Abstract
Purpose – The main goal of this paper was to evaluate how international visitors identified the Republic of Moldova as a tourist destination. The goal split into four objectives: (1) to determine the main themes shared online by tourists in the form of reviews; (2) to explore the inter-relationships among identified concepts; (3) to analyze the positive and negative concepts among themes collected within reviews expressed by international tourists; and (4) suggesting practical implications for tourism suppliers.
Design/methodology/approach – For attaining the goal, a quantitative research method was delivered. A total of 230 reviews were gathered, shared by international tourists on a social media platform.
Findings – The findings show that the Republic of Moldova’s image as a tourist destination tend to be positive among international tourists. The content analysis revealed the existence of six themes, which represents international tourists' travel experiences in the Republic of Moldova. These were: “hotel”, “restaurant”, “food”, “wine”, “city” and “visit”.
Research limitations/implications – As the research used only one online platform and 230 reviews make up a very small sample size, the findings of this analysis do not reflect the whole image of the Republic of Moldova as a tourism destination; therefore, they might not be accurate.
Originality/Value – The paper provides practical suggestions based on social media information, that would help in progressing and improving destination image of the Republic of Moldova among international tourists.
Key words – destination image, Web reviews, the Republic of Moldova, tourist, experience