presentation of Milan Tourism strategic Plan to the Milan Municipality

TOURIST CHARACTERISTICS AND THE PERCEIVED IMAGE OF TOURIST DESTINATIONS:
A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS—MILAN CASE STUDY
4th MTM edition

This is a research project in tourism destination management, realized with the support of the Municipality of Milan, with specific reference to the process of tourist destination image formation; by means of empirical research (applied to a representative sample of tourists visiting Milan) the influence of tourist characteristics or personal factors and travel experience on the different components of perceived image will be analyzed. More precisely the relationships between the perceived image and tourist motivations, their accumulated experience of vacation travel and the socio-demographic characteristics of gender, age, level of education, social class and country of residence will be assessed.

The results indicate:
(1) which motivations influence the affective component of image;
(2) how the experience of vacation travel is closely related to cognitive and affective images;
(3) which socio-demographic characteristics influence the cognitive and affective assessment of image;
(4) the final image of Milan in the different forms of tourism demand.

methodology
- Field-based interviews
- 1280 interviews
- Interviews based on a questionnaire;
- Interviews administered by each student;
- Students organized in six working groups

Reports were presented in April 2008 to destination management teachers, who focused their classes on this specific case study and will help students develop a strategy related to Milan.

Ms Chieppa, General Manager of Tourism and Identity Dept. of Milan Municipality, met MTM students and discussed with them the results of the research.