A Visual Analysis of Destinations in Travel Magazines

Abstract

This study presents a visual analysis of photographs of six destinations (Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan) published in Chinese travel magazines. The object and subject categories, size, and providers of the photographs are content analyzed. The three most popular object categories were Culture, history, and art; Leisure and recreation; and Physical environment. The dominant subject category was No people. Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that the different destinations correlated with diverse object and subject categories. All six destinations were portrayed differently in terms of the source and size of the photographs. These findings can be utilized by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to devise positioning and promotion activities for implementation in the Chinese market.

Analysis of the projected image of tourism accommodations: a methodological proposal

“…In their analysis, they differentiated between the exterior and interior of lodging properties, and they focussed on specific elements such as swimming pools, gardens, dining rooms and halls. Choi et al (2007), Hsu and Song (2013, 2014) evaluated lodging properties as an element of destination infrastructure. Camprubi et al (2012) and Donaire et al (2014) analysed pictorial elements of lodging properties as part of tourism services offered at a destination.…”

“…gender, tourist vs local or employees) and travel group (e.g. families and couples) (Camprubi et al , 2012; Hsu and Song, 2014; Nash, 2015). However, relevance of subjects in photographs (e.g.…”

Analysis of the projected image of tourism destinations on photographs: A literature review to prepare for the future

“…On the other hand, photographs have been used in the evaluation of the projected image of a destination transmitted through various promotional media such as brochures (Edelheim, 2007; Jalil and Abd, 2009; Pritchard and Morgan, 2001), travel magazines (Hsu and Song, 2013, 2014), postcards (Garrod, 2009; Milman, 2011), websites (Singh and Lee, 2009; Stepchenkova and Zhan, 2013), or the combination of promotional materials that include publications carried out by various destination marketing organizations, brochures from hotel and tourism associations, tourist guides, and web pages (Nelson, 2005). The use of printed material in the analysis of visual representations (particularly tourism brochures) should be highlighted, as should be the case of digital content due to the increasing popularity of this subject in recent years.…”

“…With regard to the presence of individuals in the photos (people), the majority of the studies have focused on the identification of the typology of the person depicted (Camprubi et al, 2012; Choi et al, 2007; Dann, 1988; Francesconi, 2011; Hsu and Song, 2014; Hunter, 2008; Schellhorn and Perkins, 2004; Stepchenkova and Zhan, 2013), differentiating mainly between tourists and locals, followed by the characterization of gender (Edelheim, 2007; Jenkins, 2003; Nelson, 2005; Page et al, 2006; Small et al, 2008), as well as the travel group (Jenkins, 2003; MacKay and Couldwell, 2004; Pritchard and Morgan, 1996; Schellhorn and Perkins, 2004; Singh and Formica, 2007; Singh and Lee, 2009; Small et al, 2008). Finally, there is also a general lack of research, with the exception of Garrod (2009), concerning the analyses of the primary or secondary relevance of the subject on the image.…”

“…It can be concluded that there is a lack of a methodological framework to evaluate the PIP. For this reason, the development of a scheme that is sufficiently wide and flexible to be able to incorporate future adaptations and that allows a clear and profound understanding of the projected image of tourism destinations is clearly necessary (Hsu and Song, 2014). Moreover, the strong competition between tourism destinations, besides the large number of agents that intervene in promotional activities, has increased the need for comparative evaluations that allow the concordance between destination marketing strategies and the projected image to be measured (Kim and Chen, 2016; Pritchard and Morgan, 1996).…”