The difference between projected and perceived images of rural tourism scenic areas: a case study of Huangling in Wuyuan

Comparing the differences between the projected image and perceived image of rural tourism scenic areas is of great significance for improving the construction of scenic areas and enhancing the visitor experience. Based on the "cognition-emotion" and tourism gaze theories, this study uses online text and social network analysis methods to compare the official projected image with the tourists' perceived image of Huangling scenic area. The study found that the dimensions of the projected and perceived images are relatively consistent in focus, mainly concentrated on tourist attractions, tourism activities, tourism environment, and atmosphere. However, there are differences in the images of perception evaluation and tourism infrastructure and supporting services, with the perceived image significantly better than the projected image in terms of tourism infrastructure and supporting services. Both the projected and perceived image curves exhibit a power-law distribution with a clear characteristic of"a long tail". In the emotional images of both officials and tourists, positive emotions are dominant, while tourists' perceived negative emotions mainly stem from congestion and management services. The co-occurrence networks of projected and perceived images both show a "core-subcore-key-peripherals" network structure, but there are significant differences in important nodes. Based on these findings, four optimization suggestions for Huangling's tourism image are proposed, including activity innovation, facility promotion, traffic diversion, and service improvement.