Shanshui Poetry and Painting in Forming Outbound Tourists’ Perception of Destination Personality: A Netnographic Examination

Abstract

Classical poetry and landscape painting are important traditional Chinese cultural associations and carriers of Chinese shanshui culture. This study reports the findings derived from examining their roles in forming the perceived destination personality held by Chinese tourists to Hokkaido. Based on a content and thematic analysis of tourists written accounts posted on online travel sharing community, the research reveals that classical poems and landscape painting take the roles of expressive vehicle of viewed scenery and lyric means to express tourists’ emotion and thought. They also exhibit Chinese tourists’ aesthetic interest in the feminine destination attributes. Findings of this research offer implications to destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to promote their Chinese marketing strategy through crafting culture-specific marketing messages and properly communicating with its target market.