On the image perception of tourist destinations along the Hexi Corridor national heritage routes

Under the background of the high-quality “Belt and Road” Initiative and the deep integration of culture and tourism in China, the national heritage routes of Hexi Corridor boast unique representativeness and typicality. Taking Internet tourism data as the research subbject, using the methods of word cloud frequency statistics, semantic network analysis and rooted theory code, a probe is conducted into the image perception of Hexi Corridor national heritage routes with the theoretical model of “cognition-emotion-entirety”. The results indicate that: 1) Tourists focus mainly on the cognitive content dimensions of tourist attraction and atmosphere in the locality. And the cognitive image takes on a hierarchical structure pattern of “Dunhuang-History-Guancheng-the Great Wall-Jiayuguan-Scenic Area” as the core clustering. The evolution of cognitive image evolves from humanistic resources to the comprehensive dimension of “humanity plus nature”. 2) The emotional evaluation of tourists is primarily positive and neutral emotion. Historical and cultural deposits are the main factors contributing to positive emotions, while the bundling selling of scenic spots ticket is an important factor triggering negative emotions; 3) The overall image of tourists shows that the characteristics of the perception system are exmplicitly influenced by the dimensions of tourist attraction, tourism infrastructure, leisure and recreation, tourism environment and local atmosphere, and implicitly constructed by the function of cultural memory media. The research results bring some enlightenments for the image shaping, cultural heritage and local identity of heritage tourism destination.