Article Analysis of the projected image of tourism destinations on photographs: A literature review to prepare for the future Patricia Picazo and Sergio Moreno-Gil University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain Abstract Making the right impression is paramount to succeed in today’s very competitive market, where photographs have acquired a prominent role in doing so. The evaluation and analysis of destination image have been tackled mainly from the perspective of the tourists’ perceptions. However, the projected image of destinations has received limited attention in the literature and the topic has not yet been successfully operationalized. Moreover, existing literature on the projected image on photo- graphs (PIP) is scattered and lacking of an integral approach. Thus, the aim of this article is to fill this gap by carrying a comprehensive literature review on the destination’s PIP, covering information sources analyzed, destinations included, number of pictures, time framework, methodology, and specially categorization (people, activities represented, and tourism context) and specific attributes used. As a result, this article provides researchers with a reference guide to understand the current situation of the research on this topic, context, methods, and focus of previous studies. Finally, it identifies trends and reflections on future research. Keywords Content analysis, destination image, literature review, pictures, projected image, visual representations Introduction There is only one chance to make a good first impression, and visual content is the main tool to achieving this goal (Bell and Davison, 2013). One of the most generalized findings in the lit- erature regarding the effectiveness of textual and visual images in the promotion of a specific product is that images are easier than words for consumers to remember or recognize. This phe- nomenon is known as the effect of the super- iority of the image (Singh and Formica, 2007). Despite the unquestionable relevance of the pic- torial elements in the creation and communica- tion of a successful image of a destination (MacKay and Couldwell, 2004; MacKay and Fesenmaier, 1997; Page et al., 2006), the group- ing photograph–tourism has been only sporadi- cally investigated (Govers and Go, 2004; Page et al., 2006). Although destination image has received much attention in academic literature over the last three decades (Camprubı ´ et al., 2008; Frı ´as et al., 2008; Gallarza et al., 2002; Ko ¨ltringer and Dickinger, 2015), becoming one of the most pop- ular topics among researchers (Camprubı ´ et al., 2013; Stepchenkova and Mills, 2010), academic literature has mainly focused on the analysis of the image perceived by the tourist. Perceived image literature has been regularly and properly reviewed (Chon, 1990; Echtner and Ritchie, 1991; Pike, 2002; Tasci et al., 2007; Corresponding author: Sergio Moreno-Gil, Tourism and Sustainable Development Institute (TIDES), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tafira Campus, Building C-C1.11, Saulo Toro ´n, 4-Las Palmas de GC 35017, Spain. Email: smoreno@dede.ulpgc.es Journal of Vacation Marketing 1–22 ª The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1356766717736350 journals.sagepub.com/home/jvm