The US tourists' perceptions of destination China over two transformative periods

This study conducted a textual analysis of The NewYork Times to examine the U.S. tourists' perceived image of China as a destination by comparing the two periods of January 1980-May 1989 and January 2005-December 2015. The study found a drastic shift of the U.S. tourists' affective image of China as a destination from being favorable and positive in the early period to being unfavorable and negative in the recent period. The affective image was characterized by the two domains of Exoticism and Sense of Superiority in the 1980s, as compared to the two domains of Ordinary and Negative National Image in the recent 10 years. Paradoxically, such a sentimental shift on the part of the U.S. tourists occurred while their perception of China's destination attributes either did not change or grew more positive.