Online rural destination images: Tourism and rurality

This qualitative study investigates the online rural tourism destination image of Wuyuan, Jiangxi, a town said to have the most beautiful countryside in China. The study focuses on domestic rural tourism and identifies a set of themes found in the destination image of Wuyuan: resources, rewards, and expectations. Wuyuan's rural destination image is connected to common representations of rurality in tourism and rural imaginaries. Several ideological influences are found in the construction of Chinese rural destination images and imaginaries. Although similar, the Chinese rural image displays slight differences from the global image of idyllic rural life. This study has practical implications for the online marketing of rural areas and microblog marketing. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.