Tourism netnography: how travel bloggers influence destination image

Travel bloggers are among digital influencers who share travels with their followers and impact their opinions. This study applies netnography to gain a better understanding of this influence on destination image formation. By choosing Okinawa as the destination, the online communications between two travel bloggers and their respective followers were studied. As most of their followers had no prior image towards Okinawa, the researchers could study how the promoted destination image was perceived by the followers. The findings revealed their practices as grabbing followers’ attention, self-discovery, followers’ involvement and sharing information. Followers were surprised and excited by this discovery and even some of them expressed intention to visit this Japanese archipelago. This study provides a protocol of using netnography for identifying destination image attributes through social media communications along with theoretical and managerial implications in tourism promotion and digital marketing.