These findings contribute to the literature in the field of place marketing since they reveal for the first time that a particular country image measured by Aaker‘s brand personality model does not differ when it is considered as a study abroad program or as a tourism destination. This is an important finding since there are plenty of studies measuring countries‘ images as tourism destinations and very few measuring countries‘ images as study abroad program destinations. In addition, as discussed in the literature review, country images do influence the choice of vacation destinations (Anholt 2005, 2006; Hospers 2004; Watkins, Hassanien & Dale 2006).
International students can be a good source of revenue in the tourism sector of a host country (Shanka, Ali-Knight & Pope, 2002). The results suggest that when developing study abroad programs, American colleges and universities should take in consideration the host countries‘ images. These images may also positively or negatively influence a student‘s choice of a foreign academic program.
Given the fact that this study made use of a convenient sample, the results are limited to this study.