The impact of photographs on the online marketing for tourism: The case of Japanese-style inns

This article examines the impact of the use of photographs in online marketing for tourism through a case study based on Japanese-style inns. Nowadays, most Japanese-style inns present photographs of what they think are their key appealing elements on their own social networking and/or video/photo-sharing websites, while guests upload their photographs and write comments on travel or social networking websites and/or on the websites of e-travel agents. Through the medium of ‘netnography’, this research has identified that the photographs presented online by Japanese-style inns can affect decision-making processes of guests and/or expectations in both a positive and a negative way, and e-word of mouth can work together with the photographs to influence prospective guests.