Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
Generally, when referring to destination brand equity, four dimensions are taken into consideration: awareness, associations, perceived quality and loyalty. This research includes a fifth dimension which is cultural brand assets. The suggested model, centered on cultural destination brand equity, is tested from the view of international tourists staying in hostels in Istanbul. This research examines the relationship between enduring travel involvement and dimensions of customer based on brand equity for tourism destination. Moreover, relationship between future behaviors and consumer satisfaction is examined.
JEL Classification: M31; M37; L83.
Keywords: Enduring Travel Involvement; Destination Brand Equity; Place Branding; Customer.
1. INTRODUCTION
Destination branding topic is a new and popular field for researchers in branding literature. According to Yuwo et al., (2013), cities must build up influential city branding strategies to draw the attention of travelers' interest as possible alternatives to increase their tourism revenue. Popescu (2012) argued that besides its utility of traveler destination selection, city branding also improves the city's probability of attaining new investments, new residents, new financiers and tourists. Kladou and Kehagias (2014) defined destination branding as marketing activities to create a logo, name, symbol, other graphic or word mark for identifying and differentiating a destination from its competitors. Focusing on cultural destination brands, specific cultural assets have been investigated, either in terms of their impact on brand equity or on a specific brand equity dimension (Kladou and Kehagias, 2014). In the literature, Ferns and Walls (2012), Konecnik and Gartner (2007), Kladou and Kehagias (2014), Yoo and Donthu (2001), Lee (2009), Aziz, Kefallonitis & Friedman (2012), Bianchi & Pike (2011), Boo, Busser & Baloglu (2009), Chi and Qu (2008), Çetinsöz and Artuğer (2013), Dinnie (2011), Yuwo, Ford and Purwanegara (2013) have investigated place branding area.
The objective of this paper is to develop a measurement for cultural destination brand equity for Istanbul. The first objective of this paper is to develop a convinient and reliable model for assessing the evaluation of cultural destination brands. The model, which is developed investigates the effect of travel involvement on destination brand equity, the effect of cultural brand assets on destination brand equity, and the effect of brand equity on consumer satisfaction and future behavior. This paper is organized as follows. The literature review starts with...