IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v54y2016icp221-229.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The social construction of tourism online destination image: A comparative semiotic analysis of the visual representation of Seoul

Author

Listed:
  • Hunter, William Cannon

Abstract

This study examines the destination image of Seoul as represented by photographs online, and compares it to the traditional projected image found in printed brochures and guidebooks by replicating a previous study. Using visual semiotics, the social construction of tourism online destination image is investigated in terms of denotative and connotative signs. Using language-specific keyword searches, ‘Seoul travel’ on Naver, Google and Baidu, three demographic perspectives were examined including Korean, international English speaking and, Chinese. It was found that these different online contexts represent Seoul in different ways. Naver represents Seoul in more detail; Google and Baidu represent a mix of other destinations with Seoul connoting differences in perception, or reflecting the constraints of individual or group travel. The major findings suggest that the organic online self-representation of individual travel experiences by travelers, makes tourism as a soft power more effective, by supplementing the projected image of Seoul.

Suggested Citation

  • Hunter, William Cannon, 2016. "The social construction of tourism online destination image: A comparative semiotic analysis of the visual representation of Seoul," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 221-229.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:221-229
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2015.11.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517715300479
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.11.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stepchenkova, Svetlana & Zhan, Fangzi, 2013. "Visual destination images of Peru: Comparative content analysis of DMO and user-generated photography," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 590-601.
    2. Sharon Zukin, 1998. "Urban Lifestyles: Diversity and Standardisation in Spaces of Consumption," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(5-6), pages 825-839, May.
    3. Hunter, William Cannon, 2013. "China's Chairman Mao: A visual analysis of Hunan Province online destination image," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 101-111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xialei Duan & Lawal Mohammed Marafa & Chung-Shing Chan & Han Xu & Lewis T. O. Cheung, 2020. "Measuring the Gaps in the Projected Image and Perceived Image of Rural Tourism Destinations in China’s Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-16, June.
    2. Yuanxiang Peng & Ping Yin & Kurt Matzler, 2022. "Analysis of Destination Images in the Emerging Ski Market: The Case Study in the Host City of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, January.
    3. Vo Viet Hung & Sandeep Kumar Dey & Zuzana Vaculcikova & Le Trieu Hoang Anh, 2021. "The Influence of Tourists’ Experience on Destination Loyalty: A Case Study of Hue City, Vietnam," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Chang Li & Pengcheng Li & Xiaohui Huang, 2022. "Liked and Disliked Streetscape Imagery: Relation to Emotional Motivation and Block Distribution From Tourist Bus Visitors," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, August.
    5. Lourenção, Marina & de Moura Engracia Giraldi, Janaina & de Oliveira, Jorge Henrique Caldeira, 2020. "Destination advertisement semiotic signs: Analysing tourists' visual attention and perceived ad effectiveness," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Molinillo, Sebastian & Liébana-Cabanillas, Francisco & Anaya-Sánchez, Rafael & Buhalis, Dimitrios, 2018. "DMO online platforms: Image and intention to visit," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 116-130.
    7. Yan Yang & Chunfa Sha & Wencheng Su & Edwin Kofi Nyefrer Donkor, 2022. "Research on Online Destination Image of Zhenjiang Section of the Grand Canal Based on Network Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Mak, Athena H.N., 2017. "Online destination image: Comparing national tourism organisation's and tourists' perspectives," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 280-297.
    9. Palazzo, Maria & Vollero, Agostino & Vitale, Pierluigi & Siano, Alfonso, 2021. "Urban and rural destinations on Instagram: Exploring the influencers’ role in #sustainabletourism," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    10. Hailong Wu & Takamitsu Jimura, 2019. "Exploring an Importance–Performance Analysis approach to evaluate destination image," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(7), pages 699-717, November.
    11. Wei Sun & Shoulian Tang & Fang Liu, 2021. "Examining Perceived and Projected Destination Image: A Social Media Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, March.
    12. Dan Zhu & Jiayi Wang & Meifang Wang, 2022. "Sustainable Tourism Destination Image Projection: The Inter-Influences between DMOs and Tourists," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-16, March.
    13. Narcís Bassols-Gardella & Lluís Coromina, 2022. "The perceived image of multi-asset tourist destinations: investigating congruence across different content types," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 16(1), pages 57-75, March.
    14. Ralf Buckley & Mary-Ann Cooper, 2021. "Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-10, February.
    15. Paül i Agustí, Daniel, 2018. "Characterizing the location of tourist images in cities. Differences in user-generated images (Instagram), official tourist brochures and travel guides," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 103-115.
    16. Deng, Ning & Li, Xiang (Robert), 2018. "Feeling a destination through the “right” photos: A machine learning model for DMOs’ photo selection," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 267-278.
    17. Rachel Luna Peralta, 2019. "How vlogging promotes a destination image: A narrative analysis of popular travel vlogs about the Philippines," Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(4), pages 244-256, December.
    18. Assumpció Huertas & Antonio Moreno & Jordi Pascual, 2021. "Place Branding for Smart Cities and Smart Tourism Destinations: Do They Communicate Their Smartness?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isaac Taberner & Albert Juncà, 2021. "Small-Scale Sport Events as Place Branding Platforms: A Content Analysis of Osona’s Projected Destination Image through Event-Related Pictures on Instagram," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Christina Katsikari & Leonidas Hatzithomas & Thomas Fotiadis & Dimitrios Folinas, 2020. "Push and Pull Travel Motivation: Segmentation of the Greek Market for Social Media Marketing in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, June.
    3. Palazzo, Maria & Vollero, Agostino & Vitale, Pierluigi & Siano, Alfonso, 2021. "Urban and rural destinations on Instagram: Exploring the influencers’ role in #sustainabletourism," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Marcello Mariani, 2020. "Web 2.0 and Destination Marketing: Current Trends and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-17, May.
    5. Mine Eder & Özlem Öz, 2015. "Neoliberalization of Istanbul's Nightlife: Beer or Champagne?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 284-304, March.
    6. Grigore Vasile Herman & Corina Florina Tătar & Marcu Simion Stașac & Victor Lucian Cosman, 2023. "Exploring the Relationship between Tourist Perception and Motivation at a Museum Attraction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Mak, Athena H.N., 2017. "Online destination image: Comparing national tourism organisation's and tourists' perspectives," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 280-297.
    8. Murali, Ranjini & Suryawanshi, Kulbushansingh & Redpath, Stephen & Nagendra, Harini & Mishra, Charudutt, 2019. "Changing use of ecosystem services along a rural-urban continuum in the Indian Trans-Himalayas," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    9. Kestutis Zaleckis & Indre Grazuleviciute Vileniske & Jurga Vitkuviene & Brigita TranaviciutÄ— & Huriye Armagan Dogan & Jolita Sinkiene & Tomas Grunskis, 2019. "Integrating Content Analysis Into Urban Research: Compatibility With Sociotope Method and Multimodal Graph," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440198, March.
    10. Li, Qian & Huang, Zhuowei (Joy) & Christianson, Kiel, 2016. "Visual attention toward tourism photographs with text: An eye-tracking study," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 243-258.
    11. Wei Sun & Shoulian Tang & Fang Liu, 2021. "Examining Perceived and Projected Destination Image: A Social Media Content Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-16, March.
    12. GÖKSEL ??M?EK & Ali Erkam YARAR, 2015. "Reputation Management With Regard To Destination In Online Media," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 2805323, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    13. Tseng, Chi & Wu, Bihu & Morrison, Alastair M. & Zhang, Jingru & Chen, Ying-chen, 2015. "Travel blogs on China as a destination image formation agent: A qualitative analysis using Leximancer," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 347-358.
    14. Xiliang Chen & Gang Li & Muhammad Sajid Mehmood & Qifan Nie & Jie Yu, 2023. "Integration and differentiation: comparison of photography behaviors using unmanned aerial vehicle data in China and Europe," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Valeriano Piñeiro-Naval & Paulo Serra, 2019. "How Do Destinations Frame Cultural Heritage? Content Analysis of Portugal’s Municipal Websites," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Beata Jolanta Gierczak-Korzeniowska & Mateusz Stopa & Krzysztof Szpara, 2022. "Methodology of Cyclical Research of the Tourist Image of Podkarpackie Province (Poland)—A Proposal of a Solution and Selected Research Results," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-18, February.
    17. Golinvaux Antoine & Evagelou Ioannis, 2017. "The Role of Semiotics in Tourism Destination Branding through Social Media: The Case of Switzerland," Tourism Research Institute, Journal of Tourism Research, vol. 16(1), pages 207-219, June.
    18. Assumpcio Huertas & Estela Marine-Roig, 2016. "User reactions to destination brand contents in social media," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 291-315, January.
    19. Höckert, Emily & Lüthje, Monika & Ilola, Heli & Stewart, Erika, 2018. "Gazes and faces in tourist photography," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 131-140.
    20. Xu, Keshuai, 2015. "Types of red tourists in China: Evidence from Shaoshan," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 57-59.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:54:y:2016:i:c:p:221-229. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.