Abstract—This paper discusses the impact of tourist’s socio-demographic characteristics on destination image formation process in the online environment specifically on the web. The goal is to analyse the influence of personal factors of tourists in different destination image components by inducing stimuli such as multimedia and information mediated by the web. Literature review on destination image in digital age has been done to examine the existing measurements on image formation and the advances in online environments. A three-dimensional destination model including cognitive affective and overall image was performed. The study evaluates the relationship between the dependent variables gender, age, marital status, education level, employment status and incomes, involving the destination image formation using several statistical tests appropriate to the type of data and sample distribution. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were used to identify the perceived image measurement scales in a virtual environment. The results indicate that some socio-demographic characteristics influence the perception of destination image in virtual environment. Hence, the destination marketing organization (DMOs) has to pay attention of market segmentation in its marketing strategies.

Index Terms—destination image, Virtual tourism experience, Internet destination Marketing

Cite: Célia S. Rafael and Aurélia R. Almeida, "Socio-demographic Tourist Profile and Destination Image in Online Environment" Journal of Advanced Management Science, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 373-379, September 2017. doi: 10.18178/joams.5.5.373-379