La interpretación de la realidad del destino por parte de los turistas: evaluaciones cognitivas y afectivas

Title: The interpretation of the reality of the destination by tourists: cognitive and affective evaluations Abstract: In a context of intense competition between tourist destinations, the perceived image is key and plays, in turn, a key role in the choice of destination as the values associated to it, represent a decisive factor in the process purchasing de- cision of potential tourists. This is because the attitude of tourists towards a destination is the result of perception, reflection of the image, which has made it.The overall objective of this paper is to present a procedure for identifying the perceived image of the destination. To this end, we will analyze the set of cognitive-affective components that make up the image of rural tourism in Galicia. The results obtained from the study, performed using a total of 400 questionnaires to rural tourists, show that the image has a multidimensional nature that refers to both belief and knowledge that tourists have on the attri- butes of destination (cognitive dimension) and to his feelings towards this place (affective dimension).