Snap, share, engage: AI-assisted temporal topic and engagement analysis of visual communication of luxury hotels

Despite the recognised importance of visual content in luxury hotel branding, there is a significant lack of research on how these hotels strategically use organisation-generated content on social media to consistently communicate brand identity and sustain audience engagement over time. This study provides new insights by applying AI-powered methods to a longitudinal analysis of 9612 Facebook photographs posted by Italian five-star hotels between 2019 and 2023. Using service-dominant logic and uses and gratifications theory, the analysis identifies seven recurring content categories and evaluates both their temporal consistency and their impact on audience engagement. The results show that non-city hotels maintained consistent, emotionally engaging visual communications during the pandemic, while city hotels experienced longer interruptions. Photographs with symbolic and hedonic appeal, especially those showing nature and interiors, led to significantly more engagement than functional images. To better evaluate user interaction, a new relationship-based engagement metric is introduced. The study makes a theoretical contribution by deepening the understanding of value co-creation in digital hospitality environments and a practical one by providing scalable, AI-powered tools for content evaluation. It also highlights differentiated strategies for luxury hotel marketers looking to align their visual communications with audience expectations and behaviour on the platform.