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Abstract: Over the past decade, Chinese outbound tourism has become one of the most influential source markets in global tourism. Against this backdrop, South Korea has emerged as an important short-haul destination for Chinese tourists. Drawing on user-generated content (UGC) and survey data, this study examines how multidimensional perceptions of South Korea shape destination cognitive image, tourist satisfaction, and revisit intention. First, 12,328 online reviews posted by Chinese tourists between 2015 and 2024 were collected and analyzed through text mining to identify five core perceptual dimensions: romance, culture, history, landscape, and consumption. Second, an online survey of 578 Chinese visitors to South Korea was used to test the proposed model through PLS-SEM. The results show that all five perceptual dimensions positively influence cognitive image and satisfaction. Perceived culture and perceived history exert relatively stronger effects on cognitive image, whereas perceived romance and perceived history more strongly enhance satisfaction. Both cognitive image and satisfaction positively predict revisit intention, but the path from cognitive image to satisfaction is not significant. Mediation analysis further indicates that cognitive image and satisfaction function as parallel rather than sequential mediators between multidimensional perception and revisit intention. The study extends destination image research by integrating UGC-based perceptual dimensions into a unified perception-cognition-behavior framework and offers practical implications for destination marketing directed at the Chinese market.
 

Keywords: Chinese outbound tourism; South Korea; destination image; user-generated content; PLS-SEM; revisit intention