A Visual Analysis of Destinations in Travel Magazines

This study presents a visual analysis of photographs of six destinations (Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan) published in Chinese travel magazines. The object and subject categories, size, and providers of the photographs are content analyzed. The three most popular object categories were Culture, history, and art; Leisure and recreation; and Physical environment. The dominant subject category was No people. Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that the different destinations correlated with diverse object and subject categories. All six destinations were portrayed differently in terms of the source and size of the photographs. These findings can be utilized by destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to devise positioning and promotion activities for implementation in the Chinese market.