Reconsidering Tourism Destination Images by Exploring Similarities between Travelogue Texts and Photographs

Abstract

With the rise of user-generated content (UGC) and deep learning technology, more and more researchers construct and measure the tourism destination image (TDI) through online travelogues. However, due to the impact of COVID-19 prevention and control, the number of online travelogues has decreased significantly and, therefore, the scientific validity of the TDI based only on text or photos has been questioned. This research fills a gap by comparing the differences between visual and semantic images in terms of the overall image perception and image formation through natural language processing technology and image caption technology in obtaining TDIs, taking Tiantai County in Zhejiang Province of China as a case. Our results show that the texts and photographs shared major similarities in the overall TDI, but from the perspective of interest, they reflect differently. Therefore, when considering the data source selection for TDI research with a small number of travelogues, texts should be the main content, supplemented by photographs.