What comes to your mind when you think about Russia? Answering this question, most foreign people have following associations: very cold, bears, unfriendly people and, of course, vodka.

I am from Russia. I was born in North Caucasus, the southern part of the country, and lived the most part of my life in Moscow. The fact that I have been living in this country for 21 years probably gives me the right to claim that Russia is not limited by the things mentioned above. Moreover, the way people represent Russia or any other country to themselves is usually formed by stereotypes or, in other words, by the image of that particular country which can be disputable.

Reynolds (1965) describes the formation of an image as the development of a mental construct based on a few impressions chosen from the flood of information. So, what is the image itself, and namely the destination image? How is it formed? In this essay, I will research the aspects that shape the destination image and its role in tourist's decision making. Tourism is a powerful shaper of
Also, the familiarity and the complexity of the images held play a large role in this decision-making process.
Indeed, I agree that there are other factors apart from the destination image that also influences the tourist's decision. However, in my opinion, the perception of the destination is not just of crucial meaning but is the main motivation to whether visit the place or not. If we go back to the examples of different images provided above, it is obvious that a tourist choosing between romantic France and criminal Colombia would be highly likely to prefer France (although the examples here are extremely