Progress on image analytics: Implications for tourism and hospitality research

Abstract

Despite the increased recognition of the importance of images as a rich data source, the full potential of images to advance tourism and hospitality knowledge, both conceptually and theoretically, has yet to be fully tapped. This study provides a critical review of image analytics, examining its broad implications for tourism and hospitality research. This paper offers the progress of image definitions, features and related theories, as well as presents a methodological framework for conducting image-related studies, complementing the dominant textual analysis used in tourism and hospitality research. The paper makes contributions to the tourism methodological literature by developing a point of reference for the application of image analytics in tourism and hospitality studies.