Abstract
This paper considers if, and to what extent, visual social media can change the viewer’s perceived image of a tourism destination as well as which types of visual content are most effective in projecting a destination image. The results from an online survey, which compares three different test groups and their image of Mexico City, shows that UGC images from Instagram, as well as random Google images, are more effective at improving destination image than the UGC images reposted by a DMO. Additionally, this study uses image annotations to determine which features in images are most important in terms of their contribution to an improvement in overall destination image, presenting a re-usable set of visual features for future work on using annotations in the measurement of visual destination image.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
References
Hudson S, Thal K (2013) The impact of social media on the consumer decision process: implications for tourism marketing. J Travel Tour Mark 30(1–2):156–160
Lange-Faria W, Elliot S (2012) Understanding the role of social media in destination marketing. Tour Int Multidiscip J Tour 7(1):193–211
Hays S, Page SJ, Buhalis D (2012) Social media as a destination marketing tool: its use by national tourism organisations. Curr Issues Tour 16(3):211–239
U.S. Department of State - Bureau of Consular Affairs (2017) Mexico travel warning. Travel.State.Gov: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/mexico-travel-warning.html. Accessed 7 Dec 2017
Lonely Planet (2017) Danger & Annoyances. Lonely Planet: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/mexico-city/safety. Accessed 7 Dec 2017
Aebli A, Pagel S (2015) Are user-generated photos able to attract more attention? E-rev Tour Res 11(5/6):62–70
VisitMexico (nd) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visitmexico/?hl=en. Accessed 15 Mar 2018
Lim Y, Chung Y, Weaver PA (2012) The impact of social media on destination branding: consumer-generated videos vs destination marketer-generated videos. J Vacat Mark 18:197–205
Beerli A, MartÃn JD (2004) Factors influencing destination image. Ann Tour Res 31(3):657–681
Nixon L, Popova A, Önder I (2017) How instagram influences Visual Destination Image: a case study of jordan and costa rica. In: ENTER2017 eTourism conference, Rome, Italy
Picazo P, Moreno-Gil S (2017) Analysis of the projected image of tourism destinations on photographs: a literature review to prepare for the future. J Vacat Mark, Nov 2017
Stepchenkova S, Zhan FZ (2013) Visual destination image of Peru: comparative content analysis of DMO and user-generated photography. Tour Manag 36:590–601
Nixon L (2018) Assessing the usefulness of online image annotation services for destination image measurement. In: ENTER2018 eTourism conference, Jönköping, Sweden
Smith A, Anderson M (2018) Social media use in 2018. Pew Research Center: http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/. Accessed 17 Apr 2018
Acknowledgements
This work is a summary of the Bachelor thesis of MODUL University Vienna student Denis Bernkopf under the supervision of co-author Asst. Prof. Dr. Lyndon Nixon. The full thesis is available from the MODUL University Vienna library. An abridged version of this paper has been published at TURITEC 2018.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Bernkopf, D., Nixon, L. (2019). The Impact of Visual Social Media on the Projected Image of a Destination: The Case of Mexico City on Instagram. In: Pesonen, J., Neidhardt, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05940-8_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05940-8_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05939-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05940-8
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)