Authors: Alexios Spyridon Bekyras, Antonios Giannopoulos

Title: One picture, a thousand words — an empirical investigation of destination image from the perspective of tourists and other tourism stakeholders: the case of Monemvasia

Abstract

The image of a destination is the set of all emotional and aesthetic features, such as the experiences, beliefs, ideas, perceptions and impressions that one has for a destination. The image of a place is also reconciled by other factors that affect it and are not other than the various players in tourism. Because of the importance of the image of a destination for its choice by the potential tourist, it is necessary to investigate it both at the customer and stakeholders level, in order to ascertain the coincidence or divergence of views. The data, on customer level, will be gathered through structured questionnaire on the internet while, on stakeholder’s level, it will be collected through conducted in-depth analysis of interviews with selected members of the touristic community of the destination. The case of Monemvasia, as a special historical place, with remarkable tourist activity and the investigation of its image, can lead to a better understanding of the already existing image shaped by both the stakeholders in terms of tourist offer (Businesses, Region, Municipality, etc.) as well as in terms of tourist demand (tourists - customers). It is important to find any negative and vulnerable points in the destination image and to identify and highlight its positive ones, in order to make the necessary improvements and interventions that will help to improve the image of Monemvasia as a tourist destination.