National image and travel intention: Empirical findings from the film industry

Abstract

Cross-cultural communications, diverse audiences and a vast array of media choices make destination marketing challenging. Destination marketers have been turning to film as a way of promoting their locations to geographically disparate audiences. Indeed, they incorporate destination within the film so that viewers become ‘film tourists’ who develop travel intentions based on their experience with the film and their newly developed image of the destination. This study aims to identify specific film factors that contribute to destination image, and how these factors then link to travel intentions. We recruited Vietnamese respondents and examined the influence of Korean and Vietnamese films on domestic and international travel intent. Findings show that while Korean and Vietnamese films share similarities at influencing destination image and travel intentions, clear differences exist.