Small-scale sport events and destination image on Instagram

Abstract

Small-Scale Sport Events (SSSE) bring multiple benefits to the territories that host them by helping to promote sustainable tourism, generate economic impact, and overcome tourism seasonality. In addition, they can contribute to the positioning of the territories and to the creation and improvement of their destination image (DI). Given these outcomes, many destination managers have opted to organize and host this type of events. In turn, Instagram has become a powerful platform for creating destination image and has turned users into active agents in the creation and projection of the DI. This has meant that DI is no longer shaped only through official destination channels, but also created through the perception of multiple users. Thus, this research aimed to examine the similarities and differences of the destination image projected on Instagram by organizers and participants of Small-Scale Sport Events. The content analysis of 1,315 photographs posted on Instagram by event organizers and participants was the method used in this study. The results show that user-generated photographs have the capacity to contribute to the creation of DI. Results also reveal significant differences between the various events, and between the organizers and participants, especially in the cognitive dimension of DI. The differences in the projection of DI detected in the results suggest that it is necessary to actively recognize and align the organizers of Small-Scale Sport Events with the rest of the destination's tourism stakeholders to project an image that highlights the destination attributes of the territory in a coherent and unified manner