DESTINATION COOLNESS AND TOURIST BEHAVIOUR

Abstract

The presented study makes a contribution to the existing literature on tourism, consumer behavior, and destination coolness. Moreover, the study dives into a deeper understanding of the specific dimensions of destination coolness that are more likely to impact tourists' behavior. Additionally, it provides valuable insights into the relationship between destination coolness and perceived social return, visit intention, and willingness to pay a premium price. These findings have important implications for destination marketers and managers given that they emphasize the importance of creating a destination image that is perceived as cool and attractive to potential visitors. This might serve as guidance to destination marketers and managers seeking to enhance their destination's appeal to potential visitors. Both a theoretical and a research component make up this master's thesis. The theoretical portion focuses on the literature review and relevant research done by other authors. Results from empirical research among travelers are presented in the second section. The main research aims of this master thesis are to provide a state-of-the-art literature review on the concept of perceived coolness of a destination, its antecedents, and consequences. Furthermore, to propose and test a conceptual model which examines the impact of the perceived destination coolness on social return, willingness to visit a cool destination, and willingness to pay a premium price to visit a cool destination. Lastly, to recommend effective branding and marketing strategies for developing cool destinations. Considering that this master thesis is related to the marketing aspect of coolness, it is important to dissect the marketing perspective of cool. Due to its nature, it is very hard to concretely and unanimously define what cool is. However, researchers do agree that "cool", on the whole, is regarded as a favourable and desirable quality (Sundar et al., 2014). Furthermore, Grossman (2003) states that coolness is an intangible component that can transform or dramatically increase the value of a certain brand of an otherwise interchangeable commodity.