Impact of socio-demographic characteristics on “a priori” and “in situ” destination image. Case study – Linz, Austria

The study examines the extent to which visitors’ socio-demographic characteristics such as nationality, age, gender and education influence “a priori” and “in situ” images of places. Throughout the analysis of data collected from 400 visitors to Linz, Austria it became evident that the respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics and Linz’s “a priori” and “in situ ” images are interrelated, nevertheless, some of them are more influential than others. Nationality, age and gender were found to be of equal importance during the “a priori” destination image formation stage, whereas Linz’s “in situ” image was mainly influenced by respondents’ nationality and gender. The findings also suggest that cognitive image components are more plausible to changes as a result of the impact of the selected demographic characteristics compared to the affective image elements during the “a priori” and “in situ” stages of destination image formation