The projected image of idyllic life and its construction

ABSTRACT

Idyllic life is a crucial scenario in digital media marketing and virtual tourism. It is an idealized image of rural life that greatly influences tourists’ choice of rural destinations. However, this image tends to lack an Oriental cultural perspective. Through a discourse analysis of Chinese newspapers and WeChat articles, six dimensions of the projected image of idyllic life were identified and their relationships were constructed. In addition, kinaesthesia and atmospheric sense were explored to enrich sensory marketing theory. The study provides support for rural tourism destination marketing. It also reveals that visions of the idyllic life are common between the East and the West, suggesting cultural commonality. The collective unconscious image of idyllic life also complements the image of a rural tourism destination.

KEYWORDS:

• Idyllic life
• media projection
• destination projected image
• sensory marketing
• collective unconscious

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by 2022 Chengdu Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project (to LI Zhiyong) (Grant No. 2022CS164), by Sichuan University Special Research Project under “Double First-Class” Initiative (Philosophy and Social Sciences): [Grant No. SKSYL201703]; the Fundamental Research Founds for the Central Universities to Rui Cui [Grant Number No.1082204112687].