Kształtowanie wizerunku miejsc poprzez relacje z podróży– ujęcie historyczne i współczesne

Destination image plays a significant role in purchase decisions on the tourism market. It is increasingly believed that tourist destinations should create their image to gain competitive edge. The issue of image also affects the demand side, as travelers may influence others’ opinion on a destination and their decision to visit. This article investigates the impact of tourists’ and travelers’ opinions on destination image. The author attempts to showcase changes in this process occurring over the course of history, using the example of Italy, including in particular the Caserta Royal Palace, which have been popular travel destinations since the times of the Grand Tour. Qualitative content analysis methods with quantitative components were used. For the empirical section, desk research methods were applied to a collection of travelers’ opinions on the Caserta palace posted to the TripAdvisor portal. Using William Gartner’s classification (1993), the study showed that contemporary tourists only include the cognitive aspect of the image, related to knowledge on the destination, to a negligible extent. The affective (emotional) and behavioral aspects are significantly more prevalent. In the times of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Grand Tour, traveling served cognitive purposes: learning, self-improvement, and discovery, and travel accounts revealed more knowledge on the destinations.