Conceptualising tourist based brand-equity pyramid: an application of Keller brand pyramid model to destinations

Purpose – Different scales available for measuring the brand-equity of destinations are found to be much tourist centric and did not present a holistic view regarding building sustainable customer based brand-equity for destinations. Current study aim at conceptually addressing this important issue and present a modified framework for developing and measuring the customer-based brand equity of tourist destinations using Keller (2001). Design – Extensive literature review was done and 84 articles published in the domain of brand-equity in tourism and related areas were downloaded from various known databases to support arguments. In addition, UNWTO reports were also used. Cooper (1980) guidelines were used for exploring relevant articles. Findings – It is argued that the first step for building strong brand-equity of destination starts with identification of destination’ salience followed by destination performance and destination imagery, destination judgements and feelings, and destination brand resonance. Consequences of having high brand-equity are also discussed. Originality – The tourist based brand-equity pyramid is the very first framework which is using Keller (2001) for explaining sustainable brand-equity formation of tourist’s destinations. Current framework not only give a deep understanding of how to build brand-equity of destinations but also on how to develop strong, emotional bonds with the tourists and hence sustaining the brand-equity