IMAGE AND POSITIONING OF THE EUROPEAN TOURISM MARKET FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SPANISH TOURISTS

The contribution of tourism to the Gross Domestic Product and the employment it generates has made it an important sector. However, recent results for tourism have been severely affected by the economic and financial crisis, increasing the importance of destination image as the element that most influences tourists when choosing a destination. The objective of the authors is therefore to understand how the European tourism market is structured from the perspective of Spanish tourists, as well as to illustrate the benefits of applying multivariate methodologies to research on tourism. The results show the existence of 5 well-defined clusters.