Francisco Tigre Moura, Kenneth R Deans, and Juergen Gnoth
University of Otago, New Zealand

DOES THE LOCALISATION OF CULTURAL MARKERS AFFECT USER’S DESTINATION IMAGE?

This paper represents a pioneer work on the discussion of the effects of the localisation of cultural markers on tourism destination websites on user’s destination image. First, a preliminary research was conducted on 130 sites in order to identify the cultural markers of New Zealand, Chinese and Indian tourism destination sites. Afterwards, an experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of the localisation of cultural markers on destination image. A fictitious tourism destination website was created for the purpose of this research and tailored for the New Zealand audience. In total, 400 students participated, performing tasks on the site and answering a survey. Results indicate that there are clear differences in the cultural markers of New Zealand, Chinese and Indian destination sites and that incongruent cultural markers lead to a more positive affective and overall image of the place.

Keywords: Destination Websites; Website Localisation; Cultural Markers.

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