Mapping Associations Networks of Kish Free Zone’s Tourist Branding Using Brand Conceptual Mapping Method

Competition and the speed of change in the tourism industry have made organizations to understand audience feedback to plan for attracting more tourists. This research is an applied research, with a combination of elements. It attempts to use the brand conceptual mapping method to create insight from the understanding of internal audience to the tourism brand of Kish Free Zone. For data collection, 200 people in Tehran in two groups of people with/without a history of visiting the Kish Free Zone were selected by simple sampling. After two interviews using Brand Conceptual Mapping Method, their mental maps were drawn up. Although the Kish Free Zone includes the Kish Island, Hendurabi, and greater and little Faror Island, except Kish, there was no association related to the other islands in the maps. According to the results, people with a history of visits had more associations and more positive associations. More than half of the associations of people without a history of visits were similar to those with a history of visits. The inclusion of an advertising media as a negative association on the map of people without a history of visits was a notable point.