Sustainable Tourism Destination Image Projection: The Inter-Influences between DMOs and Tourists

Dan Zhu,Jiayi Wang,Meifang Wang

doi:10.3390/su14053073

Abstract

With the development of the Web 2.0 era, tourists can freely publish their destination experiences through online travel notes. This enables tourists to become important agents to project tourism destination image (TDI), impacting destination-sustainable development. Previous studies have compared the difference in the images projected by destination management organizations (DMO) and tourists through their published content. However, fewer studies have been done to explore the inter-influences between them on the diachronic process of TDI construction. From the perspective of “circle of representation” this question is researched through a case study of Chiang Mai, Thailand, regarding the market of mainland Chinese tourists. Through interviews and the collection of microblogs from the Thailand National Tourism Bureau and tourists’ travel notes from 2009 to 2021, we found that Chiang Mai has experienced four stages of TDI construction, during which the “Xiao Qingxin” image is evolutionally constructed and formed into the representation circle. The inter-influences between DMO and tourists, as well as the influencing factors in this process, are summarized. Our study supplements a dynamic diachronic analysis of TDI from the constructivism perspective. Relevant management and marketing applications for TDI and destination sustainability in the post-pandemic and Web 2.0 era are also provided.

Highlights

By taking Chiang Mai, Thailand, as a case, this study aims to explore how its destination image is constructed in the market of mainland Chinese tourists during the year 2009 to 2021 through big data analysis
The paper is structured as follows: in the literature section, we review the research of Tourism destination image (TDI) and summarize the research gap showing the lack of diachronic analysis of the TDI construction process, especially by investigating the inter-influences between destination management organizations (DMO) and tourists in TDI projection
Before 2012, Chiang Mai was unknown to most mass Chinese tourists, and it had not Qingxin” did not appeared in the tourists’ travel notes or official microblogs before 2012

Summary

Introduction

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Tourism destination image (TDI) is a classical inquiry in tourism research [1,2]. A successful and positive image would promote tourists’ visitation and benefit the sustainable development of the destination. During the past five decades, a cluster of studies has been researching TDI separately from both the projected image on the destination supply side and the perceived image generated from the tourist side [3–8]

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