Aesthetic perception analysis of destination pictures using #beautifuldestinations on Instagram

D. Hauser; A. Leopold; R. Egger; H. Ganewita; L. Herrgessell

doi:10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702

Aesthetic perception analysis of destination pictures using #beautifuldestinations on Instagram

D. Hauser
, A. Leopold
, R. Egger
, H. Ganewita
, L. Herrgessell

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Destination pictures can be perceived very differently; thus, it is critical to understand what contributes to their aesthetic perception. This study explored the aesthetic perception of 400 destination pictures posted with the popular hashtag #beautifuldestinations on Instagram. The pictures were examined based on their perceived aesthetics of the portrayed content and the perceived influence of five selected visual elements of design (colour, light, line, angle of view, and focus). Data was collected using questionnaires (n = 200), and cluster analysis identified 12 content clusters. Results revealed that pictures showing natural elements were more aesthetically pleasing than pictures representing man-made elements, suggesting that the content of pictures subconsciously influences the perceived aesthetic perception of destination pictures. Additionally, the perceived influence of the five visual elements varies within different clusters. Theoretically, the findings contribute to existing aesthetic literature and present practical implementations for Destination Management Organisations' online marketing.

Original language	English
Journal	J. Destin. Mark. Manage.
Volume	24
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702
Publication status	Published - 1 Jun 2022

Keywords

Aesthetics
Cluster analysis
Destination
Instagram
Perception

Access to Document

10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702

Cite this

@article{ca88e48435654c76a56c18582e0d6233,

title = "Aesthetic perception analysis of destination pictures using \#beautifuldestinations on Instagram",

abstract = "Destination pictures can be perceived very differently; thus, it is critical to understand what contributes to their aesthetic perception. This study explored the aesthetic perception of 400 destination pictures posted with the popular hashtag \#beautifuldestinations on Instagram. The pictures were examined based on their perceived aesthetics of the portrayed content and the perceived influence of five selected visual elements of design (colour, light, line, angle of view, and focus). Data was collected using questionnaires (n = 200), and cluster analysis identified 12 content clusters. Results revealed that pictures showing natural elements were more aesthetically pleasing than pictures representing man-made elements, suggesting that the content of pictures subconsciously influences the perceived aesthetic perception of destination pictures. Additionally, the perceived influence of the five visual elements varies within different clusters. Theoretically, the findings contribute to existing aesthetic literature and present practical implementations for Destination Management Organisations' online marketing.",

keywords = "Aesthetics, Cluster analysis, Destination, Instagram, Perception",

author = "D. Hauser and A. Leopold and R. Egger and H. Ganewita and L. Herrgessell",

note = "Cited By :16 Export Date: 14 December 2023 Correspondence Address: Leopold, A.Urstein S{\"u}d 1, Puch, Austria; email: [email protected] Funding text 1: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. References: Aramendia-Muneta, M.E., Olarte-Pascual, C., Ollo-L{\'o}pez, A., Key image attributes to elicit likes and comments on Instagram (2021) Journal of Promotion Management, 27 (1), pp. 50-76; Arefieva, V., Egger, R., Yu, J., A machine learning approach to cluster destination image on Instagram (2021) Tourism Management, 85, pp. 1-11; Azemati, H., Jam, F., Ghorbani, M., Dehmer, M., Ebrahimpour, R., Ghanbaran, A., Emmert-Streib, F., The role of symmetry in the aesthetics of residential building facades using cognitive science methods (2020) Symmetry, 12 (9), pp. 1-15; Baisya, R.K., Das, G.G., Aesthetics in marketing (2008), Sage Publications New Delhi; Baron, E., Ciechomski, W., Instagram as a new promotion and sales channel (2019) Managing economic innovations–methods and instruments, pp. 24-37. , R. Romanowski Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe; Belt, A.F., The elements of photography: Understanding and creating sophisticated images (2008), Elsevier Oxford; Chen, S., Chen, Y., A content-based image retrieval method based on the Google Cloud Vision API and WordNet (2017) Intelligent information and database systems, pp. 651-662. , N. Nguyen S. Tojo L. Nguyen B. Trawi{\'n}ski Springer Cham; Chen, X., Li, G., Yang, L., Nie, Q., Ye, X., Liang, Y., Xu, T., Profiling unmanned aerial vehicle photography tourists (2020) Current Issues in Tourism, 23 (14), pp. 1705-1710; Cho, Y., Intercoder reliability (2008) Encyclopedia of survey research, pp. 345-347. , P.J. Lavrakas Sage Publications Thousand Oaks, CA; Datta, R., Joshi, D., Li, J., Wang, J.Z., Studying aesthetics in photographic images using a computational approach (2006) Computer vision, pp. 288-301. , A. Leonardis H. Bischof A. Pinz Springer Berlin, Heidelberg; Dhar, S., Ordonez, V., Berg, T.L., High level describable attributes for predicting aesthetics and interestingness (2011) The 24th IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, pp. 1657-1664. , Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Colorado Springs, CO; Furtak, E.M., Seidel, T., Iverson, H., Briggs, D.C., Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of inquiry-based science teaching: A meta-analysis (2012) Review of Educational Research, 82 (3), pp. 300-329; Galindo, M., Hidalgo, M., Aesthetic preferences and the attribution of meaning: Environmental categorization processes in the evaluation of urban scenes (2005) International Journal of Psychology, 40, pp. 19-27; Galindo, M.P.G., Rodgr{\'i}guez, J.A.C., Environmental aesthetics and psychological wellbeing: Relationships between preference judgments for urban landscapes and other relevant affective response (2000) Psychology in Spain, 4 (1), pp. 13-27; Hartig, T., Nature experience in transactional perspective (1993) Landscape and Urban Planning, 25, pp. 17-36; Howley, P., Landscape aesthetics: Assessing the general publics' preferences towards rural landscapes (2011) Ecological Economics, 72 (3), pp. 161-169; Hwang, W., Salvendy, G., Number of people required for usability evaluation: The 10±2 rule (2010) Communications of the ACM, 53 (5), pp. 130-133; Jennath, K.A., Nidhish, P.J., Aesthetic judgement and visual impact of architectural forms: A study of library buildings (2016) Procedia Technology, 24, pp. 1808-1818; Jiang, Z., Wang, W., Tan, B.C.Y., Yu, J., The determinants and impacts of aesthetics in 'users' first interaction with websites (2016) Journal of Management Information Systems, 33 (1), pp. 229-259; Kaewnopparat, J., The impact of photography on tourism: Photography construction perspective (2017), [Doctoral dissertation University of Tennessee]. TRACE; Ke, Y., Tang, X., Jing, F., The design of high-level features for photo quality assessment (2006) IEEE computer society conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, pp. 419-426. , A.W. Fitzgibbon C.J. Taylor Y. LeCun NY Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers New York, NY; Kirillova, K., Chan, J., {"}What is beautiful we book{"}: Hotel visual appeal and expected service quality (2018) International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30 (3), pp. 1788-1807; Kirillova, K., Fu, X., Lehto, X., Cai, L., What makes a destination beautiful? Dimensions of tourist aesthetic judgment (2014) Tourism Management, 42, pp. 282-293; Kirillova, K., Lehto, X., Destination aesthetics and aesthetic distance in tourism experience (2015) Journal of Travel \& Tourism Marketing, 32 (8), pp. 1051-1068; Kraft, R.N., The influence of camera angle on comprehension and retention of pictorial events (1987) Memory \& Cognition, 15 (4), pp. 291-307; Lee, A.H., What does colour tell about tourist experiences? (2020) Tourism Geographies, pp. 1-22; Lewis, J.R., Introduction: Current issues in usability evaluation (2001) International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 13 (4), pp. 343-349; Lies, J., Aesthetics rising from beauty to reputation management (2020) Corporate Reputation Review, 37 (7-8), pp. 1-11; Luo, Y., Tang, X., Photo and video quality evaluation: Focusing on the subject (2008) Lecture notes in computer science, pp. 386-399. , D. Forsyth P.H.S. Torr A. Zisserman Springer Berlin; Malu, G., Bapi, R.S., Indurkhya, B., Learning photography aesthetics with deep cnns (2017), MAICS; Manav, B., Color-emotion associations and color preferences: A case study for residences (2007) Color Research \& Application, 32 (2), pp. 144-150; Marder, B., Erz, A., Angell, R., Plangger, K., The role of photograph aesthetics on online review sites: Effects of management- versus traveler-generated photos on tourists' decisions making (2019) Journal of Travel Research, 60 (1), pp. 31-46; Mata, I.L., Fossgard, K., Haukeland, J.V., Do visitors gaze and reproduce what destination managers wish to commercialise? Perceived and projected image in the UNESCO world heritage area 'West Norwegian Fjords' (2018) International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2 (4), pp. 294-321; Nasar, J.L., Hong, X., Visual preferences in urban signscapes (1999) Environment and Behavior, 31 (5), pp. 671-691; Nusair, K., Hua, N., Ozturk, A., Butt, I., A theoretical framework of electronic word-of-mouth against the backdrop of social networking websites (2017) Journal of Travel \& Tourism Marketing, 34 (5), pp. 653-665; Pa{\"u}l i Agust{\'i}, D., The clustering of city images on Instagram: A comparison between projected and perceived images (2021) Journal of Destination Marketing \& Management, pp. 1-12; Peterson, D., The classic elements of visual design (2020), https://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/2963/the-classic-elements-of-visual-design/, Retrieved 20.06.2020. from; Pikkemaat, B., Weiermair, K., The aesthetic (design) orientated customer in tourism - implications for product development (2019), Center for Tourism and Service Economics, Department for General and Tourism Management, University of Innsbruck; Real, E., Arce, C., Sabucedo, M.J., Classification of landscapes using quantitative and categorical data and prediction of their scenic beauty in north-western Spain (2000) Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20 (4), pp. 355-373; Schirpke, U., H{\"o}lzler, S., Leitinger, G., Bacher, M., Tappeiner, U., Tasser, E., Can we model the scenic beauty of an alpine landscape? (2013) Sustainability, 5 (3), pp. 1080-1094; Sevenant, M., Antrop, M., Landscape representation validity: A comparison between on-site observations and photographs with different angles of view (2011) Landscape Research, 36 (3), pp. 363-385; Spehar, B., De Gruchy, O., Roberts, M., Viengkham, C., Semantic, statistical and aesthetic determinants of how natural and urban images make us feel (2021) Journal of Vision, 21 (9). , 2906-2906; Stanischewski, S., Altmann, C.S., Brachmann, A., Redies, C., Aesthetic perception of line patterns: Effect of edge-orientation entropy and curvilinear shape (2020) I-Perception, 11 (5), pp. 1-20; Tamaki, S., Likes on image posts in social networking services: Impact of travel episode (2021) Journal of Destination Marketing \& Management, 20, pp. 1-15; Th{\"o}mmes, K., H{\"u}bner, R., Why people press “like”: A new measure for aesthetic appeal derived from Instagram data (2020) Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts; Tieskens, K.F., van Zanten, B.T., Schulp, C.J.E., Verburg, P.H., Aesthetic appreciation of the cultural landscape through social media: An analysis of revealed preference in the Dutch river landscape (2018) Landscape and Urban Planning, 177, pp. 128-137; Tinio, P.P.L., Leder, H., Strasser, M., Image quality and the aesthetic judgment of photographs: Contrast, sharpness, and grain teased apart and put together (2011) Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5 (2), pp. 165-176; Toscano, K., Holmes, M.V., Homeowner garden design series: Elements and principles of design (2017), https://core.ac.uk/reader/215260668, Retrieved 03.11.2020. from; Van den Berg, A.E., Vlek, C.A.J., Coeterier, J.F., Group differences in the aesthetic evaluation of nature development plans: A multilevel approach (1998) Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18 (2), pp. 141-157; Wang, R., Zhao, J., Meitner, M.J., Hu, Y., Xu, X., Characteristics of urban green spaces in relation to aesthetic preference and stress recovery (2019) Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 41, pp. 6-13; Weber, R., Schnier, J., Jacobsen, T., Aesthetics of streetscapes: Influence of fundamental properties on aesthetic judgments of urban space (2008) Perceptual \& Motor Skills, 106, pp. 128-146; Yu, J., Egger, R., Color and engagement in touristic Instagram pictures: A machine learning approach (2021) Annals of Tourism Research, 89, pp. 1-15; Yu, C.-E., Xie, S.Y., Wen, J., Coloring the destination: The role of color psychology on Instagram (2020) Tourism Management, 80, pp. 1-12; Zettl, H., Sight, sound, motion (2016), Applied media aesthetics. Boston, MA: Cengage LearningUR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85128610460\&doi=10.1016\%2fj.jdmm.2022.100702\&partnerID=40\&md5=5ba2549348efb771bebe0c6c5b670fe3",

year = "2022",

month = jun,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702",

language = "English",

volume = "24",

journal = "J. Destin. Mark. Manage.",

issn = "2212-571X",

publisher = "Elsevier Ltd",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Aesthetic perception analysis of destination pictures using #beautifuldestinations on Instagram

AU - Hauser, D.

AU - Leopold, A.

AU - Egger, R.

AU - Ganewita, H.

AU - Herrgessell, L.

N1 - Cited By :16 Export Date: 14 December 2023 Correspondence Address: Leopold, A.Urstein Süd 1, Puch, Austria; email: [email protected] Funding text 1: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. References: Aramendia-Muneta, M.E., Olarte-Pascual, C., Ollo-López, A., Key image attributes to elicit likes and comments on Instagram (2021) Journal of Promotion Management, 27 (1), pp. 50-76; Arefieva, V., Egger, R., Yu, J., A machine learning approach to cluster destination image on Instagram (2021) Tourism Management, 85, pp. 1-11; Azemati, H., Jam, F., Ghorbani, M., Dehmer, M., Ebrahimpour, R., Ghanbaran, A., Emmert-Streib, F., The role of symmetry in the aesthetics of residential building facades using cognitive science methods (2020) Symmetry, 12 (9), pp. 1-15; Baisya, R.K., Das, G.G., Aesthetics in marketing (2008), Sage Publications New Delhi; Baron, E., Ciechomski, W., Instagram as a new promotion and sales channel (2019) Managing economic innovations–methods and instruments, pp. 24-37. , R. Romanowski Bogucki Wydawnictwo Naukowe; Belt, A.F., The elements of photography: Understanding and creating sophisticated images (2008), Elsevier Oxford; Chen, S., Chen, Y., A content-based image retrieval method based on the Google Cloud Vision API and WordNet (2017) Intelligent information and database systems, pp. 651-662. , N. Nguyen S. Tojo L. Nguyen B. Trawiński Springer Cham; Chen, X., Li, G., Yang, L., Nie, Q., Ye, X., Liang, Y., Xu, T., Profiling unmanned aerial vehicle photography tourists (2020) Current Issues in Tourism, 23 (14), pp. 1705-1710; Cho, Y., Intercoder reliability (2008) Encyclopedia of survey research, pp. 345-347. , P.J. Lavrakas Sage Publications Thousand Oaks, CA; Datta, R., Joshi, D., Li, J., Wang, J.Z., Studying aesthetics in photographic images using a computational approach (2006) Computer vision, pp. 288-301. , A. Leonardis H. Bischof A. Pinz Springer Berlin, Heidelberg; Dhar, S., Ordonez, V., Berg, T.L., High level describable attributes for predicting aesthetics and interestingness (2011) The 24th IEEE conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, pp. 1657-1664. , Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Colorado Springs, CO; Furtak, E.M., Seidel, T., Iverson, H., Briggs, D.C., Experimental and quasi-experimental studies of inquiry-based science teaching: A meta-analysis (2012) Review of Educational Research, 82 (3), pp. 300-329; Galindo, M., Hidalgo, M., Aesthetic preferences and the attribution of meaning: Environmental categorization processes in the evaluation of urban scenes (2005) International Journal of Psychology, 40, pp. 19-27; Galindo, M.P.G., Rodgríguez, J.A.C., Environmental aesthetics and psychological wellbeing: Relationships between preference judgments for urban landscapes and other relevant affective response (2000) Psychology in Spain, 4 (1), pp. 13-27; Hartig, T., Nature experience in transactional perspective (1993) Landscape and Urban Planning, 25, pp. 17-36; Howley, P., Landscape aesthetics: Assessing the general publics' preferences towards rural landscapes (2011) Ecological Economics, 72 (3), pp. 161-169; Hwang, W., Salvendy, G., Number of people required for usability evaluation: The 10±2 rule (2010) Communications of the ACM, 53 (5), pp. 130-133; Jennath, K.A., Nidhish, P.J., Aesthetic judgement and visual impact of architectural forms: A study of library buildings (2016) Procedia Technology, 24, pp. 1808-1818; Jiang, Z., Wang, W., Tan, B.C.Y., Yu, J., The determinants and impacts of aesthetics in 'users' first interaction with websites (2016) Journal of Management Information Systems, 33 (1), pp. 229-259; Kaewnopparat, J., The impact of photography on tourism: Photography construction perspective (2017), [Doctoral dissertation University of Tennessee]. TRACE; Ke, Y., Tang, X., Jing, F., The design of high-level features for photo quality assessment (2006) IEEE computer society conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, pp. 419-426. , A.W. Fitzgibbon C.J. Taylor Y. LeCun NY Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers New York, NY; Kirillova, K., Chan, J., "What is beautiful we book": Hotel visual appeal and expected service quality (2018) International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30 (3), pp. 1788-1807; Kirillova, K., Fu, X., Lehto, X., Cai, L., What makes a destination beautiful? Dimensions of tourist aesthetic judgment (2014) Tourism Management, 42, pp. 282-293; Kirillova, K., Lehto, X., Destination aesthetics and aesthetic distance in tourism experience (2015) Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 32 (8), pp. 1051-1068; Kraft, R.N., The influence of camera angle on comprehension and retention of pictorial events (1987) Memory & Cognition, 15 (4), pp. 291-307; Lee, A.H., What does colour tell about tourist experiences? (2020) Tourism Geographies, pp. 1-22; Lewis, J.R., Introduction: Current issues in usability evaluation (2001) International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 13 (4), pp. 343-349; Lies, J., Aesthetics rising from beauty to reputation management (2020) Corporate Reputation Review, 37 (7-8), pp. 1-11; Luo, Y., Tang, X., Photo and video quality evaluation: Focusing on the subject (2008) Lecture notes in computer science, pp. 386-399. , D. Forsyth P.H.S. Torr A. Zisserman Springer Berlin; Malu, G., Bapi, R.S., Indurkhya, B., Learning photography aesthetics with deep cnns (2017), MAICS; Manav, B., Color-emotion associations and color preferences: A case study for residences (2007) Color Research & Application, 32 (2), pp. 144-150; Marder, B., Erz, A., Angell, R., Plangger, K., The role of photograph aesthetics on online review sites: Effects of management- versus traveler-generated photos on tourists' decisions making (2019) Journal of Travel Research, 60 (1), pp. 31-46; Mata, I.L., Fossgard, K., Haukeland, J.V., Do visitors gaze and reproduce what destination managers wish to commercialise? Perceived and projected image in the UNESCO world heritage area 'West Norwegian Fjords' (2018) International Journal of Digital Culture and Electronic Tourism, 2 (4), pp. 294-321; Nasar, J.L., Hong, X., Visual preferences in urban signscapes (1999) Environment and Behavior, 31 (5), pp. 671-691; Nusair, K., Hua, N., Ozturk, A., Butt, I., A theoretical framework of electronic word-of-mouth against the backdrop of social networking websites (2017) Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 34 (5), pp. 653-665; Paül i Agustí, D., The clustering of city images on Instagram: A comparison between projected and perceived images (2021) Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, pp. 1-12; Peterson, D., The classic elements of visual design (2020), https://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/2963/the-classic-elements-of-visual-design/, Retrieved 20.06.2020. from; Pikkemaat, B., Weiermair, K., The aesthetic (design) orientated customer in tourism - implications for product development (2019), Center for Tourism and Service Economics, Department for General and Tourism Management, University of Innsbruck; Real, E., Arce, C., Sabucedo, M.J., Classification of landscapes using quantitative and categorical data and prediction of their scenic beauty in north-western Spain (2000) Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20 (4), pp. 355-373; Schirpke, U., Hölzler, S., Leitinger, G., Bacher, M., Tappeiner, U., Tasser, E., Can we model the scenic beauty of an alpine landscape? (2013) Sustainability, 5 (3), pp. 1080-1094; Sevenant, M., Antrop, M., Landscape representation validity: A comparison between on-site observations and photographs with different angles of view (2011) Landscape Research, 36 (3), pp. 363-385; Spehar, B., De Gruchy, O., Roberts, M., Viengkham, C., Semantic, statistical and aesthetic determinants of how natural and urban images make us feel (2021) Journal of Vision, 21 (9). , 2906-2906; Stanischewski, S., Altmann, C.S., Brachmann, A., Redies, C., Aesthetic perception of line patterns: Effect of edge-orientation entropy and curvilinear shape (2020) I-Perception, 11 (5), pp. 1-20; Tamaki, S., Likes on image posts in social networking services: Impact of travel episode (2021) Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 20, pp. 1-15; Thömmes, K., Hübner, R., Why people press “like”: A new measure for aesthetic appeal derived from Instagram data (2020) Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts; Tieskens, K.F., van Zanten, B.T., Schulp, C.J.E., Verburg, P.H., Aesthetic appreciation of the cultural landscape through social media: An analysis of revealed preference in the Dutch river landscape (2018) Landscape and Urban Planning, 177, pp. 128-137; Tinio, P.P.L., Leder, H., Strasser, M., Image quality and the aesthetic judgment of photographs: Contrast, sharpness, and grain teased apart and put together (2011) Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 5 (2), pp. 165-176; Toscano, K., Holmes, M.V., Homeowner garden design series: Elements and principles of design (2017), https://core.ac.uk/reader/215260668, Retrieved 03.11.2020. from; Van den Berg, A.E., Vlek, C.A.J., Coeterier, J.F., Group differences in the aesthetic evaluation of nature development plans: A multilevel approach (1998) Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18 (2), pp. 141-157; Wang, R., Zhao, J., Meitner, M.J., Hu, Y., Xu, X., Characteristics of urban green spaces in relation to aesthetic preference and stress recovery (2019) Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 41, pp. 6-13; Weber, R., Schnier, J., Jacobsen, T., Aesthetics of streetscapes: Influence of fundamental properties on aesthetic judgments of urban space (2008) Perceptual & Motor Skills, 106, pp. 128-146; Yu, J., Egger, R., Color and engagement in touristic Instagram pictures: A machine learning approach (2021) Annals of Tourism Research, 89, pp. 1-15; Yu, C.-E., Xie, S.Y., Wen, J., Coloring the destination: The role of color psychology on Instagram (2020) Tourism Management, 80, pp. 1-12; Zettl, H., Sight, sound, motion (2016), Applied media aesthetics. Boston, MA: Cengage LearningUR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85128610460&doi=10.1016%2fj.jdmm.2022.100702&partnerID=40&md5=5ba2549348efb771bebe0c6c5b670fe3

PY - 2022/6/1

Y1 - 2022/6/1

N2 - Destination pictures can be perceived very differently; thus, it is critical to understand what contributes to their aesthetic perception. This study explored the aesthetic perception of 400 destination pictures posted with the popular hashtag #beautifuldestinations on Instagram. The pictures were examined based on their perceived aesthetics of the portrayed content and the perceived influence of five selected visual elements of design (colour, light, line, angle of view, and focus). Data was collected using questionnaires (n = 200), and cluster analysis identified 12 content clusters. Results revealed that pictures showing natural elements were more aesthetically pleasing than pictures representing man-made elements, suggesting that the content of pictures subconsciously influences the perceived aesthetic perception of destination pictures. Additionally, the perceived influence of the five visual elements varies within different clusters. Theoretically, the findings contribute to existing aesthetic literature and present practical implementations for Destination Management Organisations' online marketing.

AB - Destination pictures can be perceived very differently; thus, it is critical to understand what contributes to their aesthetic perception. This study explored the aesthetic perception of 400 destination pictures posted with the popular hashtag #beautifuldestinations on Instagram. The pictures were examined based on their perceived aesthetics of the portrayed content and the perceived influence of five selected visual elements of design (colour, light, line, angle of view, and focus). Data was collected using questionnaires (n = 200), and cluster analysis identified 12 content clusters. Results revealed that pictures showing natural elements were more aesthetically pleasing than pictures representing man-made elements, suggesting that the content of pictures subconsciously influences the perceived aesthetic perception of destination pictures. Additionally, the perceived influence of the five visual elements varies within different clusters. Theoretically, the findings contribute to existing aesthetic literature and present practical implementations for Destination Management Organisations' online marketing.

KW - Aesthetics

KW - Cluster analysis

KW - Destination

KW - Instagram

KW - Perception

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/514e7ae2-2c1c-31f4-96b2-979d0ae3003c/

U2 - 10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702

DO - 10.1016/j.jdmm.2022.100702

M3 - Article

SN - 2212-571X

VL - 24

JO - J. Destin. Mark. Manage.

JF - J. Destin. Mark. Manage.

ER -

Aesthetic perception analysis of destination pictures using #beautifuldestinations on Instagram

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