Beyond the scenic view: a multimodal discourse analysis of sustainable tourism imaginaries on TikTok in Anhui, China

Emerging tourism destinations harness digital technologies to reconstruct their tourism imaginaries and thereby gain global visibility. Nevertheless, there remains a limited understanding of how these destinations utilize multimodal resources to communicate their sustainable tourism imaginaries. Therefore, this study investigates how the Anhui Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism communicates its sustainable tourism imaginaries on TikTok. Drawing on the works of Wang and Feng and Feng, a semiotic framework is proposed to model Anhui’s imaginaries as evaluative attributes and analyze their construction through verbal and visual resources in short videos. The analysis of 203 TikTok videos reveals a positive representation of Anhui through six key imaginaries: natural beauty, vibrant cultural activities, contemporary chic, culinary experiences, traditional elegance, and rural idyll. These imaginaries reflect Anhui’s commitment to sustainability across social, environmental, and economic dimensions. By examining the multimodal communication of Anhui’s sustainable tourism imaginaries, this study provides insights for emerging destinations seeking to improve their visibility and appeal through sustainability-focused promotion.