Constructing and Quantifying the Urban Gastronomic Destination Image: A Multimodal User-Generated Content Analysis across 12 Chinese Cities

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-916-2_53How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gastronomic tourism; User-generated content; Multimodal analysis

Abstract

As gastronomic tourism becomes a core growth driver of the global tourism market, leveraging user‑generated content (UGC) to decode urban gastronomic destination image is gaining prominence. Analyzing multimodal UGC (text and images) from Dianping across 12 representative Chinese cities, we propose a parallel, dual‑path framework. Path 1 conducts visual foodscape analysis using network community detection to identify city‑specific gastronomic patterns, indicating a shift from food consumption to cultural experience consumption. Path 2 introduces the Urban Gastronomic Distance Index (UGDI), which integrates entity frequency and rank to quantify intercity differences. Parameter‑sensitivity checks and multidimensional scaling support the stability and validity of UGDI. Results reveal high overall dissimilarity with localized clustering: culturally rooted clusters emerge in the Chengdu–Chongqing and Guangzhou–Foshan pairs, whereas pairs such as Yangzhou–Macao and Chengdu–Foshan exhibit pronounced differences. Notably, the proximity of Tianshui to Sichuan–Chongqing suggests a potential Southwest–Northwest gastronomic transition zone, characterized by shared core symbols with localized adaptations. This study offers a scalable, quantitative tool for cross‑city comparison of gastronomic destination image and provides managerial guidance for regional co‑branding and differentiated positioning.

Copyright

© 2025 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.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Yaheng Deng
AU  - Li Wang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/22
TI  - Constructing and Quantifying the Urban Gastronomic Destination Image: A Multimodal User-Generated Content Analysis across 12 Chinese Cities
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 4th International Conference on Public Service, Economic Management and Sustainable Development (PESD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 494
EP  - 511
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-916-2_53
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-916-2_53
ID  - Deng2025
ER  -