The Impact of Perceived Brand Equity on Customer Satisfaction: with Special Reference to Emerging Tourism Destinations

Destination marketing is an area which has not well addressed and understood, specially in developing countries. Therefore, this study has aimed to conceptualize the customer based brand equity in the tourism industry with respect to its effect on customer satisfaction. A sample of 385 tourists who have visited Sri Lanka for recreational purpose was used to test the relations which are in the proposed model of the study. Structural Equation Modeling was used to confirm the relationship of the dimensions of brand equity towards perceived brand equity and perceived brand equity oncustomer satisfaction. Findings have shown that brand salience, brand performance, brand imagery, brand feelings, brand judgments, brand resonance are influential factors of perceived brand equity that enhances customer satisfaction of tourism industry in Sri Lanka. Destination marketing managers would get insight to implement branding strategies, so these findings could help them to prioritize and allocate resources across important dimensions based on the proposed model. In this context customer based brand equity concept is very much important. Because customer perception towards the destination depend on what consumers have experienced about the over time (Keller, 2003) and to measure what extent consumers have identified the brand.