Abstract
Tourism is one of the most dynamic and fastest growing global industries. Brand image of a tourist destination is important to attract tourists. Sudden calamities highly affect the brand image of tourist destinations; recently several destinations were found with declined brand images following massive calamities. Maintaining a positive brand image is challenging due to external fluctuations and because decision making depends on individual motives. Travelers' destination decisions are attained after trading-off personal and destination attributes. It is complex and could be unreliable depending on available information sources. A Tourist Destination Branding Index (TDBI) which incorporates a weighted combination of destination attributes is therefore worthwhile. This paper explains TDBI, based on the Total Utility Value (TUV) of a destination. A visual representation of brand image fluctuation with disasters is meaningful for tourists as well as tourism planners for decision making and destination management.
