The study on media image of tourist destination in “Otherness”– The case of Thailand

Abstract

Thailand has been commended and paid attention to as a popular outbound travel destination for Chinese tourists. However, in early 2023, the public opinion of Thailand as a tourist destination on the DouYin platform has taken an extreme turn for the worse. In order to investigate the media image of Thailand as a tourist destination under the influence of otherness on the DouYin platform and the causes behind it, this paper exerts the interaction ritual chains theory and the perception theory of tourist destination image as guidance, combining the characteristics of User Generated Content (UGC) form with the traits of “otherness”, applying the manual data collection and coding method to delve the textual content of Thai tourism on the DouYin platform. After data analysis and content analysis, this study found that most of the DouYin users currently believe that traveling to Thailand is dangerous and should not be done. This media image is the result of various factors such as national policy, platform marketing, and capital-driven.