Destination image : a case study of Norwegian anglers at an Alaskan salmon fishing lodge

Abstract

Salmon anglers travel all over the world to get the best fishing experiences. The present study investigates how a specific destination image correlates with visitors’ destination preferences. This research is based on 17 qualitative interviews with Norwegian anglers who have visited a fishing lodge in Alaska. It looks at how they perceive Alaska’s general image, how they view Alaska as a salmon fishing destination, compared to Norway, and how their experience correlates with what they expected. The findings indicate how Alaska has an image of untouched wilderness with an abundant wildlife, and great fishing. Insight into potential differences between salmon destination images is needed to better understand what ‘pushes’ and ‘pulls’ visitors to one destination over another. Understanding visitors’ expectation and how to meet them should be a priority for angling tourism development. This information could be used to increase visitor satisfaction. Most of the respondents expressed that their expectations were met or exceeded, however some expressed that the wilderness they expected did not match reality. From the results it seems that you go to Alaska to be ‘guaranteed’ a lot of fish, but that there is greater excitement in catching a fish in Norway. This indicated that Norway could use the excitement of the hunt in their advertisement, where as Alaska could advertise with catch guarantee.