Digital Media and Tourism Destination Branding: Promoting Jingxing’s Traditional Villages

Abstract

The development of digital media has penetrated every aspect of human life, with modern digital media technologies making brand communication more efficient. For the dissemination of traditional village tourism destination brands, the advantages of digital media are even more pronounced. Existing research on tourism destination branding primarily focuses on urban or well-known tourism destinations, with relatively little attention paid to economically underdeveloped traditional villages. The strengths of digital media can transcend geographical and temporal constraints, enabling traditional village tourism destinations to leverage new digital media channels as exemplary models for tourism brand communication. This study employs the “Uses and Gratifications Theory” to explore the advantages and developmental potential of digital media in promoting the tourism destination brand of Jingxing’s traditional villages. Through interviews with sixteen informants, the researchers analyzed the role of digital media in traditional village tourism branding from the perspective of Uses and Gratifications Theory, providing new insights for branding non-famous tourism destinations.