A qualitative assessment of destination saliency

The concept of destination image has been the centre of attention among researchers who are interested in destination marketing, while it has also been argued that previous studies on the topic have failed to capture the salient dimensions of destination perceptions. This research intended to measure the salient images of Hualien, a tourist destination located on the east coast of Taiwan. Through the use of free–elicitation, a qualitative method of asking respondents to freely express their ideas and feelings, this research successfully obtained an abundance of qualitative images of Hualien, which also supported that free–elicitation is an effective tool for assessing salient destination perceptions.