Visual dominance and sensory diversity: analysing tourist experiences at destination attractions through online reviews

While sensory experiences are widely acknowledged as critical elements shaping tourists’ perceptions and satisfaction, research has primarily focused on traditional methods such as interviews and surveys, often neglecting the rich insights available from online reviews. Using Hainan Province, a renowned tourist city in China, this study collected approximately 110,000 review data from Ctrip. By employing computer-assisted content and compositional data analyses, the study investigated the sensory experience characteristics of tourists in attractions, extracted high-frequency words from different types of sensory experience reviews, and compared sensory experience differences among attractions of varying grades and types. Our findings reveal that visual experiences dominate tourists’ sensory engagement, while mentions of olfactory, gustatory, and auditory experiences are less frequent. Significant differences exist in sensory experiences across different types or grades of attractions, each exhibiting unique sensory characteristics. The findings provide a profound understanding of tourists’ sensory experiences at destination attractions and offer practical suggestions for attraction management and marketing strategies.