Online destination image management. The case analysis of VisitTrentino and ViaggiareinPuglia

Tourists 2.0 find out news about the place they want to visit. At the same time, they also contribute to define characteristics, peculiarities and image of the destination. This exchange is purely online, through destination institutional websites, which should be ready to welcome potential tourists since their very first approach, which takes place through the access to the destination website, thus anticipating an effective promotion of the tourist product. In this way, the tourist that visits the site can be guided in the choice of the destination and in the construction of the mental process (Baloglu, McCleary, 1999) at the basis of his/her choice. As a consequence, the promotion of the destination contributes to the maintenance and improvement of its image. Starting from these considerations, the work aims to analyze two Italian best practices, VisitTrentino and ViaggiareinPuglia, by examining the tools that they use for destination image promotion. Today, destinations must be able to manage their brand and their online reputation well, by trying to coordinate the information they possess and these they receive from external stakeholders through sharing platforms. Methodologically, the work provides a view of literature on destination image and ICT, with particular reference to the relationship between image, social media and tourists. Considering the Italian top destinations, the study proposes a framework for evaluating destination portals through three dimensions of website quality