L’immagine di viaggio: stereotipi, pregiudizi e processi cognitivi impliciti nella scelta e nella fruizione turistica

Tourist choice is a multidimensional, multifactorial, rarely linear process. In which stereotypes, prejudices and biases, which are the subject of study in social psychology, often operate below the level of awareness of the user/consumer. This leads to a tourist enjoyment and behavior that is sometimes uncritical or disrespectful of destinations and the populations that inhabit them and deprives the journey of the cognitive value and openness to other worlds that should characterize it. In a society in which (social) media operate pervasively, it may be useful to reflect on the processes of social influence that condition and allow us to predict people's behavior (including tourist behavior). The paper concludes with a reflection on the possible relationship between individual difference variables and tourist choices.