International Communication of City Image under the Visa-Free Policy: Practices and Path Optimization

Abstract

This study takes Rednote as the core platform, focusing on the context of the visa-free policy, to conduct a comparative analysis of the international communication practices of urban images in four coastal cities of Shandong and four cities outside the province. The study finds that the cultural tourism accounts of cities outside the province generally hold an advantage in interactive effectiveness. In contrast, while the four cities of Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai, and Rizhao in Shandong demonstrate higher efficiency in content production, they still share common issues in areas such as supply-demand matching, precise targeting, cross-cultural narration, and multilingual services. Through content analysis, case comparison, and data mining, the research reveals the strengths and weaknesses of different types of cities in international communication. From the bidirectional communication perspective of “welcoming in” and “sending out”, this paper proposes optimization paths from the dimensions of demand positioning, immersive experience, interactive word-of-mouth, brand shaping, and international cooperation. It aims to provide practical references for coastal cities in Shandong to leverage the dividends of the visa-free policy, enhance the effectiveness of international communication through new media platforms, and shape distinctive urban images.