Projected Destination Image on the World Wide Web: Content Analysis of Online Textual Representations of Dubai.

The nature of tourism as a hedonic product, demands that narratives, which project destination images, represent the richness of tourism experiences and reflect multisensory, fantasy and emotional cues. Only a strong representation of the real identity of place and how it can be experienced, will build the perceived destination images that lead to visitor satisfaction. As a case study, the online textual representations of Dubai are content analysed in order to identify the central concepts promoted online by the Dubai based tourism industry. Results show that private sector players still focus on facilities and activities and that the promotion of the rich culture, heritage and identity of Dubai is clearly left to the destination marketing organisation. There is a general lack of sensory or emotional cues and as a result the experiential nature of the product is hardly reflected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]