Destination Image, Perceived Risk and Intention to Visit

Within the experience of deciding about a vacation, does overall image of a destination is reflected in a tourist's perceptions and feelings? Subsequently, this image as a reflective second-order construct, is expected to be related to perceptions of risk. The authors study how 310 respondents accumulated mental representations about Colombia as a tourism destination. Their results show that destination image and perceived risk are two distinct variables used in the decision-making process. Most importantly, the proposed model is competing the hypothesis that affective image plays a mediation role. The insight for management: a tourist's image of a destination is strongly reflected in his/her affective judgments and related to perceived risk