Resumen de Tourism netnography: how travel bloggers influence destination image
Mohammad Sadegh Gholamhosseinzadeh, Jean-Michel Chapuis, Jean-Marc Lehu
Travel bloggers are among digital influencers who share travels with their followers and impacttheir opinions. This study applies netnography to gain a better understanding of this influenceon destination image formation. By choosing Okinawa as the destination, the onlinecommunications between two travel bloggers and their respective followers were studied. Asmost of their followers had no prior image towards Okinawa, the researchers could study howthe promoted destination image was perceived by the followers. Thefindings revealed theirpractices as grabbing followers’attention, self-discovery, followers’involvement and sharinginformation. Followers were surprised and excited by this discovery and even some of themexpressed intention to visit this Japanese archipelago. This study provides a protocol of usingnetnography for identifying destination image attributes through social media communicationsalong with theoretical and managerial implications in tourism promotion and digital marketing.
