Abstract

Tourism photographs can induce emotions and influence tourists’ perceptions of real locations. However, the research on creating guidelines for tourism photography, especially for heritage tourism targeting youth, remains limited and unclear. Hence, the aim of this research is to identify photographic factors that increase the motivation for young tourists (aged 18–25) to visit heritage tourism sites. In September 2023, one hundred onsite questionnaires were distributed to youths at ten famous heritage locations in Bangkok, Thailand. The results of this research present a guideline incorporating seven elements, indicating that young tourists prefer images that are retro, trendy with historical content, tell a story through interesting characters, utilize natural light, have a clean and minimal style of composition, feature a concise and short title, maintain a realistic style of image processing or retouching, and present unseen or interesting locations. Furthermore, youth prefer searching for information and inspiration on social media, and there is no statistically significant difference between the two types of young tourists (non-heritage and heritage tourists) across almost all media. This guideline could be utilized to design effective advertising photographs in any media to inspire and attract young tourists.