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Journal of Resources and Ecology >

2025 , Vol. 16 >Issue 1: 184 - 192

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2025.01.017

Ecotourism

How to Brand Harbin as an All-season Destination—Exploring Online Texts from a Visitor’s Perspective

  • TAO Hui , 1 ,
  • LIU Fengrun , 1, * ,
  • CHEN Xiaoying 1 ,
  • XIONG Jinxuan 2
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  • 1. School of Management, Minzu University of China, Beijing 100081, China
  • 2. Department of Marketing, National University of Singapore Business School, Singapore 119245, Singapore
*LIU Fengrun, E-mail:

TAO Hui, E-mail:

Received date: 2024-06-08

  Accepted date: 2024-09-12

  Online published: 2025-01-21

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Abstract

In the mass tourism era, the rising demand for personalized and high-quality experiences necessitates a distinct urban tourism image. This study examined tourists’ perceptions of Harbin during non-ice and snow seasons using network text analysis within the “cognitive-emotional-overall” framework and a ROST content mining tool. Our analysis of travelogues revealed that Harbin is seen as an exotic, culturally rich destination, yet tourists have limited awareness of its natural resources. While overall emotional responses from tourists were positive, facilities and services received some criticism. The views of tourists were primarily focused on popular urban sites, highlighting the need for diversification. This study contributes to the theoretical discussion on the formation of the city’s tourism image and suggests strategies that will allow Harbin to transition from a season-specific tourism model to a year-round tourism model, thereby enhancing its four-season destination brand in terms of infrastructure, industry innovation and market management.

Key words： non-ice season; seasonal tourism; tourism image perception; online text analysis; Harbin City

Cite this article

TAO Hui , LIU Fengrun , CHEN Xiaoying , XIONG Jinxuan . How to Brand Harbin as an All-season Destination—Exploring Online Texts from a Visitor’s Perspective[J]. Journal of Resources and Ecology, 2025 , 16(1) : 184 -192 . DOI: 10.5814/j.issn.1674-764x.2025.01.017

1 Introduction

Currently, the tourism industry is facing an unprecedented competitive environment, and as the target market matures, more and more attention is being paid to the creation of a destination brand image. That image has a significant impact on many aspects of travelers’ perceptions, actions, choices, planning and marketing. Therefore, it is crucial for operators to differentiate themselves from their competition and build an attractive destination brand image.
Harbin’s vision of becoming a globally recognized ice and snow cultural tourism city, with snow and ice resources at its core, has guided its overall tourism development strategy. During the 12th and 13th Five-Year Plan periods, Harbin adjusted its concept of resource utilization for tourism development, emphasizing the innovation and comprehensive development of multiple resources. Since 2012, Harbin has launched the “Enchanting Harbin Summer” series of events, which combines cultural and fashionable elements, with the aim of transforming its traditional image of a “one-season city” and promoting the balanced and coordinated development of tourism in all four seasons (Wang, 2020). In the winter of 2023, Harbin’s ice and snow tourism attracted millions of global tourists. According to the Harbin Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism Bureau, Harbin received 3.0479 million tourists during the New Year’s Day holiday in 2024, achieving a total tourism revenue of 5.914 billion yuan and realizing another boom in tourism. It has become the latest Internet go-to tourist city (Xia and Zhang, 2024). This phenomenon not only highlights the uniqueness and attractiveness of Harbin’s snow and ice tourism resources, but also reflects the current trend of the pursuit of personalized, high-quality tourism experiences in the era of mass tourism.
With the explosive growth of travel information and the era of big data, travelers can easily obtain information about potential destinations. They can search for information online and write travelogues and reviews after their trips in order to record and share their experiences. These activities not only deepen their knowledge of the destination, but also help to raise the awareness of the destination and enhance the travel intentions of other potential tourists. The maturity of China’s travel sharing platform has facilitated the sharing of experiences, and travelogues provide valuable data for academic research on destination image, so they are also of reference value to the academic community.
In the field of academic research examining the image of tourism destinations, the existing literature provides a relatively rich theoretical foundation and empirical analysis of the construction of destination image from both international and domestic perspectives. Traditional tourism destination image research mostly adopts the questionnaire survey method and interview method as the main measurement tools, relying on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data to reveal the cognitive and emotional responses of tourists. In recent years, the rapid development of network technology has given rise to a new type of tourism destination image research method that is centered on network text analysis. As a tourist destination with remarkable characteristics, Harbin’s attempt to modernize the measurement of its image involves tools and methods such as network text analysis, data mining technology, and sentiment analysis systems. These new tools can more accurately capture and interpret tourists’ real-time perceptions of and feedback on the destination, and provide dynamic and diversified reference information for tourism management decisions. Through such technological innovation and methodological expansion, the scientific, real-time and predictive power of tourism destination image research can be further enhanced.
The purpose of this study is to explore tourists’ perceptions of Harbin’s tourism resources and environment during the non-ice and snow seasons, as well as their affective responses, and to analyze how these perceptions and affective responses work together to constitute Harbin’s overall tourism image. The questions posed in this study focus on three aspects. First, how do travelers perceive Harbin’s tourism image in the non-ice and snow seasons? Second, what kind of emotional responses characterize their experiences? Finally, how do these perceptions and emotions merge to form an overall tourism image of Harbin’s non-ice and snow seasons.

2 Literature review

2.1 Cognitive-emotional theoretical model

In the 1990s, Mischel and Shoda (1995) first proposed the “cognitive-emotional” model of personality systems. This theory originally developed in the field of psychological research (Yu and Yang, 2003), and it focuses on describing the emotional responses triggered in individuals in specific environments and situations, and their overall evaluative role. This theoretical framework has been widely adopted for analyzing the image of tourist destinations. Image studies of tourist destinations are usually centered on the dimensions of perceived image and emotional image, which are combined to form a comprehensive evaluation of the destination. Inheriting this framework, this study applied this model for constructing the destination image (Figure 1). Baloglu and Mc Clear’y (1999) distinguished the perception of destination image into cognitive image, emotional image and overall image; while Li et al. (2021) adopted this model to conduct an in-depth study on the perception of the destination image of Xiangjiang Ancient Town Group. Cognitive image concerns the perception of the diverse attributes of a destination after the tourists’ experience, while the affective image is based on the cognitive image and reflects the tourists’ psychological reactions, which may be either positive or negative emotions. The interaction of these two images deepens our understanding of the tourists’ overall evaluation of the products and services offered by the destination, which can provide practical and effective advice for destination management and construction, and contribute to improving the quality of tourist area development.
Figure 1 Cognitive-emotional modeling mechanism of action

2.2 Tourism destination image

2.2.1 Tourism destination image studies

Shaping the image of a tourist destination, as a key service performed to improve the attractiveness of destination tourism, is not only related to the branding and market positioning of the destination, but it also directly affects the behavioral decisions of tourists. Since it was first proposed by the American researcher Hunt in the 1970s (Hunt, 1975), it has become the focus of extensive attention in international and domestic tourism research. The related studies mainly focus on how tourists perceive and evaluate tourist destinations (Jeong and Kim, 2020), and how these perceptions affect their tourism decisions (Mona and Mohammad, 2020) and behavioral intentions (Stylidis, 2022). In this context, various research methods and theoretical frameworks have been applied in the image perception studies of different destinations, including traditional questionnaire surveys (Alrawadieh and Kozak, 2019), face-to-face interviews (Ju and Zhou, 2020), and the use of new technological tools such as aerial photography by drones (Chen et al., 2021), IPA modeling analysis (Liu et al., 2019) and others.
Liang et al. (2016) proposed that in facing the challenge of resource homogenization, differentiated positioning of destination brands is particularly important. Through case studies, they explored the balancing strategy between image convergence and personality convergence, and concluded that exploring and strengthening the uniqueness of a destination is the key to achieving differentiated positioning. On the other hand, Lian and Yu (2019) studied the impact of online images of tourist destinations on tourists’ travel decisions from the perspective of those online images. Their study found that destination images on the web can significantly influence tourists’ expected experience and behavioral intentions, emphasizing the importance of managing and optimizing online images in the digital era. In addition, social media is an important platform for information dissemination that has a significant impact on the formation of destination image. For example, Kim et al. (2017) studied the effect of tourism information quality on social media on the formation of destination image, highlighting the influence of information quality on tourism decision-making in the digital era.
In summary, the research on tourism destination image covers a wide range of topics and approaches, from the application of technology to the consideration of socio-cultural factors. The breadth of these topics demonstrates the diversity and complexity of the field, as well as the central role of tourists’ perceptions, which highlights the significance of the research and provides practitioners with research-based strategies aimed at promoting the sustainable development and enhancing the competitiveness of the destination. In today’s highly competitive tourism market, having an accurate positioning of the destination image is particularly important, and destinations need to establish a distinctive and inviting image to maintain long-lasting attractiveness (Lv, 2019). Future research needs to explore the effective management and optimization of destination image to attract and satisfy tourists in a globalized and digital environment.

2.2.2 Research on Harbin’s tourism image

Tang et al. (2023) pointed out that the transformation and upgrading, sustainable development, and maintenance of the competitiveness of traditional ice and snow tourism regions, such as the Northeast region, are the current focus of national attention. Zhu et al. (2018) identified and evaluated the main factors affecting tourists’ satisfaction through factor analysis, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method and IPA analysis using survey data from ice and snow tourism tourists. Their study found that the overall satisfaction level was average, and the ticket price was the lowest factor evaluated. Meanwhile, it pointed out various advantages and areas for the improvement of Harbin’s ice and snow tourism, and provided policy suggestions for the sustainable development of the tourism industry. Yang et al. (2022) used Python data mining technology to analyze 37762 comments from tourists on five tourism websites, and analyzed the factors affecting tourist satisfaction through three aspects: high-frequency word features, semantic networks and tourists' emotions. The results showed that tourist emotions presented a higher proportion of positive comments than negative comments, and optimization countermeasures such as improving service quality and adjusting pricing strategies were proposed (Yang et al., 2022). A study by Ao et al. (2020) focused on the image perception of ice and snow tourism and analyzed the online review data of several online travel agencies using TF-IDF and LDA text analysis methods. That study revealed tourists’ cognitive and emotional images of six ice and snow tourism attractions in Harbin, and found that all attractions except the Snow Township had obvious positive recommendation willingness, which provides a reference for shaping the image of ice and snow tourism (Ao et al., 2020).

2.3 Seasonal tourism

Regarding seasonal tourism, a study by Hartmann first emphasized the importance of seasonality for tourism and analyzed the impact of seasonal changes on tourism activity (Rudi, 1986). Subsequently, Donatos and Zairis (1991) focused on the seasonal fluctuations of foreign tourists in Crete, and provided a region-specific case study perspective. The study by Ridderstaat et al., on the other hand, focused on the impact of climatic seasonal patterns on tourism demand in Aruba and explored the sustainability of tourism from a climate change perspective (Jorge et al., 2014). Boto-García and Pérez studied the impact of high-speed rail connectivity on tourism seasonality, and showed how transportation infrastructure can change tourism patterns (David and Pérez, 2023).
Lu (1994) discussed the tourism seasonality of mountainous scenic areas by taking Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province as an example and revealed the influence of the natural landscape on tourism seasonality. Li and Duan (2006), on the other hand, analyzed the manifestation of tourism seasonality and its causes, which provided a certain theoretical basis for understanding tourism seasonality. A study by Cao et al. (2012) focused on the correlation between tourism climate comfort and changes in annual tourism flows, using Lijiang as a case study to emphasize the importance of the influence of climatic conditions on tourism seasonality. Feng et al. (2014) explored how to achieve the balance of tourism seasonality from the perspective of anti-seasonal tourism and proposed a new idea for tourism seasonality management. Zheng (2023) examined the impacts of seasonal tourism on Sanya City, Hainan Province, from the perspective of the perceptions of destination residents, which provided a new perspective for understanding the social impacts of seasonal tourism.
Considering all these issues, the “cognitive-emotional- overall” framework used in this study provides a comprehensive lens through which to examine tourists’ perceptions, and it has been adapted to the study of tourism to capture the multidimensional nature of destination image. By employing this framework, we can dissect the cognitive assessments of Harbin’s attributes by tourists and their emotional reactions to these experiences, leading to a holistic understanding of the city’s tourism image. This approach not only aids in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of Harbin’s current branding but also offers a replicable model that can be used for other destinations that aspire to transition from seasonal to year-round tourism. The use of network text analysis further enhances the framework’s applicability by enabling real-time, data-driven insights into tourists’ perceptions.
The studies discussed above show that the perception of a destination’s image usually involves a comprehensive evaluation of the destination. Internationally, research on destination image perception is more in-depth and adopts diverse research methods. International scholars tend to conduct a comprehensive analysis of multiple aspects, and widely apply data collection and processing techniques. They especially combine multiple analytical techniques such as comparative analysis, which makes the research results more multidimensional and optimized, and have established a comprehensive destination image assessment system that includes a number of measurement indexes such as internal incentives and external influences. In contrast, domestic research on destination image perception has not yet established a set of standardized and systematic standards, so there is still a need to further deepen the research. Compared with foreign studies, domestic research focuses more on the planning of tourism destination image and the establishment of image perception models as the starting point of the research. Seasonal tourism is an important part of tourism research that has been studied by scholars at home and abroad, covering a wide range of aspects from seasonal changes in the natural landscape, tourism climate comfort, and man-made infrastructure to seasonal fluctuations in tourism market demand. Synthesizing these studies indicates that seasonal tourism is not only affected by the natural environment, but it is also closely related to tourism management strategies and the perception and participation of the destination communities. These studies not only improve our understanding of the impacts of seasonal tourism, but also provide practical insights for tourism management and planning. Domestic research on the image of Harbin's ice and snow tourism has become relatively mature, but limited research has been done on the image of tourism during the non-ice and snow seasons, so this study contributes to solving the problem of the very unbalanced development of Harbin’s seasonal tourism.

3 Research design

3.1 Overview of the study area

The non-ice season, often referred to as the “non-ice period” or “snowmelt season”, refers to the time of year when an area or zone is not covered by snow or ice, or when there is a significant reduction in the amount of snow. This period is contrasted with the snow and ice season, which is the season of snow cover or snow and ice accumulation. The non-ice season is usually characterized by a return to warmer temperatures, melting of the snow cover, and corresponding changes in ecosystem and environmental conditions.
As an important tourist destination in Northeast China with notable snow and ice resources, Harbin is known for its unique snow and ice culture, and it has established a main line of tourism development targeting snow and ice cultural tourism. However, during the non-ice and snow seasons, Harbin faces the challenges of an unclear tourism image and fluctuating seasonal tourism demand. Since the non-ice season refers to the period from after Harbin’s ice melts until the next snowfall, it is a period when temperatures gradually rise, snow and ice melt, and the cityscape transforms from snow-covered to the lush greenery of spring and summer.
Specifically, Harbin’s non-ice season usually begins in the spring, around April each year, when temperatures rise above freezing and snow and ice begin to melt. The season continues into the fall, around October, when local temperatures drop below freezing again and a new round of snowfall begins. Thus, the non-ice season usually encompasses the spring, summer, and fall seasons, which is tentatively defined in this study as the April-October period. During this non-ice period, the significant changes in Harbin’s natural landscape are accompanied by a shift in tourism activities and festivals. For example, the Songhua River cruise in summer, the summer night market on Central Street, and various outdoor music festivals and cultural celebrations attract tourists to experience a completely different Harbin from the snow and ice season.
From a tourism development perspective, Harbin’s non-ice and snow seasons provide a diverse range of tourism products and experiential opportunities that enable the city to attract four seasons of tourists and counteract the problem of seasonal fluctuations that are common in the tourism industry. Harbin’s non-ice and snow season is therefore a key period for the comprehensive development and utilization of the city's overall tourism resources.

3.2 Data sources

Data for compiling Harbin’s travelogue were obtained from the ctrip.com and the mafengwo.com websites through the bazhuayu collector, using “Harbin tourism” as the keyword, and April-October as the time period. The data were filtered according to the following criteria: 1) Text content was detailed. 2) The duplicated and invalid text and advertisements were removed. A total of 197 travelogue samples were obtained after processing. Then the text of the travelogue was preprocessed by eliminating the statements that were not related to the research object (including symbols, letters, expressions, and numbers) and consistently replacing the semantically similar words. Ultimately, 320000 words of textual data were obtained. The preprocessed document was kept in a TXT format file to ensure that the text would be recognizable.

3.3 Research methodology

The content analysis methodology works by converting unstructured and qualitative symbolic content (e.g., text and images) into structured and quantitative data to provide an objective, systematic, and quantitative description of the information content. In this study, the textual data obtained were subjected to word segmentation, word frequency analysis, sentiment analysis and semantic network analysis using ROST software. Through these steps, the image perception of Harbin by tourists in the non-ice and snow season was obtained.

4 Research findings and analysis

4.1 Cognitive image analysis of Harbin tourism in the non-ice and snow season

4.1.1 High-frequency characteristic words of the Harbin tourism image in non-ice and snow seasons

Using the ROSTCM6 software, the collated contents of the travelogues were divided into individual words and analyzed for word frequency. The top 50 high-frequency words related to the perceived tourism image of Harbin City in the non-ice and snow seasons were extracted from them after excluding some unrelated words (Table 1, Figure 2).
Table 1 High-frequency vocabulary list of travelogues for the perceived tourism image of Harbin City in non-ice and snow seasons
Serial number Word Part of speech Word frequency Serial number Word Part of speech Word frequency
1 Harbin Noun 1686 26 Experience Prepositions 127
2 Constructions Noun 748 27 Art Noun 126
3 Central Avenue Noun 587 28 Night Noun 123
4 Churches Noun 522 29 Place of interest Noun 121
5 Hotel Noun 412 30 Food Noun 120
6 Sun Island Noun 363 31 Volga estate Noun 115
7 Northeast Noun 345 32 Flavour Noun 110
8 Russia Noun 328 33 Delicious Conjunctions 110
9 Park Noun 306 34 Western-style restaurant Noun 108
10 Songhua River Noun 282 35 Bakery Noun 105
11 Style Noun 234 36 Flood control tower Noun 105
12 Museums Noun 231 37 Baroque Noun 104
13 Place Noun 228 38 Airport Noun 95
14 Histories Noun 222 39 Performances Noun 93
15 Cultures Noun 191 40 Sausage Noun 93
16 Scenic area Noun 187 41 Middle east railroad Noun 93
17 Piazza Noun 168 42 Tourism Prepositions 92
18 Restaurant Noun 159 43 Kid Noun 92
19 Distinctiveness Noun 149 44 Tigers Noun 91
20 Tourists Prepositions 141 45 Forest Noun 86
21 Mardière Noun 140 46 Qiulin Noun 82
22 Sofia Noun 140 47 European style Conjunctions 81
23 Flavor Noun 135 48 Naturally Noun 78
24 Russian style Conjunctions 132 49 Beers Noun 78
25 Ice and snow Noun 132 50 Convenient Conjunctions 78
Figure 2 High-frequency word cloud map
The first observation is that architecture is a major focus in the perception of tourists. Harbin’s architectural styles are unique, such as Russian, Baroque, European and others. The frequent mention of these styles shows the multicultural and historical integration of Harbin. For example, buildings and streets such as Central Street, Church, Sofia, and others are popular among tourists as iconic attractions, and are also symbols of Harbin’s history and culture.
Second, words such as museum, history, culture, and Middle East Railroad indicate that tourists have a deep sense of Harbin’s history and culture. Museums and historical sites become windows to the city. Regarding the natural landscape and leisure facilities, words such as Sun Island, park, Songhua River, forest, and nature indicate that tourists enjoy exploring Harbin’s natural environment, such as the parks and rivers. In addition, the Flood Control Memorial Tower, an important landmark in Harbin, reflects tourists’ perceptions of the city’s attractions.
In terms of food experience, words such as restaurant, cuisine, red sausage and pot roast show that tourists are very interested in Harbin’s food culture. Local specialties are one of the key factors that attract tourists. In terms of tourism services and convenience, words such as hotel, airport, and convenience indicate that Harbin provides good tourism service facilities and convenient transportation, which can provide tourists with a comfortable travel experience.
The frequent mentions of the terms experience, performance, and sightseeing indicate that visitors seek a variety of activities in Harbin and enjoy entertainment such as performances and sightseeing. Despite this study’s focus on the non-snow and ice seasons, snow and ice are still a part of visitors’ perceptions, with many saying they look forward to Harbin during the snow and ice seasons, and expressing a desire to revisit the city at that time. In addition, the mention of “night” suggests that Harbin’s nightlife or night scenery is a point of interest for many tourists. Words such as “children” and “tigers” reflect the preference for family trips and interest in local animal species.

4.1.2 Perceived image attributes of Harbin in the non-ice and snow seasons

As shown in Table 2, the perception of tourism resources in Harbin City by tourists in the non-ice and snow seasons is dominated by culture and characteristic buildings, supplemented by the natural landscapes and parks.
Table 2 High-frequency vocabulary of tourism resources in Harbin during the non-ice and snow seasons
Serial number Word Word frequency Serial number Word Word frequency
1 Constructions 748 9 Piazza 168
2 Central Avenue 587 10 Restaurant 159
3 Churches 522 11 Mardière 140
4 Sun Island 363 12 Sofia 140
5 Park 306 13 Volga Estate 115
6 Songhua River 282 14 Western-style restaurant 108
7 Museums 231 15 Flood Control Tower 105
8 Scenic area 187 16 Middle East Railroad 93
However, Harbin has 338 tourist attractions, including 79 A-class tourist attractions, one of which is a national 5A-class tourist attraction and 26 are 4A-class tourist attractions. Harbin also has 91 parks, including Sun Island Park, and 76 museums are open to the public for free, with the free admission rates reaching 96% and 95%, respectively. However, only a few of the natural ecological scenic spots appear in Table 2. Tourism resources such as forests, mountains, rivers and lakes, and wetlands, which should have the most visitors during the non-ice and snow seasons, are not widely recognized by tourists.
In addition to the winter characteristics of the scenic area, the main problem with the other natural scenic areas is that they are “covered” by snow and ice, so they do not create their own characteristics in the tourists’ impression. As a result, their capture of the summer tourism market is not competitive. Most of these tourism products suffer due to the lack of visibility coupled with the lack of publicity efforts, so the tourists do not generally know about them.

4.2 Emotional image analysis of Harbin in the non-ice and snow seasons

Tourists’ emotional perception as an important part of their destination image perception, which originates from the subjective perception of the destination. The sentiment analysis of Harbin tourists’ online texts for the non-ice and snow season using the ROSTEA 1.9.0.4 tool yielded the data shown in Table 3. Note that the tourists’ positive emotions accounted for the highest proportion of 62.5%, while negative emotions accounted for a smaller proportion of 19.64%, and neutral emotions accounted for the smallest proportion of 17.86%.
Table 3 Sentiment analysis table of tourists’ travelogues
Emotional category Proportion (%) Dissociation Proportion (%)
Positive emotions 62.5 General 39.29
Moderately 14.29
High degree 8.93
Neutral mood 17.86 17.86
Negativity 19.64 General 10.71
Moderately 7.14
High degree 1.79
Total 100 100
In summary, most tourists in the non-ice and snow season in Harbin had a positive tourism feeling. Some of the tourism resources unique to Harbin have significant heterogeneity compared to other regions walking in the streets of Harbin, around the unique ancient architecture, people can have a sense that they are in a foreign country. It is difficult to have the atmosphere of other domestic tourist destinations, and the uniqueness of its tourism resources is one of the reasons for the long-lasting tourism industry in Harbin. This uniqueness is also an advantage that Harbin can use to develop all-season tourism. However, at the same time, managers also need to pay attention to the nearly 20% of negative sentiment. Negative emotions are mainly generated by tourists due to some unsatisfactory experience. According to the content of the travelogue, these negative sentiments were mainly related to the two aspects of transportation and service.
In Harbin, a number of roads to scenic spots are in poor condition. The main problems include a narrow road surface, a surface that is not smooth, highway guidance signs that are insufficient, the lack of electronic guidance systems, roads that are insufficient to meet the growing demand for tourism, inadequate tourism transportation connectivity, and the need for a “come in, go out” system, so there is a gap compared to the basic needs of tourism. The routes between major scenic spots are monopolized by travel agencies, and there is little direct public transportation. Several tourist routes in the city are also operating ineffectively. Cabs also still rip off passengers and take detours, and getting a taxi at popular scenic spots can be difficult.
From the evaluation of the scenic spots on the major tourism websites, the scenic spot rating by Harbin tourists is basically about 4.5 points. Therefore, the scenic landscape is still relatively satisfactory, and the deductions are related to the scenic spot service and scenic spot management. In Harbin City, the degrees of standardization of tourism services and refinement are not high, and the increasingly fierce competition in the tourism market is not compatible with good a tourism experience. There are still problems with false advertising, bullying and ripping off customers, price cheating, unlicensed taxi, malicious guide, and others that need to be solved. In general, Harbin’s scenic area management and tourism service level need to be strengthened and improved.

4.3 Analysis of the overall image of Harbin tourists’ perception in the non-ice and snow seasons

A visualization graph was produced using the semantic network analysis function of the ROSTCM6 software (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Semantic network analysis diagram

Note: Figure 3 is basically radial, in which the terms radiate from the core to the surrounding area with “Harbin” as the center. The secondary links are items like “buildings”, “churches”, “Central Street”, and “squares”, so these are the most significant reflections of the image of Harbin in the non-ice and snow season, and the most directly related to the impression of the city for tourists. Extending further outward is a summary of these elements, indicating that the perceptions of tourists in the non-ice and snow season in Harbin are related to “history”, “culture”, “art” and “style”. This is closely linked to the chain of relationships, such as Harbin-Sofia-Church-Central Avenue-Mardière-Flood Control Tower-Songhua River-Sun Island-Park. This is precisely the most classic route of Harbin tourists, since the various attractions are very close to each other, either within walking distance or with direct transportation (such as river cruises and cable cars).

5 Conclusions, recommendations and outlook

5.1 Conclusions

This study analyzed the tourism image perception of tourists in Harbin during the non-ice and snow season using the network text analysis method. This method is based on the tourism destination image “cognitive-emotional” model, which includes the three aspects of cognitive image, emotional image and overall image. The three main conclusions are as follows. 1) The image of Harbin in the non-ice and snow season is a tourist destination with exotic humanistic architectural features, but with limited understanding of its rich natural resources. 2) For the tourism experience in Harbin during the non-ice and snow season, the emotions are positive overall, with most of the negative emotions coming from the facilities and services. The satisfaction with its tourism resources is still high. 3) The overall image that tourists have of Harbin in the non-ice and snow season is mainly limited to the most popular tourist places in the urban area, which is representative, but also has certain limitations.

5.2 Recommendations

Based on the above conclusions, the following recommendations are made for the future development of all-season tourism in Harbin.

5.2.1 Diversify the attractions and strengthen the tourism infrastructure

Developing and promoting a wide range of attractions beyond the primary seasonal draw is crucial. For Harbin, this includes leveraging its cultural heritage and natural beauty during the non-ice and snow seasons. Harbin must enhance its tourism infrastructure by improving the air and road networks, upgrading road service areas, and optimizing routes to major tourist attractions. This will involve ensuring smooth transportation from city centers, airports, and stations to key destinations, and effectively solving the “last mile” problem. Additionally, improving the quality and functionality of tourist traffic indication systems, especially for 3A-grade attractions and above, is essential. Expanding the leisure and tourism infrastructure, such as green-ways, bicycle paths, and slow-moving paths within the city, along with upgrading tourism service centers, will significantly improve the overall tourist experience.

5.2.2 Promote integration and innovation in tourism

To develop all-season tourism, Harbin should integrate tourism with culture, industry, science and technology, sports, and poverty alleviation efforts, and promote the upgrading and transformation of tourism clusters (Song et al., 2022). This will involve creating tourism products that incorporate cultural elements, and utilizing old industrial bases, eco-tourism, festivals, leisure vacations, and rural tourism projects. Emphasizing the development of the nighttime economy by promoting nighttime leisure tourism, such as specialty food and drink, night market shopping, and tourist performing arts, will extend the stays of tourists and enhance their experiences. Additionally, focusing on the construction and upgrading of tourism projects and supporting the enhancement of existing attractions are crucial. Policymakers and operators must innovate and strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation to create a unique portfolio of tourism products. Tailoring the marketing efforts to different tourist segments can help to distribute visitors more evenly throughout the year. Harbin’s “Enchanting Harbin Summer” campaign serves as an effective model.

5.2.3 Standardize the tourism market regulatory framework

Establishing a standardized management framework that is tailored to local characteristics is vital for ensuring a high-quality visitor experience. Harbin should implement comprehensive management standards, drawing on other local service industries to improve efficiency. Strengthening professional training for front-line staff to enhance their service levels and ensuring regular evaluations of service quality are necessary. Managers should develop scientific management systems, prioritize humanized management, and promptly address tourists’ needs and feedback. Additionally, diversifying feedback channels, such as complaint hot-lines and online platforms, will facilitate timely responses to the issues raised by tourists and protect their legitimate rights and interests. This will ensure repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth publicity, which are crucial for sustaining an all-season tourism model.

5.3 Outlook

The two main shortcomings of this study are that only a small number of valid travelogues could be found on the travel websites, and a limited number of text samples could be selected. At the same time, there are some limitations in the sample of tourists represented by collecting tourists' opinions only from the Internet, and the perceptions of some middle-aged and elderly tourists who are not proficient at using the Internet cannot be obtained in this way. More detailed tourist feedback should be collected through offline questionnaires or interviews in future studies, so that the conclusions will be more substantial and reliable. Hopefully, tourism in Harbin can break the seasonal restrictions in the future, give full play to its unique humanities and natural resource advantages, realize the developmental goal of all-season tourism, and turn the momentary traffic into long-term traffic, so as to enhance the sustainable development of the city’s tourism. By situating Harbin’s rebranding efforts within a broader theoretical and practical context, this study contributes to the ongoing discourse on destination branding and seasonal tourism management. It offers actionable recommendations not only for Harbin but also for other cities that aspire to enhance their attractiveness and competitiveness in the global tourism market.

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