Tourism netnography: how travel bloggers influence destination image

ABSTRACT

Travel bloggers are among digital influencers who share travels with their followers and impact their opinions. This study applies netnography to gain a better understanding of this influence on destination image formation. By choosing Okinawa as the destination, the online communications between two travel bloggers and their respective followers were studied. As most of their followers had no prior image towards Okinawa, the researchers could study how the promoted destination image was perceived by the followers. The findings revealed their practices as grabbing followers’ attention, self-discovery, followers’ involvement and sharing information. Followers were surprised and excited by this discovery and even some of them expressed intention to visit this Japanese archipelago. This study provides a protocol of using netnography for identifying destination image attributes through social media communications along with theoretical and managerial implications in tourism promotion and digital marketing.

KEYWORDS:

• Destination image
• digital influencers
• netnography
• social media
• Okinawa
• travel bloggers

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammad Sadegh Gholamhosseinzadeh

Mohammad Sadegh Gholamhosseinzadeh is a Lecturer of Marketing and Tourism at Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne University, France. He has digital marketing and tour guiding experiences in renowned travel agencies in Iran. His research fields are digital influencers, destination image and social media.

Jean-Michel Chapuis

Jean-Michel Chapuis is an Associate Professor of Management at the University of Paris 1, Pantheon-Sorbonne, France. As academic director of the Master of International Tourism, he manages the empirical work on tourism at the university’s research centre. Having completed a PhD in corporate finance, he has orientated his research work toward the way companies use revenue management strategy and its impacts on performance.

Jean-Marc Lehu

Jean-Marc Lehu is Associate Marketing Professor at Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris, France. He is also a consultant in marketing and communications and conducts research on customer loyalty and brand management. He has had several books and numerous articles published.