Sojasi Qeidari HSeyfi SHall CMVo-Thanh TZaman M2025-08-062025-08-062024-11-01Sojasi 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).0250-8281https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/73303In 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.The author/shttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Destination imagedestination stigmastigmatizationplace identityrisk perceptiondestination marketingJournal article10.1080/02508281.2023.21755612320-0308CC BYjournal-article1247-1258