Understanding the internet-famous tourist city: Interaction within digital technology in an accelerated society

Under the influence of social media marketing, internet-famous tourist cities have become a hot topic in contemporary society. Tourists' attention to these cities is significantly shaped by social media interactions. By using Zibo, Harbin, and Tianshui as case studies, the study explored the effect of interaction between tourists and destinations within an accelerated societal context. The study collected a dataset of 702 videos and 67,568 comments from TikTok, Kwai, and Bilibili. Through interaction index, sentiment analysis, and BERTopic theme modeling, it measured audience interaction dynamics. The findings reveal that in the process of urban virality, social media-driven emotional resonance emerges as the core factor driving active interaction. However, cognitive conflicts arising from excessive commercial penetration have become prominent with capital expansion and market competition. Notably, audience sentiment scores exhibit a stepped decline across cities from Zibo to Harbin and Tianshui, a trend that profoundly exposes the development paradox of accelerated society. This study constructs a novel theoretical framework that integrates digital technology interaction with social acceleration, unveiling the developmental dynamics of internet-famous tourist city and guiding tourism development toward the goal of fostering a good life. • Social acceleration theory provides a new perspective for understanding the internet-famous tourist city. • Emotional resonance is an important driver of interaction between tourists and internet-famous tourist city. • The marketized expansion has led to more complex perceptions of its development outputs • Social media can draw interest to internet-famous tourist cities, but sustaining it is hard.