‘You wouldn’t want to go there’: what drives the stigmatization of a destination?
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Date
2024-11-01
Open Access Location
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Francis Group
Rights
The author/s
CC BY
CC BY
Abstract
In a highly competitive market, managing the quality of destination image is a major concern for tourism marketers and policymakers. Negative connotations attached to a destination can potentially produce forms of stigma and lead to the stigmatization of a destination. Research on stigmas attached to tourists or tourism practitioners has gained growing scholarly attention; however, empirical knowledge on the stigmas associated with a place (spatial stigma) and the underlying factors driving the stigmatization of a destination is yet to be developed in tourism literature. To fill this gap and grounded in a multidisciplinary literature on the stigma-place nexus, this study explores the stigmatization of Iran through an analysis of in-depth interviews with the representatives of country’s key tourism informants. The findings of the qualitative study demonstrated how Iran’s destination identity is contested. Six reinforcing forms of stigmas were identified: political, religion, security, hygiene, performance and regional stigmas. The study concludes that destination stigma is a multi-dimensional phenomenon that manifests in different ways depending on where it is generated, encountered and experienced. In adopting a more contextual approach the study offers several new perspectives on stigma production, negotiation and resistance in tourism destinations.
Description
Keywords
Destination image, destination stigma, stigmatization, place identity, risk perception, destination marketing
Citation
Sojasi Qeidari H, Seyfi S, Hall CM, Vo-Thanh T, Zaman M. (2024). ‘You wouldn’t want to go there’: what drives the stigmatization of a destination?. Tourism Recreation Research. 49. 6. (pp. 1247-1258).