The role of destination personality fit in destination branding: antecedents and outcomes

Drawing from fit research in strategic management, this study develops and investigates a model predicting destination attitude and (re)visit intention. The study introduces the concept of destination personality fit on the basis of how well consumer perceptions of a tourist destination's brand personality fits that of what the destination brand manager wishes to convey. A model incorporating destination advertising awareness as an antecedent of destination personality and consumer-manager destination personality fit is tested on international consumers with the destination personality of Switzerland as the study setting. Structural equation modeling results reveal that destination advertising awareness does indeed relate positively to both stronger perceived destination personality and destination personality fit in consumers’ minds. Interestingly, the subsequent destination personality–destination attitude relationship is moderated by consumer–manager destination personality fit in such a way that the link grows stronger in cases where fit is high. The results have important implications for destination brand managers in that they reinforce the importance of strong and distinct destination personalities. The findings also show the importance of actively communicating the destination brand to consumers since the positive outcomes of a strong destination personality increase in magnitude when successfully communicated, and the vision of the destination brand manager has been adopted by the consumer.