Travel blogs on China as a destination image formation agent: A qualitative analysis using Leximancer

The Internet spreads tourism information around the world and specifically travel blogs function as an online version of word-of-mouth (eWOM). This research explored the role of blogs as a destination image formation agent for China's inbound tourism. Data were collected from 630 bloggers who wrote on two blog websites about their travels within China in 2011 and 2012. The bloggers on TravelBlog.org and TravelPod.com were mainly from English-speaking countries. Qualitative analysis using Leximancer software was applied and identified nine major textual themes and the relationships among these themes. In order of relative importance, the themes were place, Chinese, people, food, train, city, hotel, China, and students. The research indicated that international tourists tended to have positive images of China.