Worth thousands of words? Visual content analysis and photo interpretation of an outdoor tourism spectacular performance in Yangshuo-Guilin, China

An outdoor tourism spectacular performance transforms the landscape into a stage and community residents portray their cultural traditions against a background of nature, using the script of a story or legend from local history. The research aim was to interpret the expression of local culture and traditions through such a tourism performance. Taking Impression Liu Sanjie in Yangshuo-Guilin as a visual combination, content analysis was applied to interpret 296 images based on 27 visual criteria. A factor analysis yielded seven factors expressed by the sampled photos, providing a method to identify the visual content of an outdoor tourism spectacular performance in China and other similar event formats.