What makes a destination beautiful? Dimensions of tourist aesthetic judgment Ksenia Kirillova, Xiaoxiao Fu, Xinran Lehto * , Liping Cai Purdue University, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, United States highlights  The beauty of tourist destinations is uniquely judged and admired.  “Experiential” rather than classic dimensions of aesthetic judgment are salient in tourism aesthetics.  Dimensions are equally prominent in judgment of nature-based and urban destination.  Destination planners should employ existing aesthetic inventory in strategic planning. article info Article history: Received 10 May 2013 Accepted 18 December 2013 Keywords: Aesthetic judgment Tourism experience Destination management Experience-based products Destination planning Tourism aesthetics abstract Drawing on the literature in environmental psychology, the current study attempted to reveal di- mensions of tourist aesthetic judgment in the context of both nature-based and urban tourist destina- tions. Two-stage analysis of semi-structured interview data from a theoretical sample of 57 individuals yielded 21 aesthetic dimensions that were categorized into nine themes: Scale, Time, Condition, Sound, Balance, Diversity, Novelty, Shape, and Uniqueness. The identified themes were further conceptualized into a two-dimensional plane along Concrete-Abstract and Subjective-Objective continuums. This research posits that tourism allows a unique “appreciator-object” dyad where individuals are fully immersed in a destination in pursuit of a non-routine and oftentimes novel experience. The beauty of tourism destination is uniquely judged, admired, and appreciated, and the assessment of the beauty goes beyond the visual aspects and engages all senses. The findings make a theoretical contribution to the existing aesthetics literature and bear practical implications for destination planning, branding, and management. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Tourism experience is a critical concept in tourism marketing and management literature; therefore, researchers have paid increasing attention to this area, exerting efforts in both conceptual deliberations and empirical validations (e.g. Cohen, 1979a; Li, 2000; Mannell & Iso-Ahola, 1987; Mkono, Markwell, & Wilson, 2013; Otto & Ritchie, 1996; Quan & Wang, 2004; Sternberg, 1997; Uriely, 2005). Tourism scholars, however, have yet to fully investigate the touriste environment exchange (Lehto, 2013). The environmental qualities of a destination can impact a tourist experience profoundly (Todd, 2009). Tourists’ interaction with a destination’s overall environ- ment and their internalization of what they see and sense could play a key role in their overall trip satisfaction. When people plan to travel for pleasure, they seek destinations that, in their opinion, maximize the possibility to receive a pleasurable experience (Lue, Crompton, & Fesenmaier, 1993). One source of such pleasure is the aesthetic qualities of the destination. In tourism management literature, it has been acknowledged that aesthetic characteristics affect tourists’ experience and satisfaction, contributing to their loyalty towards a destination (Lee, Jeon, & Kim, 2011) and thus intention to return (Baloglu, Pekcan, Chen, & Santos, 2004). Desti- nations’ aesthetic qualities, such as scenery, have been an integral element of many satisfaction and perceived image scales used in tourism research (e.g. Alegre & Garau, 2010; O’Leary & Deegan, 2003). Despite the fact that numerous studies have recognized the importance of aesthetic qualities of a destination, these qualities have so far been largely reduced to a single dimensional variable such as “the place is beautiful” in destination attribute satisfaction assessment. Although the notion of product aesthetics has been explored in consumer behavior literature in conjunction with * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 765 494 2085. E-mail addresses: kkirillo@purdue.edu (K. Kirillova), fu34@purdue.edu (X. Fu), xinran@purdue.edu (X. Lehto), liping@purdue.edu (L. Cai). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tourism Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tourman 0261-5177/$ e see front matter Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2013.12.006 Tourism Management 42 (2014) 282e293