ABSTRACTDestination branding influences destination selection process and future tourist behaviors. However, measuring brand equity is difficult in the case of tourist destinations. The aim of this paper is to determine which part of the price of a tourist service can be explained by differences in characteristics and which part can be explained by differences in destination branding. Data from Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Languedoc‐Roussillon are used as well as the Oaxaca‐Blinder decomposition method. More than a half of the gap (between prices paid by French and Spanish tourists for an equivalent hotel) can be attributed to destination branding. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.