Media sentiment and tourism demand: when does destination media sentiment matter? Evidence from Chinese travel to Switzerland

Tourism demand reflects not only income, prices, and travel costs but also the information surrounding destinations. This research note examines when destination-related media sentiment is more strongly associated with demand. Using monthly Chinese arrivals to Switzerland, RavenPack media analytics, and Baidu Search Index data, the study covers 2005–2018, a pre-COVID period preceding major changes in international mobility and China’s outbound tourism market. Favourable media sentiment about Switzerland, measured by aggregate coverage balance, is positively associated with arrivals, whereas the corresponding measure of average article-level tone is not statistically significant. Conditional analyses suggest that the association may be stronger when media sentiment concerning conditions in China is weak: the low–high regime difference is economically substantial but borderline in statistical terms. The association is also positive during rising search-attention periods in several major Chinese cities, although formal tests do not find significant differences from declining-attention periods. Overall, the findings highlight the empirical relevance of aggregate coverage balance, with borderline evidence that its association with arrivals is stronger when origin-country sentiment is weak.