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The process of understanding a tourist begins with an extensive evaluation of tourist’s perceptions about a destination. Though destination image has been widely discussed in tourism literature since the 1970s, little attention has been given to organic image despite its relative significance. First, this study aims to clear the existing ambiguity in the cognitive component of destination image by organizing and structuring the extant literature.

This exploratory study then seeks to identify the salient organic image attributes in tourists’ consideration for travel options through the application of repertory test. Respondents’ statements on 25 competing destinations in Madhya Pradesh, India were transcribed verbatim for analysis. A measure of frequencies and commonality among 12 construct themes was then carried out.

Along with history, heritage and culture, this study found tourists to have considered organic image attributes associated with destination stereotypes as important discriminators between competing leisure tourist destinations. Moreover, the elicitation of context-specific attributes along with a note in the pattern of tourist responses highlighted the merits of repertory test when presented with different category triads.

This study differs from other organic image studies as it evaluates the prominence of organic image in the context of leisure tourism. Being one of the few studies to have extensively discussed the organic image component, this study contributes to the progression of organic image literature.

Despite years of research on destination image (DI), studies have surprisingly failed to investigate how tourists perceive and approach destinations that they are not cognizant about. While prodigious amount of information is available on the dimensionality and nature of DI, little is known about the construct with reference to cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Understanding such an aspect would help destination management organizations (DMOs) in refining their marketing strategies and in improving their destination's competitiveness.

Through an extensive review of literature in areas pertinent to the phenomenon being investigated, this article puts forward a series of propositions, which are then used in the framework entailing the proposed construct of destination stereotypes (DS).

While identifying an overlap in concepts pertaining to the fields of marketing and tourism, this study postulates that DS facilitate the extension of a destination's dominant impressions to that of another based on various parameters. It further discusses several courses through which impressions of a particular destination are extended to that of another, thereby putting forward DS as a missing link in tourists' reception of destinations.

DS as a construct helps in identifying the source of an impression which may not be the destination in question but instead another destination. Upon construct validity, the proposed framework would yield insights into other competing destinations and thereby effectively help in altering the extant DI.

While there have been many studies on tourist stereotypes and DI, it is amongst the first few studies to have discussed stereotypes in the context of destinations and their image, especially with an emphasis on cognizance, geographical proximity and units. Therefore, it acts as a meaningful piece of work towards the progression of the DI literature.

Luxury as a construct warrants an assessment of entities promoting themselves as luxurious offerings. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the experiencescapes of luxury trains operating in developed and developing countries to assess the presence of luxury values in the elements affecting tourists' experiences and immersion.

Two different types of luxury trains were selected from across developed and developing countries for a holistic assessment of the experiencescapes. Through netnography and hermeneutic interpretation, this study analyzes 218 experiential descriptions on Tripadvisor from luxury trains of Australia, UK, Peru and India.

Although luxury trains in both the regions entailed financial, functional, social and individual value, they struggled to offer these values in conjunction. While the positioning of luxury trains in developing countries under the “inaccessible luxury” segment is exaggerated, developed countries were also found to struggle with customer service and management.

By emphasizing on areas within the control of the service providers, short-haul luxury trains can be a better fit in developing countries. Better usability testing and employee training should be undertaken to improve the functional values of luxury in long-haul luxury trains of developed countries.

This article not only assesses the validity of luxury trains' positioning but also provides new insights into the nature of the tourist immersion process. Having extensively discussed experiences in the backdrop of luxury, it contributes to the progression of literature on luxury trains, experiencescapes and immersion.