How do the use of colors and emotional connections influence the image of rural destinations on Instagram? An AI-Based Analysis of Institutional and Visitor-Generated Visual Narratives

In today’s social media landscape, the image of tourist destinations is increasingly influenced by the interaction between official institutional communication and visual narratives created by visitors. This dynamic is particularly significant for rural destinations, whose identity is closely linked to heritage, authenticity, and emotional connection. Based on the distinction between institutional visual governance and experiential narratives, this study explores how colors and the emotions they evoke contribute to shaping the cognitive, affective, and conative dimensions of the image of rural destinations on Instagram. The research adopts an AI-based image analysis approach to examine 660 Instagram photographs shared by municipalities and visitors in 33 rural villages located in Italy and France. A machine learning AI BOT was designed to extract the dominant color palettes from each image and associate them with emotional dimensions derived from color-emotion theory. The results highlight a consistent divergence between institutional visual narratives and those generated by visitors. Institutional communication relies predominantly on neutral and desaturated color palettes, including gray, brown, and black, which reinforce a cognitive representation focused on heritage preservation and historical continuity. In contrast, images shared by visitors tend to feature brighter and warmer tones, particularly green, blue, beige, and yellow, which emphasize natural environments, relaxation, and the experiential aspects of rural tourism. These findings suggest that, although both narratives contribute to the formation of the destination's image, their partial misalignment reflects a tension between identity preservation and experiential storytelling. This divergence appears more pronounced in Italian villages than in French ones. The study contributes to the literature on destination image and visual storytelling by conceptualizing color as a pre- cognitive narrative mechanism through which destination identity is negotiated within digital environments. From a management perspective, the results indicate that rural destinations can benefit from a more strategic alignment between institutional visual communication and visitor-generated narratives to promote more consistent and emotionally engaging representations of the destination.