Brand Cairns: An Insider (Resident) Stakeholder Perspective

Usually destination branding is looked at from the visitor's perspective. However, previous literature does not adequately address the perceptions that residents have of their own place of residence. The residents are a major stakeholder in tourism and their perspective has been overlooked, other than their views about tourists. To analyze this perspective, a structural model is developed to explain the formation of residents' attitude to their city brand (Brand Cairns) and further the path to explaining intentions of residents to act as "occasional tourists" in their own city. The statistical tests demonstrate the validity of the structural model.