Abstract
Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) at all levels have an ultimate goal of building strong and positive images for their destinations. However, the projected image from the supply side is not necessarily the mirror of the perceived image from the demand side. This study adopted the content analysis method to evaluate the projected image and perceived image of rural destinations in China to see whether there is any discrepancy between and within the two categories. Comparative analysis of different information sources including web contents and on-site visitor interviews were processed. The evaluation of image congruency demonstrates that official websites focus more on cognitive image elements (knowledge and beliefs of the place). Besides promoting attractions, it provides information on geography background and promotes local culture. Business web content promotes attractions, package tour, and activities which can generate revenue. The perceived image includes more sentiment contents: on-site visitors expressed more negative attitude, but social media comments are relatively positive.
Highlights
Rural tourism has been a popular trend in China since the end of the 20th century [1,2]
Prior studies on destination image have seldom focused on rural destinations and, in particular, comparing rural destination images from different information sources
Rural tourism is becoming increasingly popular among urban residents, there is an apparent lack of research on rural tourism destination images in the context of the online environment in China [8,9]
Summary
Rural tourism has been a popular trend in China since the end of the 20th century [1,2]. Rural tourism has a weak image, and there is relatively limited research on destination image in the rural destination [3,4,5,6,7]. Rural tourism is becoming increasingly popular among urban residents, there is an apparent lack of research on rural tourism destination images in the context of the online environment in China [8,9]. Numerous studies have categorized the tourism destination image into the projected image and the perceived image [10,11,12]. From the supply side, which consists of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and commercial entrepreneurs, the image that they try to promote and show to tourists is called the projected image, while from the demand side, the image of a destination formed inside the tourists’ mind, which includes both cognitions and feelings, is called the perceived image [10,13,14,15,16,17,18]
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