of tourism in countries
such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco,
Tunisia and some Persian Gulf Arab states,
Iran has only received 5% of the $80 billion
Islamic tourism market (Iran Daily, 2004). In
terms of arrivals, Iran welcomes less than two
million arrivals annually, which is also behind
the arrival numbers of countries such as Syria
and Jordan. It can also be argued that most of
these visits are either Visits to friends and relatives (VFR) or business travel, but this is hard
to substantiate from the figures available (see
Figures 10–13).
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

To add to these problems, there has also
been a lack of efficient planning and management for the future of tourism. Tourism has
not yet been considered as a major economic
priority, although there have been signs of

development potential (United Nation Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the
Pacific [ESCAP], New York, 2001). Many officials in the country have argued that tourism
in Iran is a key to economic development
(Iran’s Tourism Master Plan, 2002 Maldives
11th–13th February 2002), but others have
argued that the plan can never be effective. In
2005, one of the members of the Cultural Commission in the Iranian parliament called for the
adoption of a National Policy on tourism,
noting that foreign models should be avoided,
and criticised the ‘luxuries approach’ used
elsewhere to attract high-spending tourists
(Iran Daily, 15 August 2005). Ghadery (2006 in
Iran Daily) suggested:
. . . the industry will not improve as long
as its status in the national economy
remains unclear.
According to statistics released by the Oil
Ministry, it requires $70 billion worth of
investment in order to export five million
barrels of oil per annum. Rahimipour, an
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112

Y. Morakabati
3000
2500
2000

1500
1000
500
0
2000

2001

2002

2003

Arrivals(000's)

2004

2005

2006

Expenditure(US$ Millions)

000's

Figure 10. Arrivals and expenditure in Iran (2000–2006). Adapted from UNWTO e-library (2009).
50000
45000
40000
35000
30000

25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0

2000

2003

2004
Iran

2005

2006

Middle East

Figure 11. International tourism arrivals to Iran and the Middle East. Adapted from UNWTO (2009).
7
6
5

%

4
3
2

1
0
2000

2003

2004

2005

2006

Figure 12. Iran’s tourism share in the Middle East. Adapted from UNWTO (2009).

official within the Iran Cultural Heritage and
Tourism Organization, noted that injecting
this $70 billion into the tourism sector could
revolutionise the whole industry, and added
that just 1% of the funds allocated to other
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

industries flows into the tourism sectors (Iran
Daily, 25 May 2005).
The problems with tourism development in
Iran are neither new nor simply related to the
government’s current nuclear programme.
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran

113

40.00
35.00
30.00

%

25.00
20.00
15.00
10.00
5.00
0.00
Ratio

1970

1977

1982

2004

33.20

34.00

4.45

9.86

Figure 13. Ratio of tourism arrivals in Iran to Turkey for some selected year. Adapted from http://www1.
american.edu/ted/iran-tour.htm and WTO year book

Both before the Shah and after, Iran’s strategic
positioning (neighbouring Russia, its coastline
along the full length of the Persian Gulf) gave
it unrivalled power with respect to shipping in
the Persian Gulf. Its potential role in the Persian
Gulf and the Middle East in general has made
the country an ongoing preoccupation of the
USA (Kanter, 2003). Hiro (1985) argues that
even if the Iranian revolutionaries had stopped,
once they had overthrown the Shah, Washington would still have found it difficult to live
with Tehran. However, the revolutionaries
went much further than this. Although, after
three decades, the ideology of Islamic revolution is crumbling and turning secular, the conflict remains (Tellier, 2006).
METHODOLOGY
Whether the occurrence of negative events is
increasing, or whether it is that the negative
events now have a more disturbing impact, or
whether simply that the mass media influences
people in terms of their perception of risk, the
end result is the same: people have become
more aware and concerned with respect to the
risk issues when they travel as tourists. This
paper attempts to examine the views of a select

group of tourism academics towards the
impediments of tourism development in the
Middle East in general and in Iran in particular. However, prior to examining the views of
the tourism specialists, the paper presents an
index of regional risk constructed from data
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

derived from a questionnaire survey (781
respondents) of travellers (see Table 2).
REGIONS AND RISK
The questionnaire survey was conducted using
both physical and online versions of the same
questionnaire. The physical survey accounted
for 418 completed questionnaires, and a further
363 were obtained from the online survey,
making a total of 781 questionnaires that were
completed. Of the completed questionnaires,
322 were male respondents (41.2%) and 437
(56%) were female respondents (and 22 of the
online respondents failed to identify their
gender). The age of respondents ranged from
16 to over 60 years old, covering a wide spectrum of travellers (see Table 2).
The results (summarised in Figure 14) identify the concerns of specific risks for different
regions. For instance, they show that respondents were more concerned in terms of the
health risks they may face in Africa, whereas
they were more concerned with the risks associated with crime in Latin America. The Middle
East came out as a region where the respondents felt more concerned with three risks: terrorism; political unrest and cultural barriers.
However, putting this into perspective, more
people see Africa associated with health risks
than see the Middle East associated with terrorism and political unrest.

Based on the findings of the questionnaire
survey, it was considered that undertaking a
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114

Y. Morakabati
Table 2. Descriptive difference of respondents in terms of demographics

Age in band
<18
18–29
30–39
40–49
50–59
60+
Missing
Gender
Male
Female
Missing
Marital status
Married
Single
Other
Missing
Number of annual travels (X)
X=0

X≥2
25 < X ≤ 10
X > 10
Missing
Occupation
Student (1)
Employee (2)
Teacher (3)
Manager (4)
Retired (5)
Business (6)
Missing
Education
Primary
Secondary
Degree
Postgraduate
Missing
Region
Africa
North Africa
Latin America
Europe
Asia
Middle East
Missing
Religion
Christian
Jewish

Islam
Other
Not affiliate with any formal religion
Missing

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Frequency

Percentage

76
377
127
79
73
76
22

9.7
48.3
16.3
10.1
9.3
3.5
2.8

322
427
22

41.2
56.0
2.8

195
490
73
23

25
62.7
9.3
2.9

17
399
242
49
22
52

2.2
51
31.1
27
38
6.7

442

75
151
57
14
13
28

56.6
9.7
19.3
7.3
1.8
1.7
3.6

28
166
313
239
50

3.6
21.1
40.1
31
6.4

8
11
12

544
101
55
50

1
1.4
1.5
69.7
12.9
7
6.4

356
5
74
33
275
38

45.6
0.7
10
4.4
37
4.9

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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran

115

90.0
80.0

Frequency percentages

70.0
60.0
50.0
40.0
30.0
20.0
10.0
0.0
Africa

Crime

North
America
Political unrest

Latin
America

East Asia

and Paific

Natural disaster

Europe

Health

Middle East South Asia

Terrorism

Cultural barriers

Figure 14. Types of regional risk.

Mini-Delphi Panel Exercise would throw a
different, in more depth, picture of the perceptions of the Middle East and Iran. The MiniDelphi Panel was constructed from a group of
eminent tourism experts who have achieved
international reputations relating to tourism,
tourism development and/or tourism in the
Middle East. The main aim of the Mini-Delphi
exercise was to consider the ways in which the
image of a destination can change.
RESEARCH DESIGN
The structuring of group communications is an
essential component of the Delphi and MiniDelphi exercises. The contributions of individuals, through this technique, are able to
produce a group view that is not normally
achievable (Stitt-Gohdes and Crews, 2004).
Critical to this communication process are four

factors: ‘some feedback of individual contributions of information and knowledge; some
assessment of the group judgment or view;
some opportunity for individuals to revise
views; and some degree of anonymity for the
individual responses’ (Linstone and Turoff,
1975, p. 5; Rowe and Wright, 1999).
In selecting the most appropriate research
tool, however, Linstone and Turoff (1975) cautioned the researcher to consider the circumstances surrounding the ‘necessarily associated
group communication process’ (p. 6). They
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

suggest these guiding questions: ‘who is it that
should communicate about the problem, what
alternative mechanisms are available for the
communication, and what can we expect to
obtain with these alternatives’ (p. 6).
Wheeler et al. (1990) suggest that the Delphi
Panel needs to be balanced in terms of the successive rounds of the study. Gibbs et al. (2001),
in their study of evaluation guidelines for
multimedia software, used these criteria to
determine who should be selected and
invited to participate:
• Participants had published articles in the
last 5 years on a related topic;
• Participants had taught courses about the
topic; or
• Participants’ primary employment responsibilities related to these areas (p. 4).
The Panel of Experts used for the MiniDelphi Panel exceeded these criteria by some
margin in that all members had published in
refereed journals on issues of tourism, destination, the Middle East, terrorism and tourism,

etc.; all were on Editorial Boards or were
reviewers for international journals and were
active in the international community of
tourism academics.
Powell (2003) suggested that ‘heterogeneous
rather homogenous groups produce a higher
proportion of high quality, highly acceptable
solutions’ (p. 379). To motivate participants to
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 103–123 (2011)
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116
remain active and complete all the rounds in a
Delphi study, it is important that they understand the goal of the study and feel that they
are a part of the group. The participants
must also believe they are able to contribute
valuable judgments and help examine the
problem via discussion with their peers (StittGohdes and Crews, 2004).
It is clear that there is wide variation in
numbers of participants. Reid (1988), for
example, noted panel size ranging from 10 to
1685. Turoff and Hiltz (1996) noted that Delphi
studies commonly enlisted the support of 30 to
100 individuals. Guidance suggested that
numbers of participants would vary according
to the scope of the problem and the resources
available (Delberg et al., 1975; Fink et al., 1984;
Hasson et al., 2000 in Powell, 2003). Gordon
(1994) noted that most studies use panel sizes

of 15 to 35 people (which fit into the MiniDelphi category as used in this research). Smith
(1995) suggests that the panel size should be
determined by the number of experts available, which is typically 40 to 50, but adds that
successful Delphi studies have been conducted
with as few as four and as many as 904 panellists. The length of the list is unlikely to be
matched by the length of the active participants, and a researcher should generally anticipate an acceptance rate of between 35% and
75%. Murphy-Black et al. (1998) believe that the
more participants there are, the better, suggesting that as the number of judges increases, the
reliability of a composite judgement increases.
However, they also comment that:
There is very little actual empirical evidence on the effect of the number of participants on the reliability or validity of
consensus process. (p. 37)
Powell (2003) goes on to argue that the
Delphi Exercise does not call for the expert
panels to be representative samples for statistical purposes. The quality of the output of a
Delphi Exercise, it seems, is largely judged on
the qualities of the expert panel rather than its
numbers. Turoff and Hiltz (1996) suggested
that a good Delphi survey attempts to tackle
the problem from a range of different perspectives. Sometimes, this is reflected in the provision of questions for the Delphi Panel, which
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Y. Morakabati
facilitates approaching the problem both from
the ‘bottom–up’ and from the ‘top–down’
perspectives.
The academics have a significant role as a
primary source of data collection for this study.
In order to solicit the views of tourism experts
with respect to Iran and its positioning as a

tourism destination, a Mini-Delphi study was
undertaken. This mini-Delphi study enlisted
the support of 49 internationally respected
tourism experts, drawing mainly on the collective wisdom of leading experts in tourism from
the International Academy for the Study of
Tourism and Annals of Tourism Research.
However, many of those who were selected
are also in the current study of the literature.
The panel’s opinions were sought through
three rounds, with particular focus on the
travel-related risk aspects in general and the
Middle East and in Iran in particular. Of
the initial 49 academics contacted, 35 responded
positively. However, there was some wastage
from this initial group of willing academics,
and the Mini-Delphi panel finished with 26
members having completed all rounds. All the
three rounds of the exercise took the form of a
letter dispatched by email from 2 March 2007
to May 2007.
FINDINGS
More than 90% of the panellists strongly or
very strongly agreed with the hypothesis that
the Middle East region’s tourism development
has suffered because of the perceived level of
travel-related risk (this was measured using a
Likert scale, and the changes of the expert
opinions from one round to another were measured using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test).
Many of the panellists believed that the solution to these difficulties lies in political rather
than tourism industry developments. However,

there was some despondency in that the majority of panel members felt that little could be
done to improve the political and ethical issues.
Some panel members also felt that the image
of the Middle East has suffered significantly,
and they felt that people were unable to differentiate between countries within the region
at present. Others felt that the perceived levels
of risk were not far from the actual, suggesting
that it is not just the perception of Middle East
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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran
that is dangerous, but it is also the ‘reality’.
Some panel members also drew parallels with
Northern Ireland where similar image problems, generated during the conflict period,
have caused tourism development to falter.
Many of the panel members suggested that
the solution to better tourism development
requires an enhancement in the levels of safety,
and that the Middle East would need to generate confidence in the tourists’ minds about
their sincerity with respect to fighting terrorism. Furthermore, as we have seen, the Delphi
panel members were not convinced about the
importance of cultural barriers. The panel suggested that there is a need for awareness programmes for the indigenous population so that
they become more tolerant towards foreigners,
curbing extremist propaganda, which urges
locals to hate or kill foreigners. Some anecdotal
evidence mentioned by panel members
included:
As the Middle East features almost daily

new reports of hazardous incidents in
one country or another in the Middle East
it is hard to imagine that the area as a
whole can reduce the image. There are, of
course, some notable exceptions such as
Dubai but until the troubles are resolved
the problems are not ‘perceptions’ but
‘reality’. Foreign Office guidelines will
not remove high risk destinations until
their status is changed and this will have
an impact on people’s likelihood to visit.
Egypt has demonstrated that terrorist
events can be overcome but it does need
a consistent level of stability to do so.
Nothing — Image is like a brand. The
second hardest thing in branding is to
change the brand. The hardest is to create
it. As a westerner, the brand identity/
destination image of the Middle East is
one of being unsafe however; it can
change by targeting new markets, such as
Russia and former Russian Republics.
Focus on their present markets and try
to increase visitation and length of stay
from them rather than spending a lot of
time and money with the newer western
markets.
Stress the positive aspects of tourism in
each destination;
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

117
Provide good, reliable information to
the tourists and travel agents;
As far as possible ‘steer’ the tourists to
the relatively risk-free areas of the
country.
You have to define your terms. Middle
East is broad for most people and includes
most of the Arabian Peninsula, as well as
Israel and its neighbours. Yes, it has an
effect on tourism to Israel, Syria, Jordan,
and the Lebanon. But it does not have an
effect Egypt, Saudi, Dubai all for various
reasons. Israel survives only on religious
tourism and Jewish commitment tourism.
Egypt is ok but cannot diversify. Saudi is
Ok because of the Haj and Dubai is Ok
because of $$$.
. . . but presenting an image that Dubai
is liberal, westernised, fashionable, new,
luxury, fantasy, business-as-usual, everybody-is-welcome, even though not far
across the water the war is still on-going.
It is a really good PR that Dubai did.
Aggressive marketing, price cut (it is
really cheap holidaying in Dubai), government-led tourism development, tolerance towards everything from religion,
drinking, drugs etc (as long as you don’t
get caught). Also Dubai establishes itself
as a safe, secured, law and order, clean,
affordable luxury destination.

The Mini-Delphi suggested that there is a
travel pattern in the Middle East, and that
countries can be put into three categories:
• Very high risk (I must not go);
• High risk; and
• Average risk.
In contrast with most of the comments, one
of the panellists believes that ‘there are “hot
spots” of risk in many places — including
many American cities, or almost at any soccer
game. The perceived risks outside these certain hot
spots, including many areas within the Middle East
are not higher than elsewhere.’
Many of the panellists generally believed
that Iran is a very desirable destination; its
exceptional culture, history and art are major
attractions, and that it is blessed with many
unique tourist sites and, contrary to the impressions given above, friendly hosts. However,
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118

Y. Morakabati
90
80
70
60

%

50
40
30
20
10
0
Germany

USA

Italy

UK

Canada

France

Spain

Figure 15. View of Iran’s negative influence by some of the top tourism spenders. Adapted from: http://
www.worldpublicopinion.org
120
100

%

80

60
40
20
0
Iran

USA

Russia

China

India

Negative

Great
Britain

France

Japan

Europe

Positive

Figure 16. Countries’ influence in the world. Adapted from Global Scan, PIPA, University of Maryland in
BBC (2 March 2006). *Number of States where most people responded by saying a country’s influence in the
world is mainly positive or negative. Based on 39 435 people in 33 states (fieldwork: October 2005 to January

2006).

running counter to this, the majority either
very strongly or strongly agreed with the suggestion that the travel risk perception of Iran
is the main hindrance to the development of
tourism activities (see Figures 15 and 16). The
panellists went on to suggest that the high risk
perception had been created through political
means such as anti-western attitudes and religious restrictions (i.e. not female friendly).
They also suggested that the problems are
probably not safety issues as a result of terrorism or crime, and that the issue of perceived
risk in travelling to Iran is more complex than
for other countries of the region. However, one
of the respondents suggested that:
It isn’t travel risk in the country that
causes people not to travel there — it is
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

basic cultural ignorance and a fear of the
unknown.
Some see the resolution to solving the political differences between Iran and the West as
really being between resolving the issues
between Iran and the USA. It is imperative that
a solution is found because, while Iran is
labelled as a harbourer of terrorists and a
hostile nation by the USA and other countries,
one cannot expect it to be successful in developing its tourism:
Actions such as this will ensure the failure
of Iran to develop a tourism industry
based upon western clients. The position

could alter dramatically if the political
situation were to change. Iran would
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Deterrents to Tourism Development in Iran
receive considerable pent-up demand
from long-haul tourists in Western
Europe and North America.

119
internationally branded hotels in Iran, such as
the Hilton and the Hyatt, were closed.
CONCLUSION

A few suggested that too much emphasis is
placed on the political problems and instead
argued that Iran suffers from some fundamental
product and process issues, including an antiquated visa system, relatively high costs, poor
access and poor infrastructure, and that
Iran as a tourism destination is perceived as
being boring (hardly a recipe for successful
development!):
It will NEVER be an international destination until and unless these issues are
addressed. Politics are the least of its
worries, especially given that there is a
large and emerging non-western travel
market. . . It also suffers from an unclear
destination image.

. . . Until the risk of becoming a victim
of religious bigotry is reduced many will
avoid the country. The bad press about its
nuclear programme is, to my mind, of
secondary importance to the fear of
unprovoked danger by not believing in
their particular religious ‘brand’. Tourism
is about welcoming people regardless of
their race or religious beliefs and the perception of the way in which Iran is governed is that the religious leaders are
more powerful that its elected ones. There
is no clear demonstration that they wish
to welcome tourists and so if they do
want to become a popular destination
they will have to spend a lot of money
convincing would-be visitors that they
will be welcome.
To compound Iran’s tourism development
woes, the depreciation of its currency, which
fell dramatically in value from 1 US$ = 70
Iranian Rial (IRR), to around 1 US$ = 10 000
IRR over the past decade, although making the
destination ‘cheaper’ to foreign visitors with
stronger currencies, also makes it difficult to
invest in the industry, even if it were permitted
to do so. Iran has found it difficult to obtain
spare parts for its ageing fleet of Boeing aircraft, purchased before the 1979 Islamic revolution (BBC, 12 February 2002), and all of the
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Looking at the travel trends to the Middle East
(Aziz, 2001 in Harrison, 1992 and the WTTC,

2005 and UNWTO, 2009), tourist traffic to the
region has grown strongly in spite of the War
in Iraq and the on-going political tensions in
the region. In the context of political impediments to the development of tourism, the
purpose of this paper was to examine perceptions of the political issues and how they may
influence tourism to the Middle East in general
and Iran in particular. The main problem that
the Middle East faces, and in particular Iran, is
that, as a destination, it has suffered from an
abundance of negative political events that
create an image of it being a risky destination
to travellers, particularly to those from western
countries.
It seems that the disincentives resulting from
the war, the anti-Western stance of the revolutionary regime in particular against the USA,
concerns over human rights, the nuclear programme, in respect of which the International
Atomic Energy Agency, European Union and
many others have been strongly critical of Iran,
and the restrictions on visas (until 2005), all
seem to responsible for Iran’s poor image. These
provide an almost insurmountable task for the
tourism industry, which could provide the
much needed income and employment opportunities. Although there have been occasional
positive developments between Iran and the
West, each time, they have broken down and
resulted in more difficult resolutions.
West and in particular, the American
policy struggled to manage their relationship with Middle East. The American
deluded themselves by relying upon
European imperial power that simply is

no longer sufficient, developed surrogate
to fight their battles for the, and accepted
the burden of building-up the force necessary to arbitrate the balance of power in
the Persian Gulf. In the process they
toppled progressive governments, supported dictators, turned a blind eye to
Israeli atrocities in Lebanon and when it
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120

Y. Morakabati

situated them abandoned their closest
friend, as with Britain and France during
the Suez Crisis… The concern above all
else has been the relatively economic
dependence of the Western World on
Middle Eastern oil (Marsh and Dobson,
2001, p. 102).
Returning to Leiper’s model, the travellergenerating region is the generating force that
stimulates and motivates tourists to travel for
them. The pull factors, on the other hand, energise the whole tourism system and, in this
way, create demand for travel to a specific
region or destination. It is in this latter framework that Iran seems to falter; it does not create
the necessary pull factors to turn latent demand
into effective demand. In terms of the effect of
the image of travel-related risk on Leiper’s
system of tourism, Figure 17 shows Leiper’s

diagram with a fracture that separates the originating country from the destination. The fracture can be seen as a hurdle or threshold limit
created by travel-related risk perceptions. The
greater the level of perceived risk, the greater
the barrier to travel, and at some level of risk,
travellers will find it simply too high to tolerate
and will consequently seek alternative destinations where the perceptions are more favourable. The precise level at which the threshold
level of risk perception will stop travel will be
determined by the destination’s image, the
country and its image, the level of risk averseness of the traveller (which may also in part be
determined by the culture/country from which
they originate) and the nature of the risk perceptions involved.

Departing travellers
Traveller
Generating
region

Transit route

Tourist
destination
Region

Returning travellers

RISK

Figure 17. Leiper’s tourism system with risk
introduced.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

For Iran, the road to recovery and economic
growth is fraught with serious challenges.
However, the experiences of several countries
in the Middle East and the rest of the world
have shown that a mutual positive relationship
with the generating markets leverages the
ability of developing countries to compete in
the world market. Unfortunately, Iran’s strategic situation in the Middle East combined with
its rich tourism resources have never been
exploited for the economic development of the
country or to the benefit of the local people.
This paper suggests that although the five
major aspects of sun, sand, sea, sex and security are seen as a core to developing tourism in
most regions in the world, the sixth ‘S’, ‘Secularity’, seems to be critical issue when tourism
policies are being put into place and then it
may seen not unrealistic to say going for skiing
not to Austria to Iran.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 124–140 (2011)
Published online 22 August 2010 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.803

The Perceived Destination Image of
Hong Kong on Ctrip.com
Daniel Leung, Rob Law and Hee Andy Lee*
School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong,
China

ABSTRACT
This study examines the perceived
destination image of Hong Kong among
visitors from mainland China, as revealed
on the travel blog of Ctrip.com. Textual

analysis and the overall evaluation scores of
2247 blog entries indicate that this image is
positive in all aspects among these visitors.
They are particularly impressed by the
shopping experience, as both product
quality and prices are considered
competitive in Hong Kong. These visitors
also evaluate overall food quality highly,
although the high price of food and
accommodation leads to the perception that
Hong Kong is an expensive tourist
destination. Managerial implications are
discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley &
Sons, Ltd.
Keywords: online reviews; mainland China;
Hong Kong; destination image
Received 2 May 2010; Revised 22 July 2010; Accepted 26 July
2010

INTRODUCTION
Hong Kong, known as the ‘city of life’ and a
‘shopping paradise’, boasts a unique culture
that combines a Western lifestyle with Chinese
traditions. Although sovereignty was reverted

*Correspondence to: Hee Andy Lee, Assistant Professor,
School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong
Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon,
Hong Kong, China.
E-mail:

to mainland China in 1997, Hong Kong is still
perceived as different from mainland cities in
terms of its economy, culture and lifestyle,
which renders it glamorous and thus appeals
to many mainland visitors (Huang and Hsu,
2005). Since 2002, mainland China has been the
largest source of visitor arrivals in Hong Kong,
and the country has been the top generator of
tourist spending for five consecutive years
(Hong Kong Tourism Board [HKTB], 2009a). In
2008, mainland visitors accounted for 57.1% of
visitor arrivals to Hong Kong, with 16.8 million
of these visitors generating more than HK$53
billion (HK$7.8 = US$1) in tourism spending
(HKTB, 2009a). Given the geographical proximity of Hong Kong and its close political relationship with the mainland, it is believed that
Hong Kong will continue to be the preferred
destination for Chinese outbound travelers
(Qu and Li, 1997). According to the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University’s Hong Kong Tourism
Demand Forecasting System (The Hong Kong
Polytechnic University, 2009), the number of
arrivals from mainland China will increase to
17 million by the fourth quarter of 2012. It is
thus critical that tourism practitioners and
policy makers better understand how mainland Chinese visitors perceive Hong Kong if
they are to formulate appropriate marketing
strategies.
The convenience, comprehensiveness and
cost-effectiveness of information acquisition

and communication via the Internet lead to
the increasing number of mainland Chinese
visitors to use the medium to search for and
exchange travel information. According to the
China Internet Network Information Center
(CNNIC, 2009), the number of Chinese Internet users increased from 253 million in 2008
to 338 million in 2009. The Internet provides
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Perceived Destination Image of Hong Kong on Ctrip.com
new tools for learning about tourist destinations. Web logs, or blogs, are one of the most
popular sources for locating destination information (Cayzer, 2004). China is home to more
than 30 000 travel blogs as of February 2010,
with the figure expected to increase in the
coming years (TravelPod.com, 2010). Travel
blogs are important avenues for information
and support when making travel plans, both
for those inside a personal social network and
those outside it (Gretzel et al., 2009). The
growing reliance on such ‘electronic wordof-mouth’ (eWOM) is attracting increasing
attention from hospitality researchers and
practitioners to the destination images projected on travel blogs (Litvin et al., 2007).
Comprehensive research on how mainland
Chinese users of travel blogs perceive Hong
Kong as a tourist destination is thus of the
utmost importance.
The emergence of the Internet has drastically reshaped the information search behavior of potential visitors, with their image
formation becoming much more sophisticated
(Tang et al., 2009). As the perceived image

of a destination is the ‘collection of impressions that a person has of [that] destination’
(Crompton, 1979, p. 18), structured questionnaires with predetermined image attributes,
the methodology commonly adopted in
previous research, may not provide the comprehensive image of Hong Kong held by
mainland Chinese visitors. This study therefore adopted content analysis of blog entries
from Ctrip.com, the largest travel website in
mainland China (Huang and Law, 2002; Ye
et al., 2009), from 2002 to 2009. The study’s
objectives are:
(1) to investigate the positive and negative
images of Hong Kong projected in blog
entries on Ctrip.com;
(2) to examine the similarities and differences
between current and previous research
findings on mainland Chinese visitors’ perceived image of Hong Kong as a tourist
destination; and
(3) to offer managerial implications drawing
on the findings and recommend ways the
industry can reinforce the favorable image
of Hong Kong.
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

125

LITERATURE REVIEW
Tourists’ information search behavior
A substantial body of research suggests that
travelers engage in extensive information
searches due to the unique characteristics of
tourism products. Such products are intangible

in nature, involve both service and experience
and are often expensive. Thus, individuals
may have difficulties on evaluating these
products prior to purchase (McIntosh, 1972).
To reduce the perceived risks and cost of unfamiliar tourism products, individuals normally
search several information sources before
making a final decision (Schiffman and Kanuk,
2007). Fodness and Murray (1997) postulated
that information searches make travelers
aware of destinations, which reduces the level
of uncertainty and sometimes enhances the
quality of a trip.
As a major source of information and a
search medium, the Internet has been identified as a major influential factor in tourists’
information search behavior (Peterson and
Merino, 2003). Werthner and Klein (1999)
claimed that the Internet has become the most
effective means by which travelers acquire
information and purchase tourism-related
products. Gursoy and McCleary (2004) identified the Internet’s strong capability to provide
comprehensive, personalized and up-to-date
information as the major reason for the shift to
the use of it and other online resources as major
information sources for tourists. Lo et al. (2002)
also suggested that the Internet is a popular
means in travel information search among
inbound travelers to Hong Kong.
In view of these advantages, researchers are
confident that the demand for online searches
will increase (Li and Buhalis, 2006), especially

in mainland China. Findings of a Research and
Markets (2008) survey indicate that 66.7% of
mainland online users identify the Internet as
their main channel for tourism information.
Thus, the destination images projected on the
Internet should not be overlooked in this
population.
Travel blogs as eWOM
Due to the nature of tourism products, which
are intangible with a high degree of perceived
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 124–140 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr


126
risk, they are difficult to evaluate prior to purchase. To reduce the uncertainty associated
with purchase, potential tourists often rely on
the opinions and evaluations of a reference
group in the decision-making process (Lewis
and Chambers, 2000). The advice of consumers
with prior experience of tourism products is
particularly valued, and has been identified as
the most influential form of word-of-mouth in
shaping potential visitors’ decision-making
(Crotts, 1999). With the platform for information sharing gradually shifting to electronic
media, researchers are increasingly examining
word-of-mouth in electronic spaces or ‘electronic word-of-mouth’ (eWOM), which is
defined as ‘all informal communications
directed at consumers through Internet-based
technology related to the usage or characteristics of particular goods, services or retailers’

(Litvin et al., 2007, p. 461). One of the newest
and most popular electronic avenues for the
dissemination of word-of-mouth is to use
blogs. Blogs (the term originated from web
logs) are websites consisting of familiar and
frequently updated entries in reverse chronological order (Blood, 2004). As of October 2009,
there were more than 200 million blogs on the
Internet (Appleyard, 2009), with 40 000 new
blogs coming online each day (Baker and
Green, 2005). In mainland China, 53.8% of
Internet users have a personal blog space
(CNNIC, 2009).
Although travel blogs provide travel and
tourism practitioners with new ways of distributing information to and communicating
with consumers, they also provide travelers
with a platform to exchange travel information
and experiences (Douglas and Mills, 2006).
Compared with destination websites, which
tend to present only the positive aspects of a
location, travel blogs contain more authentic
information that is based on the bloggers’ personal experiences of a destination (Sharda and
Ponnada, 2006). As a result, bloggers tend to
trust online blogs more than traditional types
of media (Johnson and Kayne, 2003). Analysis
of travel blog content is thus clearly meaningful and worthwhile.
In recognition of the development and marketing power of travel blogs, research interest
has recently turned to the destination images
they project (Wenger, 2008; Tang et al., 2009).
Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

D. Leung et al.
Although Hong Kong is the preferred destination for Chinese outbound travelers (Qu and
Li, 1997), few hospitality and tourism studies
have focused on an examination of the destination image of Hong Kong projected in online
information sources, particularly blogs, on the
mainland.
Destination image
Consumer behavior and hospitality and
tourism studies generally define destination
image as the overall impression of a destination (Gallarza et al., 2002). Crompton (1979, p.
18) defined it as ‘the sum of beliefs, ideas, and
impressions that a person has of a destination’.
Such images are established on the basis of
information processing from a variety of
sources over time (Gartner, 1993). Baloglu and
McCleary (1999) postulated that destination
image is an integral part of a traveler’s decision-making process, influencing consequent
travel behavior, potential travel intention and
consumption patterns. Hence, tourist perceptions of destinations are a clear indicator of
destination quality and of the satisfaction and
decision-making and post-purchase behavior
of potential travelers.
Various studies have examined the effects of
a positive destination image on behavioral
intent and revisit intention (Gartner, 1993;
Chen and Kerstetter, 1999). Destinations with
stronger positive images tend to be favored in
the decision-making process (Chen and Kerstetter, 1999). Additionally, travelers tend to
revisit a destination once their perceived image
of it matches their post-visit perceptions

(Milman and Pizam, 1995). Hence, it is believed
that destination image is one of the generators
of tourist loyalty to a destination. The findings
of this study on the perceived image of Hong
Kong among visitors from mainland China
will thus have significant implications for
hospitality managers and tourism authorities,
and should help to reduce the likelihood of
an unfavorable destination image in this
population.
Structured methodologies, particularly
semantic and Likert scales, are commonly used
to analyze destination image (Gallarza et al.,
2002; Echtner and Ritchie, 2003). However,
many researchers argue that a qualitative
Int. J. Tourism Res. 13, 124–140 (2011)
DOI: 10.1002/jtr