Explaining the effective dimensions and components in the image of a tourist destination with an emphasis on tourism infrastructure (case study: Kish Island)

The importance of the tourist destination image for researchers in the tourism industry is clear. This importance has been considered mainly due to its effect on tourists' mental perception and the resulting behavior (destination selection). On the other hand, tourism infrastructure directly affects the formation of the destination image and this image affects the choice of destination. In order to ensure the satisfaction of tourists and their subsequent behavioral purposes, it is necessary to provide a destination image after visiting as an expeditor for destination marketing. This paper aims to investigate the effect of infrastructure on destination image for effective marketing, identifying dimensions and components of tourism infrastructure and future behavioral intentions of tourists using conventional qualitative content analysis method. Data collection tools are semi-structured interviews that were collected from 10 government managers and the private sector in the field of tourism using purposive sampling method. Data analysis was performed with "MaxQDA" software and by examining and classifying the descriptive codes obtained from the interview texts, 42 sub-categories were identified. Out of these 42 sub-categories, 13 main concepts: Pre-visit destination image, post-visit destination image, tourism superstructures and infrastructure (communication, accessibility, attractions, social elements, accommodation, services and amenities tourist satisfaction, destination marketing, tourist motivation and Tourist’s behavioral intention were obtained according to their similarity and semantic similarity; Concepts that can help policymakers and stakeholders in policy making to better and deeper understanding of this concept