KOREASCHOLAR

Even though Memetics, the study area of meme maps, has been well-studied in the Cognitive Neuroscience and Computer Science disciplines, there has been no research attempt on Memetics in the Tourism and Hospitality field. Seminal studies in the marketing field suggest that the concepts of destination image and meme maps are highly-related. Accordingly, the purpose of the current study is twofold: (1) to identify the overall Destination Image Meme Maps of Antalya, Turkey and their favorite tourism destination, and (2) to identify and evaluate the similarities and differences in the structures of the previously generated two categories of Destination Image Meme Maps. The data was gathered from two samples consisting of 272 Russian and 262 German travelers visiting a medium-sized city (i.e. Antalya) located in the south region of Turkey. This study adopts and enhances the knowledge of Memetics into Tourism and Hospitality research. It also provides important practical and methodological contributions.

• Hilmi A Atadil(The University of South Carolina, USA)
• Ercan Sirakaya-Turk(The University of South Carolina, USA)
• Ksenia Kirillova(The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)