Tourism Issues and Destination Image Development in Current Tourism

Tourism Issues and Destination Image Development in Current Tourism

Pande Gde Bagus Naya Primananda

Economic and Business Faculty, Universitas Pendidikan Nasional

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.915EC007

Received: 12 January 2025; Accepted: 16 January 2025; Published: 13 February 2025

ABSTRACT

This study discusses the current development of tourism. Specifically discussing issues about tourism and the development of destination image. The purpose of this study is to discuss issues about the world of tourism, especially overtourism and the development of destination image from 2021-2024. In this study, 23 studies have been selected, and the results are a brief summary of destination image research based on the author’s name, year of publication, destination location, number of samples, type of sample, number of dimensions of destination image, number of Likert scales and statistics used.

Keywords: Destination Image, Tourism, Overtourism, Growth, Image

INTRODUCTION

The tourism sector after Covid 19 recovered. There are several tourist destinations that have been filled with domestic and international tourists. This is a good sign for tourist destinations because every tourist trip will have a positive economic impact on the community around the tourist destination. However, this positive situation will also bring new issues such as the inability of a tourist destination to manage the number of tourists who come (Mihalic, 2020), the development of social media that can promote a tourist destination cheaply or may be able to destroy the image of a tourist destination because of poor quality information besides the many risks that may occur when traveling which can also reduce the intention to visit again.

Social media has proven to be a powerful communication medium today (Azhar et al., 2022). This also applies to the tourism sector, which currently also uses social media as a tool to find information on tourist destinations that tourists want to visit (Primananda, et al, 2022). This is also supported by Adam, et al. (2022) who said that e-wom influences tourists’ intention to revisit. On the other hand, although social media is very important, there is still information that is not of good quality and does not correspond to reality on social media (Primananda, et al., 2022). This issue still occurs today, so personal experience is needed to add trust so that the intention to revisit can be created.

Traveling to a tourist destination can cause uncertainty that may occur. These risks can be physical, financial, performance, socio-psychological and time risks (Khan et al., 2018; Khasawneh and Alfandi, 2019; Yu et al., 2022). All of these risks must be faced by tourists when traveling. Duignan, et al. (2022) stated that a tourism activity can disrupt the culture and life of the local community in general. Cultural differences can also cause conflict with the surrounding community so that it can also be used as a risk. In addition, even though a tourist destination has a positive image, it is not free from the threat of criminal acts that can be carried out by the local community or fellow tourists.

The most common issue experienced by famous tourist destinations is overtourism. This issue occurs because of the large number of tourist requests for tourist destinations that can have an impact on the culture of the community and the social life of the community (Mihalic and Kuscer, 2021). The development of tourism that is currently trending is city tourism by visiting museums and seeing the lives of the surrounding community but will have a negative impact on the surrounding community (Koens et al., 2018). Overtourism has a negative impact on the psychology of the surrounding community such as being stuck in traffic jams, wasting time on the road and cultural differences resulting in feelings such as stress and frustration (Sever, 2023). This needs to be considered because the local community is one of the main pillars for the sustainability of tourism.

On the other hand, research on destination image also continues to develop, especially after Covid-19 has been controlled. Developments can range from existing issues to indicators that can measure the image of the destination. Respondents who are usually tourists can also be local people if the research discusses overtourism. The results of research on destination image found various findings, especially its influence on the intention to revisit, Nguyen and Duong (2024) found that the higher the nostalgic emotions of tourists can improve the destination image of a tourist destination so that it can influence them to be active in WOM communication.

Specifically, this study will discuss the issue of overtourism and the development of destination image measurement after Covid 19, especially those whose tourist destinations have experienced a surge in tourism demand. The limitations of the problem in this study are as follows

1. Issues about Tourism, especially Overtourism
2. Development of destination image research from destination location, number of respondents, Likert scale, statistical tools used and number of destination image attributes

LITERATURE REVIEW

Overtourism has become a current issue in several tourist destinations. Overtourism can be defined as excessive visitors coming to a tourist destination which can cause changes in the culture and lifestyle of the local community (Milano et al, 2020). The negative impacts of overtourism include rejection of tourism, tourists, policy makers and economic stakeholders (Gossling et al., 2020). However, the number of overtourism studies is still lacking to explain overtourism, especially how negative responses from the surrounding community and organized resistance are related to tourism initiatives.

Mihalic and Kuscer (2020) provide a model of how positive and negative impacts of tourism development can affect the quality of life of residents. The model also emphasizes that positive impacts of tourism can reduce residents’ impressions of overtourism. Any effort to reduce tourism development must be in the context of the destination from the perspective of all stakeholders such as residents, visitors, industry, networks, government, and the media.

Destination image in terms of tourism activities is still an important factor in changing tourist decisions. Adam et al. (2023) found that a good destination image can increase e-wom so that it can attract positive communication so that it can increase tourists’ intention to revisit. However, like many studies on destination image that already exist, the findings are not always consistent so this study is still very interesting to do. Libre et al. (2022) found that destination image did not have a significant effect on tourist satisfaction. This can be interpreted that a good tourist destination image is not enough to make tourists satisfied, if tourists are satisfied then they will plan a return vacation to the tourist destination.

METHODS

The analysis of this research was conducted using the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method, which is based on five stages, namely the first stage by conducting an investigation from 2021 – 2024. The search was carried out by searching for destination image keywords and what factors are related to destination image. The second stage is to search for relevant research. The third stage is to search for relevant research, namely those that include destination image and the number of citations is still small, which is still allowed because this study aims to find the latest developments in destination image. The fourth stage includes information in the article and the fifth provides the main findings of the SLR.

RESEARCH FINDING

To answer the problem limitations in Chapter I, namely the issue of overtourism, it will be explained in Chapter V so that Chapter IV will specifically discuss the development of destination images using the SLR Method from 2021 – 2024.

In table 1 below it can be explained that respondents who can assess the good or bad of a tourist destination are tourists. In this case, tourists are considered as the right respondents rather than local residents who are actually affected by tourism activities.

Table 1. Summary of research method used

Table 2. Overview of the statistical procedures used

In table 2, it can be seen how the majority of researchers use SEM-PLS to measure destination image. PLS is considered quite strong and can provide good results when compared to others. On the other hand, the use of a 7-point Likert scale is considered very good for further research because the more Likert scales can provide clearer answers and can provide better research results and findings.

DISCUSSION

The current issues of tourism after Covid-19 include the uncertainty that exists in tourist destinations. Khan et al. (2018) studied how female tourists aged 17-35 years travel and help strengthen the growth of the tourism industry. The increase in tourism can of course cause uncertainty such as security, safety, politics or terrorism issues. Yu et al. (2022) argue that after Covid-19 ends, tourists are still traumatized about the possibility of contracting Covid-19, this can cause psychological stress. Khasawneh et al. (2019) said that these risks can be divided into physical risk, financial risk, time risk, socio-physical risk, and performance risk. When associated with current issues, these five indicators can be a reference because tourists will face these risks and what impacts can be caused by the image of the destination and the intention of tourists to return.

The technology industry which continues to advance can be pioneered by the development of social media so that it can develop to this extent. However, much of the information on social media is still not of good quality, which can lead to misinformation (Primananda, et al., 2022). Every tourist who comes to visit a tourist destination will bring memories that can be used as wom to communicate on social media (Adam et al., 2023). This indicates the need for a good experience during a visit to a tourist destination so that it can produce good memories of the tourist destination so that it can communicate positively on social media. Apart from the large amount of negative information on social media, the government should intervene to create its own social media so that tourists can know where to find the right information. This is also useful for reducing the risk for tourists. (Primananda et al., 2022).

Tourism after Covid 19 has undergone a major change. Countries that are still on the red, yellow and green lists are struggling to achieve international travel standards that can boost their tourism sectors (Tesfahuney and Ek, 2024). Sustainable tourism, which traditionally encompasses three pillars, namely economic, environmental and socio-cultural capacity, is now expanded by economic, social and cultural capacity (Mihalic, 2020). Overtourism is the increase in the number of people in an area that causes population density. This condition causes permanent changes in the lifestyle of local people that can damage their well-being (Milano, 2020. Overtourism is another way of referring to the intensification of tourism in and around urban areas (Jover and Diaz-Parra, 2020).

Overtourism in this case is very detrimental to local communities so that there are several studies that use local communities as research respondents (Sever, 2023). Overtourism is considered due to the rapid growth of tourism due to the active government and private sector in promoting tourism coupled with the large demand for tourism followed by cheap prices, resulting in the number of tourists exceeding the capacity of tourist destinations (Seraphin and Ivanov, 2020). Mihalic and Kuscer (2021) research examines overtourism through three pillars that support sustainable tourism, namely economic, social and environmental. The same method was carried out by Blasquez-Salom et al.’s (2023) research, namely overtourism has three main dimensions, namely economic and demographic, cultural and environmental. Blasquez-Salom et al. (2023) also discusses undertourism, namely a tourist area that has great potential but is still unknown to tourists. Sever (2023) researched overtourism using stimulus overload theory and social exchange theory. The negative impacts of overtourism that cause stress can be adapted by local communities with the hope of continuing to support sustainable tourism.

The phenomenon of overtourism is still new so that various studies are still needed to create a concept of overtourism. The concept is very necessary because many famous tourist destinations have been affected by overtourism but have not been able to be controlled by the local government, causing negative reactions from the local community.

Destination image research continues to develop to this day. In this study, there are 23 studies that have been summarized that discuss destination image. Azhar et al. (2022) found that the effect of e-wom on revisit intentions and destination image as a mediating variable is the strongest influence of all variables. Azhar et al. (2022) took an approach using the TPB model approach. Phi et al. (2021) research located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This study divides destination image into three dimensions, namely cognitive image, affective image and tangible image which influence satisfaction, e-wom and revisit intentions. Soveini and Gaspar (2022) studied desert sports tourism. This study found that destination image is very important in building long-term relationships with tourists who like to do sports activities. Rehman et al. (2022) studied religious tourism by placing religiosity as a mediating variable between destination image and tourist satisfaction. Rehman et al.’s research. (2022) is the first study to add the moderating effects of tourist satisfaction and religiosity. Rehman et al.’s (2022) study found that religiosity plays a positive role between destination image and tourist satisfaction.

Research on destination image is a very diverse type of research, especially with the rapid development of the world of tourism. Tourism currently discusses more concentrated areas such as religious tourism, sports tourism, marine tourism and other types of tourism. This indicates that research on destination image will continue to develop plus the inconsistency of research that still exists in several studies can be used as a reference for further research with a different approach.

The issue of overtourism has occurred especially in world-famous tourist destinations. This condition is very detrimental to local communities but not many have discussed the losses from the perspective of tourists. The concept of overtourism has not been established as stated by Koens et al. (2018) but the concept of Mihalic and Kuscer can be used for further research using the three pillars of sustainability of a tourist destination, namely economic, social and environmental.

Future research could discuss how important e-wom is to destination image. This research has been used as a reference by Adam et al. (2023) and Azhar et al. (2022). This research is very interesting to be conducted in different locations of course with several variables such as perceived risk or perceived value. Risk is something uncertain that will be felt by tourists who come to travel and value is something that tourists will feel after visiting the tourist destination.

The moderating effect of religiosity as Rehman et al. (2022) can also be carried out in further research. An approach with the Theory of Planned Behavior can be carried out. Because this theory discusses human behavior, it is very suitable if used in further research.

CONCLUSION

Destination image research will continue to develop along with the many issues about tourism. The issues can be from religious tourism, sports, marine or from other aspects of tourism. The very rapid development of social media also affects the overall image of the destination. Every tourist who comes to visit will also experience uncertainty during their trip. The issue of overtourism that makes local people uncomfortable, which can threaten the sustainability of tourism is also very interesting to study. In addition, research that takes cultural elements is also very interesting to study because each tourist destination location has cultural differences.

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