Conference article

Like many tourist cities around the world, Japanese cities and prefectures have been producing posters for attracting tourists. In the present study, the impressions of the posters were investigated using the semantic differential method. Moreover, the effects of the posters on attracting tourists are clarified using multiple-regression analysis. Forty-one different prefectural posters produced for attracting tourists were used as stimuli. Ninety-five participants rated their impressions of the posters using 22 seven-step bipolar scales. For each poster, the participants also rated the degree of preference, the degree of desire to visit that area and the degree of desire to live in that area in the future, using unipolar scales. The rated scores were used for factor analysis. The results of the factor analysis showed that the impressions of the posters were constructed by a three-dimensional space spanned by “vividness”, “affinity”, and “luxuriousness”. Multiple-regression analyses were conducted using factor scores as the independent variables and the degrees of the unipolar scale as a dependent variable, respectively. The results showed that a friendly and luxurious poster was preferred, and that a friendly, luxurious, and vivid poster made the participants desire to visit that area. The results also showed that the posters were not effective in making the participants desire to live in the area, except for the males in their 60s.

Poster, factor analysis, semantic differential method, multiple-regression analysis