Video, Social Media and Destination Image

The framework of the article is the contribution that audiovisual products, created for social media, give to the representation of tourist destinations. In particular, the article will discuss the contribution that video produced by travel influencers on TikTok give to the representation and imagination of travel destination. The theoretical assumption of the analysis is that the representation of tourist destinations in social media is co-produced ‒ within a so called hermeneutic circle of representation ‒ by different subjects: National Tourism Organization (NTO) and Destination marketing Organizations (DMO); travelers and travel influencers. The subjects who act as mediators between these two representations are travel influencers. Travel influencers, in fact, are first and foremost travelers. Thanks to their characteristics of credibility, reliability, communication skills, experience and similarity with their followers, these travelers help to build the image of a destination in an intentional and professional way. The article will compare the top-down narratives of DMO and NTO, the perceived images of travelers and the narrative models offered by travel influencers. The comparison will be based on the results of the most recent research on social media narratives of DMO and NTO and the perceived image by travelers and on an explorative analysis of travel influencer social profiles. The analysis will be carried out on a sample of videos of the three most followed italian travel creators who distribute they videos through TIkTok and will aim to describe the storytelling of the places that emerges from these productions and to highlight points of similarity and divergence from other narratives.The first paragraph will summarize how the most recent literature describes the relationship between communication through social media and the construction of the destination image. The second paragraph will describe the characteristics of YouTube and TikTok videos aimed at promoting or describing tourist destination. The third paragraph will present an exploratory analysis of the top three Italian travel influencers operating on TikTok.