Impact of Short Video Marketing on Tourist Destination Perception in the Post-pandemic Era

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the world’s social development, especially tourism development, and has also spurred the industry to update its marketing model. In the post-pandemic era, traditional offline marketing cannot meet the needs of the industry and tourists, highlighting the urgent need to change marketing methods. Short video social media platforms, represented by Douyin, have become an important means for short video marketing and tourism destination marketing. This study aimed to analyze the impact of short video marketing on tourist destination perception in the post-pandemic era. The study collected comments on short videos on Douyin about the theme park Xiyou Paradise using crawler software (version 8.6.2). The ROST CM6 software (version 6.0) was used for word frequency, social network semantics, and sentiment analysis of the crawled data. The results revealed shortcomings in short video content and short video marketing effects, for which the study proposed solutions. The findings are expected to provide suggestions for tourism destination marketing and enrich the research on tourism short video marketing.

1. Introduction

Among the epidemics that have occurred in the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedentedly large impact on many different tourism industries, ultimately reshaping the entire tourism industry [1,2]. With the reduction of COVID-19 cases and the lifting of travel restrictions in 2021, customer travel demand has recovered [3]. Nevertheless, travelers remain wary of health precautions [4]. In turn, the tourism industry has adjusted its tourism promotion, marketing, and service plans, paying attention to reducing anxiety and increasing confidence among domestic and foreign tourists.

Short videos are an emerging form of video content, typically consumed by viewers on the go. Videos of five seconds to five minutes can be categorized as short videos. These videos are relatively easy and low cost to produce, but with rich and sophisticated content that adapts to fast-paced lifestyles. With the rapid development of the short video industry, short video marketing is becoming increasingly popular across industries. Generally, short video marketing encompasses all short video-based marketing activities, which exist on all kinds of internet platforms, including not only specialized short video platforms (e.g., TikTok and Racer) but also other content platforms. The narrow sense of short video marketing refers to all marketing activities on specialized short video platforms. Our study focused on the narrow sense of short video marketing [5].

The 50th Statistical Report on the Development Status of China’s Internet Network, released by the China Internet Network Information Center in August 2022 [6], shows that as of June 2022, the number of China’s internet users has reached 1.051 billion and the user scale of short videos has grown most significantly. Accounting for 91.5% of the overall internet users, short video users reached 962 million, an increase of 28.05 million from December 2021. Meanwhile, the 2022 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report released by Quest Mobile in November 2022 shows that as of September 2022, Douyin occupies first place in the ranking of the monthly active user scale in the short video app industry. Douyin’s monthly active user volume reached 706 million, exceeding the 271 million of Racer, the second placer on the same list. In Douyin’s short video platform, tourists can freely upload short video works related to tourist attractions, and netizens can select their favorite and recognized attraction images by way of likes, comments, and collections. Douyin’s large user base provides a large amount of intuitive data and a rich research sample. Therefore, we selected Douyin as the research object of short video marketing.

With the visibility and fun and diversified scene application of Douyin, the short video platform leads to a change in marketing in the digital era. It has also gradually become an important choice for the cultural tourism industry in conducting marketing. For the promotion of the cultural tourism industry, content on historical landscapes, folk customs, natural resources, and geographical features can be displayed and disseminated through short or long videos. The audience can be immersed in the virtual cultural tourism scenes created by the short videos to quickly, accurately, and comprehensively grasp the cultural and tourism information of a destination city. As such, major tourism cities across China have launched their own short video accounts to make full use of the short video platform for image building and targeted marketing.

As a digital media creation and communication tool, Douyin enables effective interaction with target audiences and the precise promotion of brand and product information to the latter. These features explain its important role in short video digital marketing in the cultural and tourism industry. This phenomenon has attracted the attention of scholars, many of whom have explored the problems that arise in short video marketing in the cultural and tourism industry and sought to find answers by introducing new theories and drawing on foreign experiences. Studies have explored short video platforms from fields such as psychology [7,8], human–computer interaction [9,10], and museum experience [11], but few have focused on the role of short video platforms in tourism destination marketing.

Currently, an increasing number of tourism destinations are attempting to produce short videos as a new digital marketing entry point and vigorously expand their marketing channels. As the first comprehensive theme park with the theme of “Journey to the West”, Huai’an Xiyou Paradise has a certain representation among domestic tourist destinations, especially theme parks. Huai’an Xiyou Paradise wants to expand its influence and also keep pace with digital development by making short video marketing content for tourist destinations. Thus, we selected Xiyou Paradise as the research object to propose a reference for the marketing aspect of tourist destinations using short videos. Based on the main results of the study, and combined with the “New 4C Theory”, in the right context, we can quickly spread the information and obtain effective business communication and value through the content and the network structure of the community.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Short Video Marketing

Short video marketing is a new marketing method using short videos, which makes it different from traditional marketing. According to Zhang and Wang [12], a short video has penetrated all walks of life, and short video marketing is in full swing. Short video marketing communication is a networked sales communication method in which companies present product information to audiences in the form of short videos and use social network media platforms to disseminate such information. Through this marketing method, such companies aim to bring a series of influences on the cognition, attitude, and behavior of existing and potential consumers. In the context of integrated network marketing communications, short video marketing communications is the main way for enterprises to implement internet marketing communications and integrate internet resources. Companies use feedback to develop consumer demand-centered short video advertising that short video platforms help achieve “viral” communication.

In the traditional media era, enterprises mainly consider the issue of information arrival rate; they enhance the memory point through repeated marketing and cultivate consumers’ brand awareness. In the new media era, consumers’ access to information is shifting from offline to online. In addition to the information reach rate, enterprises seek to not only consider the advertising viewing habits and preferences of online users but also shorten the conversion time from brand awareness to brand recognition to purchase action. Short videos integrate audio–visual animation and are an effective supplement to graphic advertising, and short video marketing can quickly capture social hotspots and trends. Moreover, the communication effects of any publicity, such as timeliness, fun, freshness, and importance, are far greater than those of traditional media advertising and marketing.

According to Li [13], the first domestic short video application appeared in 2011, subsequently adopting many forms. In 2016, the vertical division of the Douyin app released music short video software, which rapidly occupied the market and has now become the most popular. Li (2018 [13]) used the Douyin app as an example to analyze the marketing strategy of short video applications. Xie [14] stated that as a typical representative of video self-media in the mobile internet era, short video advertising is an important source of revenue. Compared with traditional advertising videos, this medium has distinct and exceptional communication characteristics. Xie [14] discussed the success of video advertising marketing by analyzing the three aspects of video marketing target, marketing mode, and marketing concept. To Wang [15], online video marketing is a new marketing model for enterprises and has various forms as well as a wide range of applications. Its external development environment is favorable and its market recognition is high, and it is gradually entering a period of prosperous development. Wang [15] identified the development environment of online video marketing and then described the specific forms of online video marketing, its development status, and specific application cases from three aspects: long video marketing, live marketing, and short video marketing. Wang [15] also presented a prediction of the future development trend of online video marketing. Another expert [5] asserted that with the rapid development of information technology, the level of technology in China has increased, and people’s ordinary daily life also needs the integration of entertainment under the premise of technological development. Therefore, the term “short video” has gained increasing attention in business development and information technology. In the present study, we intended to elucidate the spread of Douyin short videos in life, its application in business, and the marketing strategy of short videos. We also aimed to analyze the development of short videos in new media to shed further light on their application and entertainment value.

2.2. Research on Short Video Marketing

Liu and Yan [16] argued that the social attributes of mobile short video applications enable video publishers to express information in anthropomorphic gestures, reshape the personified image of tourist attractions, and eliminate the psychological distance between recipients and tourist attractions. Therefore, applying short videos to bolster the influence of tourist destinations would be an effective means. Lu [17] earlier noted that the development of new media has a great impact on traditional media. Given that new media would have obvious innate advantages, destination tourism promotion, and marketing must actively embrace new media. Indeed, Li and Tao [18] found that tourists’ user-generated content (UGC) short videos are tourists’ intuitive self-expression, reflecting their perceptions of the destination. Such videos represent an important medium for conveying their emotions, and this autonomous information source is increasingly important for communication and shaping a destination’s image.

Dong [19] argued that short video marketing, as an emerging form of video marketing, is widely welcomed by enterprises for its simplicity of production, rapid dissemination, and far-reaching influence. Dong [19] examined the characteristics and promotion mode of the Racer short video app, analyzed the problems of short video marketing on Racer in depth, and put forward improvement suggestions to help marketing practitioners.

Amid the decentralization represented by Web 3.0 and the 4G mobile network video [20], short video marketing is an emerging marketing method chosen by enterprises. We aimed to examine the manner through which enterprises conduct short video marketing. In our study, we used user participation intention as a criterion to measure the effect of short video marketing. Through empirical analysis, we found that the main factors affecting user participation intention were experience perception, product content, others’ effect, and signal quality—especially the latter two. We then aimed to propose strategies for enterprises to conduct short video marketing based on our research findings.

Per the comprehensive research of the aforementioned scholars, short video marketing is an important and effective means of promoting scenic spots. Douyin stands out among its competitors in the short video market with its precise positioning, degree of segmentation, and diversified forms of expression, all of which help make scenic tourism marketing vivid and three-dimensional. In our study, we used ROST software to analyze the text of short video comments on Huai’an Xiyou Paradise in the selected Douyin short video platform. In exploring the current situation of the application of the Douyin short video in tourism destination marketing in Huai’an City, Jiangsu. We could summarize the problems and put forward suggestions for the further application of Douyin’s short video to improve the marketing effects.

3. Research Methodology and Data Sources

3.1. Sample Selection

Huai’an Xiyou Paradise is located in Huai’an City, Jiangsu Province, China, and is the world’s first comprehensive theme park with the theme of “Journey to the West”. It encompasses 33 amusement projects and 46 ambient interpretation projects, such as a float parade and a closed park show. As such, Xiyou Paradise is a theme park integrating entertainment, experience, and technology. We mainly selected short video comments on topics related to “Xiyou Paradise” that gained more than 10,000 likes and top ranking from June 2018 to March 2023 Xiyou Paradise as the research samples. Finally, we obtained a total of 26,897 comments from the top 10 short videos in terms of likes. For the data collection, we used the web version of Douyin (www.douyin.com, accessed on 14 February 2023) as the source website for the comments on Xiyou Paradise. As the top app in terms of monthly active users, Douyin not only has a large number of customer visits but also a strong market share and brand influence. Many tourist destinations and local tourism bureaus have official accounts in Douyin. Therefore, Douyin has good representation.

3.2. Research Methodology

To scientifically analyze the actual effect of tourism marketing for Xiyou Paradise by applying Douyin short videos, we adopted the content analysis method and analyzed the text of short videos in Douyin under the topic of Xiyou Paradise using ROST software. Specifically, we used the high-frequency word statistics, semantic network analysis, feature word analysis, and sentiment analysis functions in ROST software to analyze the effect of the application of Douyin short videos for the tourism destination marketing of Xiyou Paradise.

Before mining the text, we pre-analyzed the 26,897 comments collected for the following comments: “Xiyou Paradise”, “Daughter’s Land”, and “Mountain Huaguo”. We also set a custom dictionary that included “fireworks show” and “Journey to the West”. After the first division of words, we summarized the results and then added new words, such as “mythology”, “fantasy”, and “fan”, to the custom dictionary again. We conducted six rounds of developing suitable custom dictionaries before finally producing a reasonable set of high-frequency words for the review of Xiyou Paradise. Next, we created a semantic network diagram to ascertain the overall intuitive element relations for the perception of Xiyou Paradise. Subsequently, we conducted a sentiment analysis for the Douyin comments. First, we identified the positive, neutral, and negative sentiments in the comment. Second, we extracted the text sentiment words to further analyze visitors’ sentiment-related perception. Finally, through word frequency, semantic network, and sentiment analyses, we compared the image perception, brand perception, and emotional expression of the visitors to Xiyou Paradise, ultimately identifying the perception of the visitors to Xiyou Paradise in a comprehensive and systematic manner.

3.2.1. Text Analysis

The text or content analysis method is a research method that provides objective and quantitative descriptions of explicit content. Compared with the multivariate analysis method that is based on questionnaires, the most important advantage of text analysis is that it can obtain the complete psychological perception of visitors. For text analysis, we used the ROST content mining method and the corresponding ROST CM 6.0 software. ROST CM 6.0 supports a custom dictionary function, thereby enabling the accurate distinction and effective extraction of high-frequency and emotional words related to the study. This software has been widely used in the management, sociology, intelligence, and other research fields.

3.2.2. Word Frequency Analysis

Word frequency analysis is mainly used to count the number of occurrences of words in web text materials. This method, with the help of semantic network analysis and other means, is used to discover the core information hidden in the text content and the regularity in the lexical description of the research object. Word frequency analysis is a relatively elementary but very effective method for text mining. Through word frequency analysis, we found five types of vocabulary in the comments on Xiyou Paradise: amusement facilities, tourist destinations, tourists’ perceptions, travel companions, and Journey to the West.

3.2.3. Semantic Network Analysis

Semantic network analysis is mainly based on word frequency analysis, but the focus is not on the words themselves but on the relational patterns between words. This method can deconstruct the semantic paths between the syntax and concepts of the content of the network text to identify the association and meaning of the text words, thus enabling interpretation of the product and brand image perception of Xiyou Paradise.

3.2.4. Emotional Analysis Method

Sentiment analysis is mainly through induction and inference of the emotional color (derogatory or positive) of subjective texts, sentences or phrases, so as to identify the type of sentiment of visitors’ comments, including positive, neutral or negative sentiment. As a research method in marketing, sentiment analysis can respond to consumers’ comprehensive evaluation of products or services in an efficient and real-time manner. For the Chinese cruise market, the use of sentiment analysis tools can capture the level of sentiment displayed by netizens’ Douyin comments about Xiyou Paradise in general.

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High-frequency words related to amusement facilities: “big pendulum”, “jump plane”, “April”, “fireworks show”, and so on. Related comments, such as “the fireworks show and drones at night are really beautiful, and the guy working inside is very gentle. I will definitely go there again” reflected the satisfaction and attention of tourists to the amusement facilities in Xiyou Paradise.

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High-frequency words related to tourist destinations: “Disney”, “fantasy”, etc. These words reflected that tourists compared Xiyou Paradise with Disney and other theme parks, which raised awareness of Xiyou Paradise but also puts pressure on Xiyou Paradise, which needed to highlight its own characteristics to win the top position among theme parks. The words “Huai’an” and “Lianyungang” related to the intellectual property (IP) of “Journey to the West”: Huai’an is the hometown of Wu Chengen, the author of Journey to the West, and Lianyungang is the location basis of the fictional Mountain Huaguo. The opening of Huai’an Xiyou Paradises stirred active discussion in the comments of the related videos Xiyou Paradise, reaching viral status.

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High-frequency words related to tourists’ perception: “nice”, “beautiful”, “scary”, “horrible”, etc. Related comments included, “I like it better than Disney’s fireworks show”, “The costumes in Journey to the West are really beautiful”, “The big pendulum is really nice when you open your eyes and look outside at the highest point.” In addition, the words “scary” and “horror” were used to describe the thrill rides.

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High-frequency words related to travel companions: “children”, “friends”, “students”, etc. Related comments were “Last week, I took the children to go. It was really nice”, and “I went with my boyfriend last time. He said it is not at all scary, but when I tried a few attractions, I was scared the whole time. After, I could only dare to try the carousel. I will never go again. I was especially scared in the three white bone spirit attraction”, “I was so scared, but I was embarrassed to call anyone”, and so on. The comments indicated that Xiyou Paradise was for all ages—children, young people, and older adults can find their own fun in Xiyou Paradise.

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High-frequency words related to the theme: “monk”, “goblin”, “Journey to the West”, “woman country”, etc. Related comments included “the spider spirit plays a really similar role to the one in Journey to the West, and suddenly I feel older”, “I wanted to watch the monkeys when I was a child”, and “I want to go to see Journey to the West again”, reflecting Xiyou Paradise not only restored classic works but also aroused cultural sympathize in tourists. This had a positive effect on the satisfaction of tourists, revisit intention, and spread of word of mouth.

4. Analysis and Result

4.1. Word Frequency Analysis of the Perception of Xiyou Paradise under Different Routes

The above word frequency analysis revealed certain differences in tourists’ perceptions of Xiyou Paradise under different channels. Xiyou Paradise under official channels, we found a referential level of perception, whereas Xiyou Paradise under unofficial channels, we observed an energetic level. To accurately identify the perception of tourists, we used the top 300 high-frequency words in all video comments, official video comments, and unofficial video comments as variables for curve fitting. This revealed that the high-frequency words conformed to the power exponential distribution. The R² values of the coefficient of determination of the simulated equations were 0.9914 (Figure 1), 0.9901 (Figure 2), and 0.9831 (Figure 3), for the comments on all, official, and unofficial videos, respectively, indicating a good fit. According to long-tail theory, we inferred that the word frequency distribution of Douyin commentary for Xiyou Paradise fit the long-tail distribution.

From the long-tail curve of the high-frequency words in the Douyin commentary of different routes, we identified that the perception of Xiyou Paradise consisted of core and edge perceptions. The characteristic words at the head of the fitting curve belonged to core perceptions, which precisely reflected the overall image characteristics of Xiyou Paradise tourism products. The long-tail words could be regarded as the edge of perception, which better reflected the visitors’ perception of Xiyou Paradise through different channels. Figure 1 gives the specific vocabulary. Therefore, in the image structure of Xiyou Paradise, the marginal image component often represented potential market opportunities and should be an important factor for the theme park to enhance its own recognition, which would need to be given sufficient attention.

As can be seen in

Table 1. High-frequency words for the overall image perception of the Xiyou Paradise.

NO	Overall	Official	Unofficial	NO	Overall	Official	Unofficial
1	want to go	monk	want to go	26	go out	night performance	Xiyou Paradise
2	big pendulum	April	km	27	daughter’s country	place	paradise
3	km	Huai’an	big pendulum	28	next time	Journey to the West	place
4	funny	fireworks show	funny	29	want to play	sister	paradise
5	Huai’an	nice	Huai’an	30	tomorrow	time	scary
6	nice	want to go	program	31	Fangte	how much	want to play
7	program	beauty	nice	32	young sister	Mountain Huaguo	go out
8	Disney	Xiyou Paradise	turbo drop	33	queen	China	last time
9	spider woman	night	Disney	34	how much	woman country	afterwards
10	turbo drop	program	spider woman	35	don’t want	evil spirit	night performance
11	sea rover	beautiful	sea rover	36	minute	light	woman country
12	ticket	Disney	afraid	37	princess	Chinese	next time
13	hour	Lianyungang	ticket	38	past	peacock	Fangte
14	Journey to the West	young sister	thrill	39	go up	hour	Jiangsu
15	firework	paradise	play	40	take photo	paradise	night
16	line up	funny	hour	41	cute	spider woman	beauty
17	beautiful	ticket	line up	42	kid	next time	take photo
18	Xiyou Paradise	every day	come down	43	first time	performance	firework
19	play	line up	April	44	Journey to the West	Tang Monk	Lianyungang
20	monk	cheer	Journey to the West	45	family	fairy	kingdom
21	night	Journey to the West	evil	46	fit	fireworks show	don’t go
22	place	fireworks show	beautiful	47	joyful	float	Tang Monk
23	Lianyungang	tomorrow	horrible	48	culture	open	tomorrow
24	horrible	princess	afraid	49	super	site	Journey to the West
25	night performance	fox	experience	50	safe	culture	COVID-19

, tourists’ image perception of the brand of Xiyou Paradise was not obvious—few words specifically expressed brand perception. For example, the positioning of Xiyou Paradise was “Chinese people’s own theme park” but the short video comments included Xiyou Paradise only 42 words related to this phrase, which is a typical long-tail word. In addition, the term “jumping machine” appeared 313 times in the comments, whereas the name of this attraction, “real and fake Monkey King”, was mentioned only once. The attraction term “big pendulum” appeared 715 times in the comments, whereas the actual name of this attraction, “three worlds reincarnation”, was mentioned only two times.

Therefore, the results of the word frequency analysis reflected that the use of short videos for tourism destination marketing in the case of Xiyou Paradise was still in its initial stage, and tourists’ perception of the image of Xiyou Paradise was not clear. Tourists’ sensitivity toward and participation in the features and attractions of Xiyou Paradise were low. Moreover, the short video marketing tended to focus more on the energy level rather than the referential level and paid more attention to “fast food” audio-visual consumption. Thus, the public’s awareness of Xiyou Paradise needs to be strengthened. To enhance its core competitiveness, Xiyou Paradise should pay attention to the image recognition attributes represented by long-tail words, dig deeper into its own characteristics, strengthen its image construction, and enhance the recognition of tourists.

4.2. Semantic Network Analysis

Although word frequency analysis can reflect the main features by extracting the attributes of phrases, it cannot reflect the connection of phrases in a specific sense and the deep relations of phrases in the text. In this regard, semantic network analysis can be used. It can visually show the relations between elements by constructing a network diagram of conceptual and semantic relations. In our semantic network analysis, we conducted a general line processing on the Douyin comment text. After filtering for repetitive and meaningless sentences, we generated a virtual network architecture (VNA) through feature analysis. This VNA file was imported into NetDraw to finally generate the semantic network diagram of Xiyou Paradise as a whole. The diagrams are shown in Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6. In terms of hierarchical structure, the semantic network diagram showed a core edge feature, with layers of subgroups formed around the important nodes in the diagram. The closer the words were to the central node (core node), the stronger the connection with the central node words. In the figures, the density of the lines represents the frequency of co-occurrence—the denser the lines, the higher the number of co-occurrence.

The core–edge structure could be divided into four levels. The high-frequency words in different circles are shown in

Table 2. Levels of vocabulary in the semantic network graph of comments on Xiyou Paradise.

Layer	Overall	Official	Unofficial
Core layer	Huai’an, Western Paradise, fireworks show, fantasy, experience, show, night, big swing, jumper, pirate ship, time, exciting, playful, dare, scary	Huai’an, Xiyou Paradise, fireworks show, Shanghai, Disney, Jiangsu, Lianyungang, fireworks show, daily, night, show	Huai’an, Xiyou Paradise, Fantasy, play, exciting, do not dare, horror, up, down, jumper, pirate ship, scary
ub-core layer	Disney, amusement park, fun, queue, project	Paradise, people, daily, cheer, culture, Chinese, China, bright	Disney, amusement park, fun, queue, project, pendulum, experience
Transition layer	Journey to the West, night, Lianyungang, every day, place, down, horror, paradise, culture, China, spider spirit, daughter’s land, king, April, good-looking, three-hit white bone spirit, kilometers, drive, hours, minutes	Journey to the West, queue, hours, west, wow, well, April, sister, pretty, miss, monk, fox, good-looking, peacock, princess, lights, Mountain Huaguo, project	Journey to the West, first, then, drive, kilometers, time, hours, never, minutes, night, fireworks show, show, paradise, night, spider spirit, daughter’s land, king
Edge layer	Jiangsu, weightless, tickets, how much, then, first, second, out, in, don’t want, spin, last	Wu Chengen, opening, time, minutes, beautiful, handsome, want to go, spider spirit, every night, tomorrow, fun, place, play, open	Tickets, how much, Lianyungang, China, every day, Jiangsu, go in, also, look good, scared, last, spin, scary, not afraid, second, weightless, do not want, go out, place

. The first layer, the core layer, consisted of words mainly related to the amusement facilities of Xiyou Paradise (e.g., “Huai’an”, “Xiyou Paradise”, “fireworks show”, “jumper”, “pirate ship”, “thrill”, “exciting”, “horror”). These elements worked together to form the foremost core quality of the image of Xiyou Paradise in the tourists’ mind, namely, the amusement facilities that had a profound impact, which had a certain deviation from the brand image of Xiyou Paradise. The second layer, the secondary core layer, further expanded the core layer perception and was mainly composed of “amusement park”, “attraction”, “queue”, “fun”, and other elements. The terms “Chinese”, “culture”, and “cheer up” appeared in the sub-core layer of comments on official videos and showed a notable relation to the theme of “Chinese people’s own theme park.” These comments reflected the attention paid by Xiyou Paradise to the excavation of deep connotations under official accounts by using short video marketing. However, when using influencers for short video marketing, the focus tends to be on sharp images, strong infectious music, and other publicity with strong symbolic characteristics, and not on attention to deep connotations. The third layer, the transition layer, mainly included “Journey to the West”, “Daughter’s Land”, “spider spirit”, and “monk”, or terms related to the Western culture in the attractions of Xiyou Paradise. The fourth layer, the edge layer, mainly included words such as “ticket”, “opening”, “time”, and “first time.” Therefore, the semantic network of the short video commentary on Xiyou Paradise intuitively presented the overall cognition and perception of the visitors to Xiyou Paradise through a four-layer structure of core–sub–core–transition–edge layering.

Further analysis revealed that the semantic network graphs of comments under videos on different channels had similar content and structure. The term “Wu Chengen” appeared in the edge layer of the semantic network diagram of comments under official channels. When we traced the original comments, we found the following relevant comments: “divided into nine zones corresponding to the four continents, four teachers and disciples, and the author Wu Chengen in Journey to the West”; “Suddenly a little moved. If you know Wu Chengen’s hometown built this, you will not be very emotional”; and “I just realized that Wu Chengen is from Huai’an.” Comments related to “Xiyou Paradise—Wu Chengen” reflected the tourists’ concern about the deeper connotation of Xiyou Paradise, which resonated with tourists. In the semantic network diagram of comments under unofficial channels, we found more words about the rides, such as “jumping machine” and “pirate ship” at the core level and “big pendulum” at the sub-core level. The original comments were “in front of the roller coaster, jumping machine, and sledgehammer are young brothers, and the first two dare to repeat the rides. The pendulum did not seem to want to play a second time”; and “the first time to ride pirate ship, I feel my heart about to stop. I do not understand why there is no seat belt? Just holding that bar. I feel like I am about to fly away. It’s terrible!” These comments on unofficial channels indicated that visitors were more concerned about the infrastructure of Xiyou Paradise.

4.3. Sentiment Analysis

Douyin provides four channels for video content to be evaluated: likes, comments, retweets, and favorites. Of these, comments have invisible characteristics and need to be further analyzed by emotion analysis in content analysis to capture the emotional color of visitor comments.

Tourists’ emotional perception of Xiyou Paradise is an important part of the perception of Xiyou Paradise. Tourists with highly positive emotions perceive tourism products as more attractive and unique. Sentiment analysis, as a research method in marketing, reflects consumers’ evaluations. Our results showed that both in general and under official or unofficial channels, tourists mainly showed neutral sentiment, followed by positive sentiment. As shown in

Table 3. Overall emotional analysis of comments on Xiyou Paradise.

Analysis Results	Douyin Comments
	Number of Texts/Articles	Percent%
positive emotions	9728	36.17%
neutral emotions	12,543	46.63%
negative emotions	4626	17.20%

and

Table 4. Sentiment analysis of comments on Xiyou Paradise under official channels Xiyou Paradise.

Analysis Results	Douyin Comments
	Number of Texts/Articles	Percent%
positive emotions	1862	37.10%
neutral emotions	2531	50.43%
negative emotions	626	12.47%

, the least percentage of comments expressed negative sentiments about Xiyou Paradise.

The positive emotions of the comments could be related to the overall design of Xiyou Paradise, the sympathetic perception of “Journey to the West”, and the high degree of restoration of the park’s non-player character (NPC).

The negative sentiment of the reviews was mainly due to the long queuing time, high prices in the park, limited facilities, and poor infrastructure in the park (

Table 5. Sentiment analysis of comments on Xiyou Paradise under unofficial channels Xiyou Paradise.

Analysis Results	Douyin Comments
	Number of Texts/Articles	Percent%
positive emotions	7945	35.89%
neutral emotions	10,177	45.98%
negative emotions	4017	18.14%

).

4.4. Analysis Overview

Based on the comment data of Douyin short videos, we conducted a systematic study on the use of Douyin for short video marketing in Huai’an’s Xiyou Paradise by using word frequency, semantic network, and sentiment analyses. On the whole, the core layer vocabulary in the Douyin comments reflected the level where the effect of short video marketing by Xiyou Paradise was mainly concentrated, i.e., the rides of Xiyou Paradise were the most prominent part of the Douyin short video marketing; visitors were more concerned about whether the rides were fun and exciting and whether the performances were good and wonderful. However, the actual names of rides seldom attracted visitors’ attention. Thus, Xiyou Paradise would need to strengthen the promotion of its “Western culture”.

Sentiment analysis further revealed that the Douyin comments carried a negative sentiment toward the small scale of the rides, unreasonable queue length, and high prices inside the theme Xiyou Paradise park, whereas positive sentiment was expressed toward the integration of the Xiyou Paradise culture into the theme park. Notably, the comments expressed neutral sentiment and general satisfaction toward Xiyou Paradise in general, such as “the idea of the Xiyou Paradise is good, but still needs improvement” and “the items are interesting, but there’s not much variety”.

The high-frequency and core vocabulary of the word frequency and social network semantic analyses mainly revolved around the energy level of amusement attractions and various performances while lacking marketing content of the referent level. Despite the limited ten-second duration of short videos, their audio-visual content with strong symbolic characteristics can leave a deep impression. However, the properties of Xiyou Paradise itself require that the park should not ignore the marketing of deep connotation in short video marketing, and its Western culture should be used more reasonably and effectively to leave a deep impression among potential visitors.

5. Conclusions and Discussion

5.1. Conclusions

We used ROST CM6 software to analyze the positive impacts and shortcomings of tourism destinations that use short videos for marketing, taking Huai’an’s Xiyou Paradise as an example. Our specific conclusions are as follows:

(1)

Regarding the marketing aspect, tourist destinations generally carry out short video marketing through two platforms, such as official Douyin accounts, and commissioned short Douyin videos made by influencers. Because of their higher fan base, exposure, interactivity, and professional short video production techniques, opinion leaders can obtain a large number of likes, comments, and retweets for the short videos they produce. When marketing tourism destinations, they may thus obtain satisfactory marketing effects. The short videos produced by administrators of tourism destinations are not worse than those produced by opinion leaders in terms of production technology but their exposure is rendered insufficient by the limited reach of official accounts. Moreover, the official social media accounts of tourist destinations have less interaction in their communities, which leads to fewer likes, comments, and retweets when marketing Douyin short videos. Ultimately, the final marketing effect is not good.

(2)

Regarding content, the short video marketing of tourism destinations focuses on the visual and audio aspects, such as excellent visual effects and strong infectious music to attract attention and achieve a better marketing effect. However, short video marketing should also pay attention to the deeper connotation of tourism destinations, such as the history and culture of tourism destinations, anecdotes, and spiritual content. In other words, we noted a lack of effective means to achieve better marketing effects. Marketing through audio-visual and other energy levels can achieve a strong marketing effect but only in the short term and in a superficial manner that encourages tourists to ignore the deep connotation of the tourist destination. To attract tourists, destination administrators should leave a deep and lasting impression. They can do so by ensuring that the connotation of tourist destinations is expressed in enjoyable short videos.

5.2. Discussion

Based on the main results of the study, and combined with the “New 4C Theory” proposed by Chinese scholar Tang Xingtong [21], that is, in the right context, for a specific community or topic, through the content with communication power, combined with the network structure of the community, we can quickly spread the information and obtain effective business communication and value through the content and the network structure of the community. The following points are made.

(1)

Tourism destinations should use scenario experiences that trigger emotional sympathy to attract tourists. At present, the tourism industry has been transformed and upgraded, and tourism products have shifted from direct viewing to customized, quality, and participatory experiences. As the entrance to connect the audience and tourism enterprises, the direct experience of tourists is the most crucial factor in the short video scene. Under the “new 4C rule”, a scene is the sum of the marketing environment including time, place, people, and emotion, and is a specific, experienceable, and ultimately realizable content value scene created through five technical supports: big data, mobile devices, social media, sensors, and positioning system. Due to the limitation of presentation time, a short video can be regarded as a connection of fragmented real scenes, providing audiences with a virtual reality scene experience through the splicing of fragmented real scenes and audio-visual co-presentation, strengthening the audience’s sense of “physical” presence. By creating the IP of the West Tour, the West Tour Land has aroused the public’s sympathy. In the short video, more attention is paid to creating scenes that fit the emotional needs of the target audience, so that the audience can have a sympathetic emotional perception in line with the value of the attraction.

(2)

Tourism destination managers should build communities with a sense of belonging and activity. In his book Community and Society, German sociologist Ferdinand Tönnies divided “community” into three types: blood, geopolitical, and spiritual community. The meaning of online community is similar to the aforementioned “spiritual community”: a group formed by common interests without the constraints of blood and geography. Tourism short video communities are groups formed by viewers in the virtual space of short videos based on the same preferences or attitudes toward tourism products, brands, and services. Tourism destinations should create discourse with members through scenes based on emotional identity, and members may express their attitudes or generate sharing behaviors through feedback on the content or topics of the scenes to generate a strong sense of group value identification and identity. The continuous interaction among community members serves as the endogenous driving force for the sense of belonging. Therefore, stimulating participation and keeping the community active should be at the core of short video community marketing. In practical terms, tourism destination managers should always pay attention to the interactions in the comment section when using short videos for marketing. Such interactions increase the sense of belonging of fans while also enhancing community activity.

(3)

Tourism destination managers should focus on the continuous production of topical, high-quality content. According to the above elaboration on the concept of scene and community elements, the proliferation of marketing content is essentially one of the fundamental purposes of scene building and community construction. Advances in artificial intelligence, intelligent terminals, and mobile communication technology will usher in the era of the Internet of Everything when the diffusion of information and channels will not be limited by the network traffic and medium. In such a future, the role of marketing content will become even more prominent. The continuous dissemination of high-value, strong, creative content will help companies and communities maintain “stickiness” and achieve ultimate profitability. Short video marketing should seize the hot issue, around the hot issue production video.

(4)

In the 1940s, Lazarsfeld, an American communication scholar investigating the influence of mass communication on voters’ opinions, found that “the mass media do not act directly on the audience, but through the secondary communication of opinion leaders to the general audience”. In occupying the central node of a communication network, opinion leaders, who are in constant contact with the media, have a comprehensive knowledge of the corresponding field of information and unconsciously filter and process the media messages they pass along to the audience. The audience does not need to distinguish the value of information, but their opinions or attitudes will be inevitably influenced by the central node. In the mobile internet era, anyone can become the central node of communication in a network, and the diffusion path of information will become a kind of net-like communication structure that spreads from the central node to the general nodes. Therefore, tourist destinations like Xiyou Paradise can invite “net” celebrities and travel vloggers to promote their short videos. In addition, it is also necessary to pay attention to the cultivation of the development of local “net” celebrities.