Storytelling research of consumersʹ self-reports of urban tourism experiences in China

Using brand netnography (analyzing first-person on-line stories consumers tell that include discussions of their product and brand use), this article probes how visitors interpret the places, people, and situations that they experience while traveling in China (Peopleʹs Republic of China). The visitorsʹ reports focus on four greater metropolitan areas in China: Beijing, Lijiang, Shanghai, and Xiʹan. Visitor stories interpreting these destinations support Robert McKeeʹs wisdom that powerful storytelling moves people via unique “inciting incidents”—incidents serving to unfreeze or throw life out-of-balance. The visitorsʹ destination lived-dramas give credence to Tom Peterʹs advocacy of focusing strategically on brand and Doug Holtʹs treatise on how brands become icons. The analysis includes applying Heiderʹs balance theory in maps showing immediate and downstream positive and negative associations of concepts, events, and outcomes in visitorsʹ stories. These maps include descriptions of how visitors experience specific Chinese destinations unique promises (i.e., distinct cultural history, minority way-of-life (Naxi society), Chinaʹs Big Apple, Chinaʹs origin, respectively for Beijing, Lijiang, Shanghai, and Xiʹan). The article provides a revisionist proposal to Holtʹs five-step strategy for building destinations as iconic brands and suggestions for tourism management.