How visual narratives influence the projected image of a tourist destination. A Japanese focus on Transylvania

Tourists use visual content in order to capture their experiences with other people, places and cultures. This paper investigates the influence that visual narratives have on the projected image of a Romanian tourist destination - Transylvania. Visual data has been used in the research for both the quantitative and qualitative methodological approach. The implication of qualitative methods emerged from the principal approach of this research to obtain an in-depth understanding of how visitors perceive, interpret and communicate the social reality of the visited destination. The qualitative study investigated how photographs and films taken by 14 Japanese students while participating at TCC project affect perceptions on Transylvania as a tourist destination by their colleagues and friends. The quantitative approach came from the study’s specific focus on potential visitors’perception of several destination attributes, previously identified using the content analysis of the visual data collected by the Japanese visitors.

Japanese visitors’ perceptions of the analyzed destination communicated in visual form are full of insights that should inspire authentic and effective promotional campaigns, where destination marketing organizations need to incorporate user-generated content in their marketing communication.