Place Brand Performance Elements

The quality of the place experience is derived from the interfacing between host and guest, the outcome of which can make or break the place brand image. Providing quality service encounters is an especially daunting challenge for places where the guest or new resident comes from a different cultural background. Cultural differences are likely to result in miscommunication, which in turn makes it harder for front-line staff to understand guests’ expectations. Of course, repeated interaction between these hosts and guests will alleviate this problem through learning. Therefore, it is expected that familiarity with a certain place, and the level of involvement of the visitor with it, will influence the perceived image. The information acquired through personal experience or by visiting a place, forms the primary image, which may differ from the secondary image, which will be examined in Chapter 11. Indeed, some authors, such as Gartner and Hunt (1987), point out that post-visit image tends to be more realistic, complex and different from the pre-visit image, which is based on secondary sources of information. Echtner and Ritchie (1993) believe that the perceived images of travellers who are more familiar with a place is more holistic, psychological and unique, compared to first-time visitors, whose images are based more on attributes, functional aspects and common features.