Project Description
Understanding the emotions of the photo audience or Viewer Affect is essential because marketers want to elicit specific responses with photos. This research investigated Viewer Affect with association strengths and association valences of destination photos and statements and developed the Imagery Diagnosis Model as a new approach to synthesize findings. The Imagery Diagnosis Model recommends leveraging Treasures, developing Hidden Gems, ignoring Traps, and proceeding cautiously with Roadblocks. Our findings suggest that Destination Affect positively influences willingness to visit, recommend, and pay. Destination marketers evoke Destination Affect with text or photos but use text to change Destination Image.