Destination image: scale validation and measurement invariance analysis

Despite increased attention and relevance drawn by 'destination image' as a key aspect of destination marketing, it has been an under-researched area in Indian tourism literature. Consequently, no previous Indian research exists which provides a pragmatic and explicit approach to capture the destination image of tourism destinations in India. This research surveyed 853 respondents and assessed the psychometric properties of the destination image scale across five tourism destinations in India by using the framework on destination image scale from the extant literature. Structural equation modelling was employed as the main method of analysis in this study. The scale demonstrated appropriate reliability and validity. Next, a multigroup analysis of invariance was performed on the five samples. The results show that configural invariance and metric invariance were fully supported while scalar invariance was partially supported with model improvement processes, suggesting that the modified 25-item measure of the destination image scale may be robust across destinations and can be employed in Indian research settings.