When language shapes landscape: quantifying tourism image discrepancy of Macao historic centre through bilingual lens

Taking Macao Historic Centre as an example, this study adopts an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach to construct the tourism image of Macao Historic Centre and quantify the discrepancy between its official projection image and tourist perception image in bilingual contexts. A comprehensive tourism destination image (TDI) model for Macao Historic Centre is developed and reveals a dynamic cognitive progression from human geography to psychological perspectives that collectively shape heritage tourism image formation. Key findings reveal that the English projection image emphasizes ‘Social Function’ and ‘Cultural Value’ while the Chinese projection image highlights ‘Architectural Features’ and ‘Basic Information.’ English-speaking tourists pay more attention to ‘Cultural Value’ and ‘Tourism Value,’ whereas Chinese tourists prioritize ‘Architectural Features’ and ‘Historical Value.’. The consistency between official projection and tourist perception is higher in the Chinese context, while the discrepancy is more pronounced in the English context. This study offers new perspective for understanding heritage tourism image and provides empirical evidence for optimizing bilingual promotional strategies and enhancing interactive experience design in heritage destinations.