Abstract
User-generated photos and videos on social media are changing the values associated with a tourism destination in ways that do not necessarily align with those promoted by destination marketing. Focusing on nature-based tourism, we identify the affective elements of user-generated photos (colour, charisma, storytelling) and videos (trust, authenticity, storytelling) that determine their impact on social media. These elements are derived from a re-analysis of empirical studies: a photograph-based Q methodology and choice-based conjoint analysis conducted with visitors to Chinese national parks, and a survey of viewers responding to a whale-watching video. We incorporate these findings into a conceptual model of how social media influences the co-creation of tourism imaginaries, capturing the interaction between tourist-generated content and destination marketing in shaping a destination's collective imaginary. The model extends existing theories of destination image formation , brand co-creation, narrative transportation and customer engagement, and yields four testable propositions for future research. We discuss implications for destination marketing, including how these affective elements can inform brand positioning, audience targeting and campaign design, as well as how the same mechanisms can drive negatively-valenced imaginaries and divergent imaginaries across different stakeholder groups.