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.

摘要

旅游博主属于数字影响者，他们与追随者分享旅行并影响他们的观点。本研究应用网络志来更好地理解这种对目的地形象形成的影响。通过选择冲绳作为目的地，研究了两个旅游博主和他们各自的追随者之间的在线交流。由于他们的大多数追随者对冲绳没有先前的印象，因此研究人员可以研究追随者如何看待所宣传的目的地形象。调查结果揭示了他们在吸引追随者注意力、自我发现、追随者参与和分享信息方面的做法。追随者对这一发现感到惊讶和兴奋，甚至有人表示有意访问这个日本列岛。