The Blumenau image in Instagram: a study on tourist destination in networks using structural equation

Abstract

The image of the tourist destination is crucial deciding factor for the visitors and built with strong influence of their sources of information. Currently, the main sources are found on the Internet allowing to combine social media and digital photography. In this scenario, the present study aims to analyze the representation of the target image of the city of Blumenau (SC) on Instagram, one of the fastest growing social media in Brazil. This is an exploratory and quantitative research, which data collection was held between March 6 and April 18, 2014, through a specific software to monitor social media. 1000 images tagged with the hashtag #Blumenau were analyzed. The analysis included statistical procedures of Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman correlation and Structural Equation Modeling. The main results indicate that the published photographs have strong relationship with Overview, Events, Leisure, Gastronomy and typical architecture.