Abstract
A good tourism image can significantly enhance the travel willingness and experience of international tourists. Most related research focused on the tourism image perception of world-famous cities, but research on the tourism image of North Korea is insufficient. We extracted text data from travel notes and reviews on Chinese travel websites. Subsequently, we used text mining and semantic network analysis to investigate Chinese tourists’ perception of the tourism image of North Korea. The results of the semantic network analysis show that tourism in North Korea consisted mainly of visits to the main cities and famous scenic spots, always with tour guides. Changes in high-frequency words indicated that Chinese tourists’ interest in North Korea’s history has weakened in recent years, and their interest in scenic spots and tourism products has increased. The results of the iterative correlation convergence analysis show that the topics relevant to tourists’ image of North Korea are composed of representative scenic spots, the Korean War, Kaesong city, the Pyongyang City, people’s lives, and other notable experiences. This research makes an empirical case for the study of tourists’ perception of the tourism image of North Korea and provides targeted suggestions for the sustainable development of North Korean tourism.
Highlights
The first 10 words with the highest frequency indicate that Chinese tourists’ perception of the tourism image of North Korea is concentrated on tourist facilities (Yanggakdo Hotel, Korea Hotel, subway), tourist destinations (Pyongyang city, Kaesong city, Panmunjom, Sinuiju city), tourist activities, and other factors
This study investigated 1155 online comments over the past 20 years related to the subjective emotions and objective evaluations of Chinese tourists traveling to North Korea
We used text mining and semantic network analysis to reach the following conclusions: First, according to the analysis of high-frequency words, the tourist activities of Chinese tourists in North Korea mainly consisted of visiting scenic spots, other aspects were mentioned
Summary
The image of a tourism destination is a key factor in attracting tourists and creating a local identity [1]. Competition among tourism destinations has become increasingly fierce. The image of a tourism destination has become a core source of competitive advantages [2]. Tourists’ perception of a tourism image refers to tourists’ comprehensive evaluation and expression of a tourist destination, an important factor for tourists when deciding whether to visit a destination [3]. Capturing the image perception of tourists could provide a theoretical basis for decision-makers to formulate management measures such as tourism industry development and tourism destination planning. Knowledge of how to accurately grasp the image perception of tourists and potential tourists has become increasingly important [4]
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