Deciphering the myths of engagement with destination short video : the perspective of modality

Abstract

The multimodal nature of short videos offers destination marketers opportunities to engage audiences on social media, while also posing challenges in understanding effective engagement strategies. This study focuses on video characteristics to explore audience engagement with destination short videos from a novel perspective. Drawing upon Elleström (2010)'s Intermediality theory and Luo et al. (2024)'s modal interdependence framework, we develop a multimodal framework for analyzing video characteristics through the lens of modality. Using this framework, a sample of 1636 short videos related to Chengdu posted on Douyin is examined through video mining, principal component regression, and full-set qualitative comparative analysis. 15 video characteristics are extracted from three modalities and three material interfaces, identifying four principal components and three configuration paths that drive high video engagement. This study significantly contributes to tourism marketing and multimodal data research in the tourism domain and provides practical implications for short video creators and destination marketers.