The core-periphery image of South Korea on the Chinese tourist market in the times of conflict over THAAD.

Abstract

Abstract This study investigates how bilateral political tensions influence tourists' perceptions of a strong national brand, as well as their attitudes toward and intent to visit the country, using network and decision-tree regression analyses. The context of the study is the conflict between South Korea and its primary tourist market, China, over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system (July 2016–December 2017). From April to June of 2018, the study collected the most salient images of Chinese tourists associated with South Korea and organized them in the core-periphery network of South Korea's image. It was found that while the overall image was positive, the core cluster contained conflict-specific negative images. With respect to attitude and visit intention, images that differentiated among tourists belonged to the peripheral clusters, and not to the core cluster. Practical implications of the study findings are suggested.