A preliminary study of impressions of Japanese food photos for tourism promotion

Abstract

The number of inbound tourists had been increasing year on year but has decreased dramatically due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Japan. Therefore, to recover the number of inbound tourists and attract new inbound tourists when this pandemic is over, it will be necessary to conduct online promotions to motivate tourism. The purpose of this study is to identify the characteristics of images that promote tourism motivation on social networking services and websites. An experiment to evaluate impressions of the composition of Japanese food photographs was conducted. Twenty-six different photographic compositions were prepared for five Japanese dishes. The degree of change in the study subjects’ cerebral blood flow was analyzed. The change in cerebral blood flow was found to be greater for photos taken directly from above or at an angle of 45 degrees than for photos taken from the side of any of the dishes. In addition, it was found that the change in cerebral blood flow was greater for photos that focus on the food and do not show whole plates or bowls rather than showing entire plates or bowls of food.