IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i6p2569-d1612551.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Balancing Tourism Seasonality: The Role of Tourism Destination Image (TDI) and Spatial Levels (SLs)

Author

Listed:
  • Jie Wang

    (School of Business and Tourism Management, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China)

  • Xi Chen

    (School of Management, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China)

Abstract

Balancing tourism seasonality remains a significant challenge in the management of tourist attractions. Despite existing research on the impact of seasonality from the perspectives of tourist intention cognition and spatial theory, gaps still exist in the relevant literature. This study examines 16 5A-level scenic spots in China with peak season, flat season, and off-season themes, utilizing 8385 tourist reviews from Ctrip.com as data. The LDA topic model is employed to analyze tourism destination image (TDI) under seasonality of destination, and the spatial level (SLs) model is combined to analyze the spatial hierarchy of these images. The findings reveal an association between TDI and SLs under seasonality of destination. For instance, peak season TDI themes (e.g., ‘viewing the scenery’) exhibit a support level of 0.789, while off-season themes (e.g., ‘relaxed itinerary’) reach 0.682, reflecting tourists’ prioritization of functional versus psychological dimensions across seasons. The proposed TDI-SLs correlation theory bridges supply-side spatial resource allocation with tourists’ perceptual dynamics, offering a novel framework to rebalance seasonal demand–supply gaps through strategic spatial planning and image recalibration. Practically, this framework guides destination managers to design season-specific strategies, such as optimizing crowd management in peak seasons or promoting immersive experiences in off-seasons.

Suggested Citation

  • Jie Wang & Xi Chen, 2025. "Balancing Tourism Seasonality: The Role of Tourism Destination Image (TDI) and Spatial Levels (SLs)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:6:p:2569-:d:1612551
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2569/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/6/2569/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cuccia, Tiziana & Rizzo, Ilde, 2011. "Tourism seasonality in cultural destinations: Empirical evidence from Sicily," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 589-595.
    2. Merkert, Rico & Webber, Tony, 2018. "How to manage seasonality in service industries – The case of price and seat factor management in airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 39-46.
    3. Aiping Zhang & Linsheng Zhong & Yong Xu & Hui Wang & Lijuan Dang, 2015. "Tourists’ Perception of Haze Pollution and the Potential Impacts on Travel: Reshaping the Features of Tourism Seasonality in Beijing, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Xuhui Zhang & Chen Zhang & Yanan Li & Ziyu Xu & Zhenfang Huang, 2021. "Hierarchical Fusion Process of Destination Image Formation: Targeting on Urban Tourism Destination," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    5. Boto-García, David & Pérez, Levi, 2023. "The effect of high-speed rail connectivity and accessibility on tourism seasonality," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    6. Poliana Silvestre Pereira & Abraão Almeida Santos & Luciane Rodrigues Noleto & Juliana Lopes dos Santos & Mayara Moledo Picanço & Allana Grecco Guedes & Gil Rodrigues dos Santos & Marcelo Coutinho Pic, 2024. "Seasonal Analysis of Yield and Loss Factors in Bt Soybean Crops in North Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-13, January.
    7. Luana Carla Portz & Yacira Sheilla Pérez Torres & Rogério Portantiolo Manzolli, 2023. "Coast Change: Understanding Sensitivity to Beach Loss for Coastal Tourism in the Colombian Caribbean," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Elena Cruz Ruiz & Elena Ruiz Romero De la Cruz & Francisco J. Calderón Vázquez, 2019. "Sustainable Tourism and Residents’ Perception towards the Brand: The Case of Malaga (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sara Dalir & Abror Mahamadaminov & Hossein GT Olya, 2021. "Airbnb and taxation: Developing a seasonal tax system," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(2), pages 365-378, March.
    2. Frédéric Dobruszkes & Jean-Michel Decroly & Pere Suau-Sanchez, 2022. "The monthly rhythms of aviation: A global analysis of passenger air service seasonality," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/341140, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. José María Martín Martín & José Antonio Rodriguez Martín & Karla Aída Zermeño Mejía & José Antonio Salinas Fernández, 2018. "Effects of Vacation Rental Websites on the Concentration of Tourists—Potential Environmental Impacts. An Application to the Balearic Islands in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Suharyono Suharyono & Kumba Digdowiseiso, 2021. "The Effects of Environmental Quality on Indonesia s Inbound Tourism," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(1), pages 9-14.
    5. Karol Jan Borowiecki & Concetta Castiglione, 2014. "Cultural Participation and Tourism Flows: An Empirical Investigation of Italian Provinces," Tourism Economics, , vol. 20(2), pages 241-262, April.
    6. Aleksandra Łapko & Aleksander Panasiuk & Roma Strulak-Wójcikiewicz & Marek Landowski, 2020. "The State of Air Pollution as a Factor Determining the Assessment of a City’s Tourist Attractiveness—Based on the Opinions of Polish Respondents," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Anca-Gabriela Turtureanu & Rodica Pripoaie & Carmen-Mihaela Cretu & Carmen-Gabriela Sirbu & Emanuel Ştefan Marinescu & Laurentiu-Gabriel Talaghir & Florentina Chițu, 2022. "A Projection Approach of Tourist Circulation under Conditions of Uncertainty," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-21, February.
    8. Ridderstaat, Jorge & Oduber, Marck & Croes, Robertico & Nijkamp, Peter & Martens, Pim, 2014. "Impacts of seasonal patterns of climate on recurrent fluctuations in tourism demand: Evidence from Aruba," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 245-256.
    9. Roberto Patuelli & Maurizio Mussoni & Guido Candela, 2014. "Cultural offer and distance in a spatial interaction model for tourism," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(2), pages 96-108.
    10. Turrión Prats, Judith & Duro Moreno, Juan Antonio, 2017. "Seasonality Determinants for the Main Markets in Spain," Working Papers 2072/306517, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics.
    11. Kevin Blattler & Hannes Wallimann & Widar von Arx, 2024. "Free public transport to the destination: A causal analysis of tourists' travel mode choice," Papers 2401.14945, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    12. José María Martín Martín & Jose Antonio Salinas Fernández & José Antonio Rodríguez Martín & Juan De Dios Jiménez Aguilera, 2017. "Assessment of the Tourism’s Potential as a Sustainable Development Instrument in Terms of Annual Stability: Application to Spanish Rural Destinations in Process of Consolidation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-20, September.
    13. Paz Rico & Bernardí Cabrer-Borrás & Francisco Morillas-Jurado, 2021. "Seasonality in Tourism: Do Senior Programs Mitigate It?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(16), pages 1-27, August.
    14. Salman Majeed & Changbao Lu & Mahwash Majeed & Muahmmad Naeem Shahid, 2018. "Health Resorts and Multi-Textured Perceptions of International Health Tourists," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-26, April.
    15. Jian Sun & Jinniu Wang & Yanqiang Wei & Yurui Li & Miao Liu, 2016. "The Haze Nightmare Following the Economic Boom in China: Dilemma and Tradeoffs," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-12, April.
    16. Cellini, Roberto & Rizzo, Giuseppe, 2010. "Private and public incentive to reduce seasonality: a simple theoretical model," MPRA Paper 23588, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Amir Khatibi & Ana Paula Couto da Silva & Jussara M Almeida & Marcos A Gonçalves, 2022. "A quantitative analysis of the impact of explicit incorporation of recency, seasonality and model specialization into fine-grained tourism demand prediction models," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(12), pages 1-31, December.
    18. Martínez, José Manuel Guaita & Martín, José María Martín & Rey, María del Sol Ostos, 2020. "An analysis of the changes in the seasonal patterns of tourist behavior during a process of economic recovery," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    19. Anna Serena Vergori, 2017. "Patterns of seasonality and tourism demand forecasting," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(5), pages 1011-1027, August.
    20. Elżbieta Szaruga & Bartosz Pilecki & Marta Sidorkiewicz, 2023. "The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Transport Accessibility, and Accommodation Accessibility on the Energy Intensity of Public Tourist Transport," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-27, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:6:p:2569-:d:1612551. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.