The Impact of YouTube in Tourism Destinations: A Methodological Proposal to Qualitatively Measure Image Positioning—Case: Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The purpose of this research is, through a methodological proposal, to determine the representation of the image of a destination generated by the travel youtubers of the gastronomic segment. This is the case of Saudi Arabia and its gastronomic image. To identify the gastronomic image of Saudi Arabia, the theories of social representation, agenda setting, and framing will be used to analyze the videos of two important gastronomic youtubers and their effects on their audiences. Overall, this study supports the idea that new communication channels can be used to verify the effectiveness, adapting the methodologies used in traditional media as well as taking advantage of processing software for qualitative and quantitative data such as Atlasti. The proposed study can contribute to methodological development in the field, and the insights gained by its application can influence tourism marketing and media planning in tourism organizations. The results show several positioning attributes detected in the public frame as amazing, hospitality, delicious, and culture as well as in the media frame were found attributes such as delicious, fresh, camel, liver, lamb, ghee, spices, rice, etc.