Projected Destination Image: A Content Analysis of Promotional Videos for City-level Tourism Destination

The current paper used content analysis to examine 50 commercials featuring the most internationally visited cities in the world as of 2019. It analyzed the components, scenes, and frames used to create the projected image of an attractive tourism destination, appealing to tourists from all walks of life. Regardless of the region to which the city belongs, most promotional videos used items from all the significant dimensions identified: natural resources; atmosphere of the place; culture, history, art; tourist infrastructure; entertainment resources; shopping resources; social environment; other resources. Overall, the most common frames identified were outdoor sports activities, historical and archeological buildings, and restaurants, and fine dining. In contrast, the least common frames were tourist information center, smart city aspects, and awards and distinctions. The analysis shows that most Asia and the Pacific, and European cities choose frames depicting historical and archeological buildings, while cities in the Americas, and the Middle East and Africa go for frames depicting outdoor sports activities. From an affective perspective, the atmosphere of the place depicted for Asia and the Pacific, and American cities emphasizes inclusivity, European cities are relaxing, and for the Middle East and Africa is vibrancy. As a subcategory, inclusivity defined as racial, age, sexual and gender, religious, and disability related diversity, had the best representation for racial diversity in all the regions, sexual and gender, and age-related diversity were polarized by region, while religious diversity and disability-related diversity were the least visible.