Achieving destination appeal and competitiveness is a major priority of tourist destination managers. They must implement new strategies that are distinct from those of their competitors and that influence tourists’ perceptions, attitudes and behaviors and reinforce the brand equity of the destination. The present work focuses on Cultural Intelligence (CQ). CQ increasingly features in business strategy due to the effect of cultural differences and diversity on tourist behavior. The aim is to propose and validate a model that captures the effect of tourists’ CQ on their evaluation of the destination. Using a sample of 503 tourists visiting Spain, the study demonstrates that a tourist’s CQ influences their assessment of destination brand equity and that this relationship is moderated by tourism type. The paper presents a series of implications of interest both to scholars and professionals in the tourism sector.

Introduction

Intense competition between tourist destinations requires the relevant organizations to cultivate the resources necessary to generate competitive advantage (Pike & Page, 2014). One of the key resources in this regard is that of destination branding. Branding is the process by which a unique proposition for a brand is created through various marketing activities that serve both consumers and firms, based on establishing goods and services that can be differentiated from those of competitors (Gnoth, 2002). The brand management concept emerged as a core element of the marketing mix in the 20th Century (Bastos & Levy, 2012). However, it was not until the late 1990s that research relating to tourist destination branding began to be published (for example, Dosen, Vranesevic, & Prebezac, 1998). According to Pike and Bianchi, “the model of consumer-based brand equity (CBBE), developed by Aaker (1991, 1996) and Keller (1993, 2003), offers destination marketers a performance instrument with which to evaluate and measure consumer perceptions of a destination brand” (Pike & Bianchi, 2013, p. 4). However, growth in the tourism sector at international level has given rise to the need to interact effectively with people from different national cultures. The sector is therefore faced not only with the challenge of how to manage brands internationally, but also how to offer a cross-cultural service and evaluate its performance accordingly, on the basis of the expectations of clients, employees and providers (Mohsin, 2006). Within this context, knowledge of the variations that can arise as a result of cultural difference helps provide a detailed understanding of the needs of consumers and satisfy their cultural expectations (Harris, 2004). Previous studies establish that “culture is pervasive in all aspects of consumption and consumer behavior and … it should be integrated into all elements of consumer behavior theory” (Mooij, 2011, p. 2). Since the 1980s, a number of researchers have debated the most appropriate choice of dimensions to conceptualize culture (Hofstede, 1980, 1991; Keillor & Hult, 1999; Steenkamp, 2001, for instance). However, it is the framework developed by Hofstede (1980, 2010) that has become established as the most widely accepted and influential approach to measuring cultural differences (Sivakumar & Nakata, 2001; Steenkamp, 2001). According to Hofstede (1991, 2005), people who grow up in different countries with different cultural norms will inevitably develop different ways of thinking and behaving. Therefore, if cultural norms develop differently in different parts of the world, this can naturally become problematic when members of different cultures interact to exchange knowledge (Adair, Tinsley, & Taylor, 2006).