The Social-Media Breakout of Harbin’s Ice-and-Snow Tourism: A Case Study of Urban Destination Branding on Short-Video Platforms

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_16How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Harbin; Ice-and-snow tourism; Urban destination branding; Short-video platform; Social media; User-generated content; Travel intention

Abstract

Harbin’s ice-and-snow tourism became one of the most visible examples of urban destination branding in China’s post-pandemic tourism recovery. Rather than treating the case as a simple result of online traffic, this paper analyzes how short-video platforms transformed Harbin’s winter resources into a widely shared urban brand narrative. Based on literature on Douyin-based city branding, online destination communication, social-media influencer narratives, destination short videos, and tourism video persuasion, this paper develops a case framework explaining the social-media breakout of Harbin’s ice-and-snow tourism. The analysis suggests that Harbin’s breakout was shaped by four connected mechanisms: symbolic winter-scene construction, participatory user-generated content, affective hospitality narratives, and platform-supported action paths. These mechanisms influenced destination awareness, destination image, emotional attachment, perceived service warmth, and travel intention. The paper contributes by distinguishing short-term traffic from sustainable destination branding, clarifying the role of user participation in city image formation, and proposing managerial implications for content design, service coordination, interaction governance, and long-term urban brand renewal.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Chengshuo Fan
AU  - Zhiyuan Wang
AU  - Juan Chen
AU  - Jiaqi Liu
AU  - Mengting Xu
AU  - Tianhua Fu
AU  - Xinyi Ding
AU  - Fan Zhang
AU  - Wanqing Xu
AU  - Chenrui Yang
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/30
TI  - The Social-Media Breakout of Harbin’s Ice-and-Snow Tourism: A Case Study of Urban Destination Branding on Short-Video Platforms
BT  - Proceedings of the 2026 8th International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 141
EP  - 147
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_16
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-777-4_16
ID  - Fan2026
ER  -