Culture vs. distance: comparing the effects of geographic segmentation variables on tourists’ destination images based on social media data

Abstract

Culture and distance are two major factors for geographically segmenting tourists in tourism marketing and advertising. Previous empirical studies on the destination image, however, have examined extensively the effect of the culture while inadequately the effect of the distance, let alone comparing the effects of the two variables. Using social media data, this study compares the effect of distance-based segments of tourists with that of culture-based segments in producing diverse perceived images of a destination. From Sina Weibo data, 282,532 Chinese mainland tourists who visited Suzhou, China during 2012–2016 and their perceived destination images are extracted and analyzed. The main results include: 1) for distance-based segments, the image differences increased with distance and the short-haul tourists perceived a more comprehensive image than the long-haul tourists; 2) for culture-based segments, the image differences were clear and relatively complex, while tourists from Wuyue cultural region had similar image perceptions with the local visitors; 3) the q-statistic of the Geodetector method shows that the culture-based segmentation can explain 65.8% of image variations while the distance-based segmentation can explain 46.6% of image variations, suggesting that culture is a more appropriate variable to segment the tourism market.

Impact of Destination Image Formation on Tourist Trust: Mediating Role of Tourist Satisfaction

“…Currently, several studies have been concentrated on destination image formation, tourists' satisfaction, and tourist trust in advanced countries such as America, Austria, Spain, South Korea, and France, etc. (Guzman-Parra et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2021), with comparatively fewer studies have been conducted in emerging nations which is increased amputates of the scholars to get more diverse corporate viewpoints. Our rationale for doing this study is to establish a link between LCP, A, ALP, and DIF, all of which contribute to TS and, ultimately, TT.…”

Attribution Model of Travel Intention to Internet Celebrity Spots: A Systematic Exploration Based on Psychological Perspective

“…When the content of “Internet celebrity spots punch in” meme exceeds the boundary of tourists’ psychological equilibrium, it leads to empathic fluctuations in tourists’ psychology. Among them, the mood fluctuations and psychological changes triggered by the destination image invoked by the meme content are synthesized as the affective empathy and cognitive empathy of tourists ( Wu et al, 2021 ). Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed in this study.…”