Introduction

Space, the universe, has fascinated humans ever since ancient times (Li et al., 2021). As a long-held dream by human beings, space tourism, being a main way to observe Earth from space, generates passion and excitement in everyone (Crouch, 2001). The European Space Agency (ESA, 2008, p. 2) has defined the term “space tourism” as “suborbital flights by privately operated vehicles and the associated technology development driven by the space tourism market”. Generally, space tourism can be broadly categorized into three subcategories: orbital tourism, suborbital tourism, and beyond-orbital tourism (Cohen and Spector, 2020; Spector, 2020; Paladini and Saha, 2023), and each offering a unique experience. Besides, other modalities of space tourism, such as terrestrial forms of space tourism like space-themed museums, ground space facilities, and visitor centers, are also viewed as part of the space tourism industry by researchers (Crouch et al., 2009).

Owing to the last decade has witnessed a steadily rising contribution of the space industry to the overall economy (Paladini et al., 2021), and space tourism is becoming a flourishing industry that has attracted the attention of governments and businesses. According to Olya and Han (2020), the space-based hospitality industry is predicted to be worth $37 billion by 2027. The entire commercial space sector is projected to be worth $2.7 trillion by 2045 (Toivonen, 2022), indicating that space has been a critical factor in the growth and development of modern economies (Corrado et al., 2023).

Thus, both the public and private sectors are making concerted efforts to invest in this market. For the public sector, the United States has set up a regulatory regime to facilitate suborbital space tourism, with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) being appointed as the regulatory agency (Webber, 2013). So does the European Space Agency (ESA Vision) and New Zealand (Scott, 2022). In the private sector, the commercialization of space tourism is emerging, driven by potential colossal business profits (Peng et al., 2023). Venture capital, angel capital, and public financing have created a new subsector away from traditional state-sponsored space research (Paladini and Saha, 2023). Companies including Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and SpaceX have been established globally, such as the first commercial flights of Virgin Galactic in June and August 2023 (Kim et al., 2024). Recent developments highlight the growing potential for a dedicated space tourism industry to take shape (Cater, 2010), causing the realm of space tourism to transition from speculation to a concrete reality (Khasawneh et al., 2024), which has provoked significant attention from the public (Strickland, 2012). With rapidly advanced technologies, including feasible propulsion systems (Gohardani et al., 2011), cost reduction (Zhang et al., 2019), escape path planning (Saber and Feron, 2023), and optimized aircraft design (York et al., 2018) to ensure aviation safety and reliability, space tourism is becoming more feasible both securely and economically.

The research aims to extensively explore the current trends, hot topics, and general attitudes of space tourism from the public by using texts and videos from TikTok and therefore provide strategic and policy-making insights for businesses, politicians, and future research, to steer the further evolution of the commercial space tourism landscape. However, to the best of our knowledge, existing research on the commercially promising field of space tourism has focused predominantly on narrowly defined subgroups of participants who are affordable for space travel or who work in this industry. These studies have largely relied on surveys, questionnaires, and interviews to obtain research data and have usually adopted basic qualitative analyses. Notably, in the era of visual media, short video platforms offer a unique avenue for capturing public opinions, perspectives, and suggestions due to their high level of user interaction. TikTok, as one of the world’s largest video platforms, has been widely utilized in studies to investigate public attitudes (Hautea et al., 2021; Gilmore et al., 2022; Frenette et al., 2024), making it a suitable data source for this research. Therefore, this study leverages video and comment data from TikTok, employing advanced text mining techniques and a self-trained deep visual model to conduct more precise quantitative analyses of broader public social attitudes and topics. Our research provides a valuable foundation for addressing the following three key scientific questions:

  1. 1.

    What are the current development trends in the space tourism industry?

  2. 2.

    What are the hot topics discussed by the public related to space tourism?

  3. 3.

    What are the public attitudes shared on social media towards space tourism?

To address the research questions outlined above, this research unfolds in a sequential manner, commencing with an elucidation of the intricacies involved in the data collection process. Specifically, a corpus of 4727 short videos sourced from TikTok forms the foundation of our investigation. Subsequently, a comprehensive analysis is performed, spanning four distinct dimensions: video keyframes, titles, background narrations, and comments. These analyses are conducted by scrutinizing both textual data and keyframe images extracted from the videos. The results of the analysis encompass the identification of objects within keyframes and the results of topic classification.

Literature review

Space tourism

Space tourism is currently gaining significant attention because of its rapid and burgeoning development in the present era (Peng et al., 2023). Research and findings related to space tourism exploration and its applications are receiving considerable attention from the public (Padhy and Padhy, 2021). Table 1 presents a part of the collection of literature related to space tourism, which has focused primarily on describing three groups, including consumer behavior, technology achievements, and development difficulties.

Table 1 Literature review about space tourism in three subsections.
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Research on consumer behavior has focused on aspects such as consumer attitudes, motivations, behavior patterns, and decision-making processes. In these studies, Crouch et al. (2009) reported that the specific type of space tourism may exert varying influences on the perceptions and choice behaviors of prospective customers in this market. Besides, Cater (2010) and Olya and Han (2020) investigated the motivations and the antecedents of the risk of potential space tourism consumers. In addition, scholars have also examined several critical factors influencing individuals’ risk perceptions of participating in space tourism, such as personality, age, and gender, which are key consumer characteristics (Reddy et al., 2012; Giachino et al., 2023; Mehran et al., 2023; Kim et al., 2023). In addition, studies have also examined the attitudes of space participants. For example, Witze (2017) and Mishra and Luderer (2019) reported that certain individuals are hesitant to engage in space tourism, citing concerns about potential health risks.

However, it should be emphasized that most of the above studies have focused on potential consumers who can afford the high cost of space travel or who work in the industry. This paper attempts to survey real public attitudes by using one of the most popular social media platform—TikTok—to gain wider insights into space tourism among the broadest group of public.

As for technical achievements, such studies can be broadly categorized into two areas: space vehicle safety improvement and economic feasibility (Zhang et al., 2019; Cohen, 2022; Fusaro et al., 2024). Accordingly, for the first group, York et al. (2018) explored efficient aircraft design optimization and sensitivity analysis to improve the reliability of space vehicles. Similarly, Saber and Feron (2023) proposed a robust escape path planning framework for commercial aircraft formations to increase the safety of space travel. For the second group, commercial accessibility has also undergone significant advancements. Zhang et al. (2019) demonstrated that adopting commercial family designs could reduce development costs, thereby improving the economic feasibility of space tourism. Beyond these core advancements, technologies developed for space tourism have found applications in various fields. For example, Snell and Helliwell (2021) explored the use of microgravity during commercial spaceflight to advance macromolecular crystallization research. Similarly, Levschuk et al. (2024) leveraged spaceflight technologies to revolutionize healthcare.

The challenges facing the development difficulties of space tourism primarily stem from the inadequacy of the current legal framework and growing concerns about sustainability (Spector, 2020; Padhy and Padhy, 2021; Ryan et al., 2022). On the one hand, the regulation of spaceflight and its associated liabilities are highly complex and involve a combination of international law, domestic legislation, and regulatory guidance (Hobe, 2010). Researchers have begun to address these gaps in recent years. For example, Scott (2022) highlighted the absence of comprehensive legislation governing space launch operations and service facilities, with existing laws focused narrowly on regulating the environmental impact of space vehicles. Moreover, de Araújo et al. (2023) delimited a novel approach named “space bioethics” in the context of suborbital space tourism, advocating for legal constraints in terms of ethics. Similarly, Rees et al. (2024) examined whether current regulations sufficiently protect space tourists. On the other hand, space tourism has raised significant environmental concerns (Frost and Frost, 2021). For example, Paladini et al. (2021) and Toivonen (2022) used a case study to propose a sustainable circular economy model with insight from the space sector and examined diverse sustainability dimensions in this industry.

TikTok

As a booming social media platform, TikTok, distinguished by its widespread accessibility, global ubiquity, and sheer magnitude of information it accommodates, is playing a transformative role in shaping societal dynamics (Wittenberg et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2023). At present, it has become a major source for meeting the growing information needs of the public (Alhafez et al., 2023). TikTok boasts over 1 billion monthly active users, generating an extensive array of short videos that offer valuable insights into consumer preferences (Siva et al., 2022). Naturally, emerged as a popular hub for self-expression and social activism, TikTok has been chosen to investigate public attitudes in various fields (Hautea et al., 2021; Gilmore et al., 2022; Frenette et al., 2024). TikTok’s unique features, such as user comments and creator engagement, align seamlessly with the study’s objective of examining public sentiment and trends in the realm of space tourism. Hence, this research leverages TikTok as an information platform to explore public perceptions and viral topics related to space tourism.

Until recently, short videos on TikTok have been extensively utilized in research across multiple academic domains, such as education (Zhu et al., 2022) and computer science (Zhang et al., 2023). Focusing on tourism, short videos are also reshaping people’s travel models and influencing tourists’ travel preferences (Gan et al., 2023). Some academics have investigated the impact of short videos on tourists’ behaviors and attitudes, as well as their marketing effects. On the one hand, short videos are helpful in disseminating tourism information and influencing tourists’ decisions about their travels (Zhou et al., 2023) and enhancing potential travelers’ attitudes towards a tourism destination (Cao et al., 2021). On the other hand, related studies have shown that short videos have a large promotional effect (Guerrero-Rodríguez et al., 2020). Therefore, as a globally anticipated new special segment of tourism (Cohen and Spector, 2020), space tourism can also be effectively promoted by short videos, the latest marketing tool, which taps into the public’s focus and human interests in this sector.

Data collection

The data analyzed in this paper were concentrated on short videos from TikTok. With the intentionality underpinning this research purpose, we conducted a search on the TikTok platform using keywords such as “space tourism” and “space travel”. A total of 4727 videos were obtained as samples after preprocessing, which included comprehensive user coverage, encompassing the main providers in the current space tourism market, covering the period from January 2017 to May 2023, spanning 65 months. Considering the aims of this study, the raw videos were investigated from four perspectives (i.e., titles, video background narration text, comments, and keyframes), along with their corresponding methods.

Figure 1 visually depicts the framework of the data processing methodology, elucidating the intricate steps involved. To discern instances of space tourism within the visual data, a total of 188,450 keyframe images were meticulously extracted from a corpus of 4727 concise videos. A trained YOLOv8-based object detection model, which is a state-of-the-art object detection model that was developed by the YOLO team to extract the elements inside a picture (Han et al., 2024), fortified with 140,742 painstakingly annotated images as training datasets, was subsequently employed to perform object detection on the keyframes. For textual data, the LDA model, a basic and popular method that is especially useful for extracting the core topics of text (Li et al., 2023; Rabadán-Martín et al., 2025), was utilized for comprehensive text analysis. Initially, the titles underwent a meticulous preprocessing phase, wherein duplicate and extraneous data were removed, resulting in a refined collection of title data. Moving forward, a total of 3814 video comments were procured by excluding videos devoid of commentary. Moreover, video comments often harbored extraneous information, such as references solely pertaining to the “@user name”. Finally, regarding the video background information, the auditory information was extracted from the unprocessed videos and transformed into textual data via the Python package moviepy (https://zulko.github.io/moviepy/). Ultimately, all three categories of textual data were seamlessly integrated into the LDA model, facilitating the extraction of profound insights regarding the trajectory of development trends, prevalent topics, and public sentiments surrounding the realm of space tourism.

Fig. 1: Framework of data processing.
figure 1

Four perspectives of short videos are analyzed through different methods, including the deep visual model and LDA model, to ascertain the corresponding outcomes.

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Methods

Object detection

Object detection is a crucial computer vision task that involves identifying visual objects of a certain class in digital images (Zou et al., 2023), classifying instances of objects from various predefined categories in natural images (Liu et al., 2020), and allowing us to comprehend the image based on the objects it contains (Brahimi et al., 2019). In recent years, You Only Look Once (YOLO), a popular object detection framework, has achieved real-time performance with high accuracy (Yang et al., 2023). The YOLOv8 model has the advantages of fast speed, high accuracy, and strong generalization ability (Redmon et al., 2016), while it is dependent on the quality of the training dataset. Therefore, we conduct manually labeled pictures related to space tourism, finally obtaining 140,472 images as our training dataset to achieve good performance. In particular, YOLOv8, the latest version of the acclaimed real-time object detection model, is built on cutting-edge advancements in deep learning and computer vision (https://docs.ultralytics.com/).

In Fig. 2, we conduct a visual demonstration of the object detection process for identifying space-related objects. The process consists of three steps: Step 1: Keyframe extraction. In this step, the interframe similarity of 4727 videos is calculated individually. The keyframes that represent the most compact summary of each video are extracted. This results in a total of 188,450 short video keyframe images. Step 2: Training the YOLOv8-based model. A YOLOv8-based model is trained using manually labeled categories. The training dataset comprises a total of 140,472 images, which include keyframes from the previous step. The model is trained to recognize space-related objects in keyframes. Step 3: Exporting keyframes with object labels and object counting. After the model is trained, the keyframes with labels of identified objects are exported, followed by counting the identified objects in all the keyframes based on their labels. By analyzing the object counts, the most common objects related to space tourism in the short videos are determined. This process allows for the identification and analysis of space-related objects in the collected videos, providing insights into the objects commonly associated with space tourism.

Fig. 2: Visual demonstration of object detection.
figure 2

188,450 keyframe images are extracted from 4727 short videos, and then a self-trained YOLOv8-based object detection model based on 140,742 labeled training datasets is used to conduct object detection on keyframes.

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Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA)

LDA is a typical bag-of-words model developed by Blei et al. (2003), which provides a powerful tool for discovering and exploiting the hidden thematic structure in large text archives. The LDA model is excellent in identifying the full range of topics within the text and determining topics rapidly (Maier et al., 2018); however, it has a limitation regarding parameter randomness. Therefore, we address randomness by using the perplexity score (Blei, 2012).

To determine the number of topics, the perplexity score is computed to evaluate the LDA model. The perplexity scores evaluate how closely the word distribution predicted by the LDA model aligns with the actual word distribution. In other words, the lower the perplexity is, the higher the accuracy of the model (Kirilenko et al., 2021; Li et al., 2023). By calculating the minimum perplexity score via formula (1), we can determine the optimal number of topics for text classification.

$${\rm{perplexity}}\left({\rm{D}}\right)=\exp \left\{-\frac{{\sum }_{{\rm{d}}=1}^{{\rm{M}}}{\rm{logp}}\left({{\rm{\omega }}}_{{\rm{d}}}\right)}{{\sum }_{{\rm{d}}=1}^{{\rm{M}}}{{\rm{N}}}_{{\rm{d}}}}\right\}$$
(1)

Results

Object detection results

In the realm of object detection outcomes, as shown in Table 2, a noticeable predominance emerges in object categories intertwined with space travel and aerospace exploration, aligning with the contemporary societal focus. Next, we counted the recognized object labels from the keyframes and performed a statistical analysis.

Table 2 Frequency statistics of different object labels.
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Table 2 lists the top 20 categories based on their frequency. High-frequency objects exhibit a strong correlation within the field of space exploration. For example, the person (ranked 1st), to be our human being, is definitely the role of all videos. The rocket has a frequency of 7153, placing it in the third position, and is often depicted alongside rocket-launch sites (ranked 11th). A rocket is a conventional means of transportation used to transport specific objects from Earth to outer space. Similarly, other modes of transportation, including aircraft (ranked 5th), airplanes (ranked 9th), and spaceships (ranked 14th), also play a significant role in the space tourism industry. “Astronauts” (ranked 4th) are identified as “envoys of mankind in outer space” in Article V of the Outer Space Treaty. The “space station” (ranked 6th) is the main site of human activities in outer space. With the establishment of the International Space Station (ISS), humans have been able to sustain long-term habitation and conduct various operations in space for a period of 22 years (Koehle et al., 2023). Space suits (ranked 7th) appear in keyframes in promotional videos of exhibitions centered around terrestrial space travel. In these experiential venues, visitors are provided with space suits to participate in weightlessness or zero-gravity experiences within simulated outer space. Alternatively, they engage in activities within meticulously designed surface environments resembling other celestial bodies. Satellites (ranked 12th) are among the most prevalent man-made entities found in the realm of outer space. Watches (ranked 15th) appear with a frequency of 95, predominantly in short video keyframes that depict scenes featuring watches from the film “Interstellar”. Keyframes of galaxies (ranked 8th), space (ranked 10th), asteroids (ranked 13th), comets (ranked 16th), and planets (ranked 2nd), including Earth (ranked 17th), Moon (ranked 18th), Mars (ranked 19th), and Venus (ranked 20th), among other celestial bodies, are frequently extracted from film footage during storytelling, thereby highlighting the vastness and beauty of the universe.

Analyzing keyframe images offers deep insights into the entrenched perceptions of space travel shared by both video creators and viewers. Consequently, this analysis sheds light on contemporary society’s core interests in space travel and aerospace exploration. Additionally, these findings are useful references for short video creators in the space tourism sector, helping them create more compelling content and better target potential audiences.

Topic classification results

Following the initial preprocessing phase, the produced texts, inclusive of titles, narrative passages, and comments, undergo scrutiny via the LDA model for the identification of distinctive topics within each corpus. Figure 3 serves as an illustrative representation, delineating the perplexity scores across the text data. The subsequent discussion delves into the findings derived from these analyses, including the results of the titles, narration texts, and comment topic classification.

Fig. 3: Perplexity score.
figure 3

By calculating the perplexity score of each LDA model, the optimal number of topics is determined. Both titles and comments coalesce into discrete categories encompassing four distinct topics. Concurrently, narrative texts undergo categorization into seven topics, with four showing clear classifications, while three persist in an ambiguous state.

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Titles’ topic classification results

The title of a video is one of the initial elements that viewers observe (Tafesse, 2020), providing valuable information about the central theme of the video and captivating viewers’ attention. Analysis of video titles yields valuable insights into the perspectives and inclinations of video creators. Table 3 systematically illustrates the ten preeminent keywords associated with each topic elucidated in the LDA results.

Table 3 Top keywords under each topic in titles of LDA results.
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Topic 1, encompassing 43.4% of the headline data, is centered on the terrestrial experience, predominantly catering to an immersive experience designed for children and parents. The top five most frequently occurring words include the terms “universe”, “space”, “travel”, “exploration”, and “spaceflight”. The incorporation of these terms strategically serves as marketing promotion for offline space-themed exhibitions and family-friendly tourist destinations, aiming to attract customers who are interested in space travel, particularly parent‒child tourists and space lovers. The sixth to tenth most frequent words in the text are “child-parent”, “good-place to go”, “children”, “play”, and “experience”. Headings within this theme are usually promotional, exemplified by phrases such as “This is an ideal destination for parent‒child tourism” or “You must bring your child to visit it”.

Topic 2, commanding 25.7% of the headline data within this thematic category, focuses on noteworthy achievements spearheaded by China in the aerospace sector. Government policies and support are fueling the swift progression of space tourism technology. The 10 most frequently encountered words in this topic, such as “Shenzhou” (ranked 1st), “space station” (ranked 2nd), and “aerospace” (ranked 8th), collectively underscore China’s significant strides within the aerospace industry. The Shenzhou spacecraft, which has been operational since 1999 and has successfully completed 19 missions, is an emblem of China’s ability to explore space. Additionally, the concept of a space station serving as a habitat for astronauts within the expansive confines of outer space highlights China’s dedication to pushing the boundaries of human habitation beyond Earth. For instance, the International Space Station (ISS) serves as an example of humanity’s initial forays into integrating the space environment into its sphere of influence (Masson-Zwaan and Freeland, 2010).

Topic 3, constituting 18.0% of the titles, is distinctly characterized as a domain encompassing commercial enterprises. Notably, “space” takes precedence as the most prominent term within this category. Subsequently, “Virgin”, “Galactic”, and “Branson” secured second to fourth positions in terms of frequency, representing the Virgin Group or Virgin Galactic and its founder, Richard Branson. Virgin Galactic, a major power of commercial space travel, under Branson’s leadership, has pioneered more accessible opportunities for space tourism through the utilization of suborbital reusable vehicles (Cater, 2010). Notably, Branson achieved the distinction of being the first entrepreneur to venture into space following a successful test flight. Further down the frequency table, the terms “tourism”, “commercial”, “founder”, and “test flight”, ranking seventh to tenth, allude to aspects that are essential to companies involved in providing commercial spaceflight services. The active involvement of these commercial entities assumes a pivotal role in driving technological innovation forward, consequently contributing to a subsequent reduction in the associated costs of space exploration.

Topic 4, constituting 12.9% of the titles, is distinctly characterized by its thematic focus on space exploration, particularly emphasizing the promotion of ventures into outer space. The five most frequently cited words within this corpus are “plan”, “Mars”, “launch”, “flight”, and “episode”, all intricately linked to the overarching theme of space travel. Notably, “episode” means a series of consecutive subplots related to space exploration elaborated by the creators of a short video. The term “voyager” (ranked 6th) commonly alludes to the renowned Voyager One and Voyager Two spacecraft, which have made seminal contributions to the realm of space exploration (Showalter et al., 2019). Additionally, the “solar system” (ranked 9th) is apt to illustrate the expansive scope inherent in commonplace space exploration discussions.

Narration texts’ topic classification results

Narrative texts serve as conduits for creators’ primary concepts and reflections, and the analysis of such texts significantly aids in the identification of key elements that capture viewers’ attention. Figure 4 presents a comprehensive frequency distribution of the LDA outcomes, specifically tailored to narrative texts, which can be used to investigate hot topics from the perspective of creators.

Fig. 4: Frequency distribution of the LDA outcomes of narration texts.
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Narration texts are divided into seven categories, four of which are clearly defined, whereas the remaining three categories are not.

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Topic 1 mainly introduces space-related infrastructure, with 45.6% of the narration text dedicated to this thematic domain, encompassing several foundational concepts relevant to space infrastructure. The top 10 frequently occurring words can be broadly categorized into two segments: specialized terms intrinsic to the aerospace field, namely, “spacecraft” (ranked 2nd), “space station” (ranked 3rd), “rocket” (ranked 4th) and “astronaut” (ranked 7th), and commonly used words related to space, such as “space” (ranked 1st), “flight” (ranked 8th) and “orbit” (ranked 9th). The integration of specialized terms with everyday vocabulary serves as a cohesive means for video creators to clarify fundamental concepts and illustrate scenarios related to space travel, encompassing aspects such as orbit and flight patterns.

Topic 2, constituting 16.4% of the total narrations, emerges as a compilation of depictions associated with the scene of the universe. The focal keywords predominantly characterize the celestial landscape, with “Mars” securing the topmost position, followed by “blue” (mostly associated with the expression—the blue planet—Earth). Sequentially ranked from sixth to tenth, we encounter “planet”, “solar system”, “sun”, “star”, and “celestial body”. These entities, ubiquitous in the cosmic expanse, find frequent portrayal within narratives, serving to showcase the expansive grandeur of outer space while seamlessly integrating scientific knowledge pertaining to the solar system and specific planets.

Topic 3, constituting 10.7% of narration texts, centers on offline exhibitions, which are currently the most accessible forms of space tourism in China, and introduces the concept of terrestrial experiences. At the core of these locales is the theme of space exploration; therefore, it is unsurprising that the term “space” has the highest frequency. Each of the top 10 keywords listed below holds a unique significance. The inclusion of “children” (ranked 3rd) is justified because these offline themed exhibitions emerge as ideal destinations for parent‒child tours. The term “experience” (ranked 5th) is aptly chosen since space-themed exhibition halls typically feature an array of interactive and immersive projects, providing exceptional opportunities for visitors to partake in distinctive experiential encounters. Additionally, other high-frequency keywords, such as “feelings”, “theme,” and “exploration”, succinctly encapsulate the essence of these exhibition locations as spaces centered around the thematic focus of exploration, offering a glimpse into the emotions and themes inherent in the experience.

Topic 4, encompassing 10.1% of narration texts, is dedicated to the private sector, shedding light on companies currently pioneering private space travel services in the market. The escalating involvement of the private sector in the realm of space tourism constitutes an undeniable trend. Within this high-frequency word list, “Blue” (ranked 1st), is recurrently associated with Blue Origin, a company actively engaged in commercial space endeavors. Moreover, the top ten keywords by frequency encompass “flight” (ranked 5th), “company” (ranked 3rd), and “success” (ranked 10th), which introduce the main progress of commercialization of this industry by private companies, predominantly emanating from short videos that chronicle the ongoing progress in the space tourism industry. Other noteworthy keywords, such as “Musk” (ranked 5th) and “Bezos” (ranked 8th), reference Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the founders of famous companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively. Coupled with SpaceX’s successful space tourism launches in 2021 and 2023, they have sparked widespread interest among the public in space travel (Khasawneh et al., 2024). These visionary leaders and companies have demonstrated the viability of commercial space flights (Ryan et al., 2022).

Comments’ topic classification results

Active and meaningful participation in online discussions is imperative for businesses. In discussions pertaining to space tourism, concise, real-time, and interactive comments are prevalent (Toivonen, 2022). The analysis of these comments yields valuable insights into public sentiment and focal points regarding this topic. Table 4 illustrates the top ten keywords associated with each topic derived from the comments’ LDA results.

Table 4 Top keywords under each topic in video reviews of LDA results.
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Topic 1 is defined as the main thoughts in public. A total of 27.6% of them are categorized under this topic, which primarily describes the public’s main thoughts towards businesses and entrepreneurs in the market. “Musk”, ranked 3rd, has great popularity in China, with online users actively sharing news, opinions, insights, and comments. The phrase “come back” (ranked 4th) often appears in comments to express concerns about safety risks. Some individuals decline to participate in space tourism due to concerns about potential health risks to the human body, including reproductive hazards (Mishra and Luderer, 2019) and genetic changes (Witze, 2017). Left, the series of keywords such as “space” (ranked 1st), “mankind” (ranked 5th), “universe” (ranked 7th), “travel” (ranked 9th) and “space station” (ranked 10th) are ordinary words used by commentators to discuss the experience of space travel, which is an emerging market in the tourism industry, expressing their interests and curiosity.

The finding that Topic 2—the feelings of Chinese people—comprised 26.7% of the overall comment data underscores the deep engagement of Chinese netizens in discussions pertaining to China’s aerospace activities and advancements. In this trending field, Chinese individuals demonstrate extraordinary enthusiasm for space tourism (Le Goff and Moreau, 2013). Prominent keywords found in the background narrations, such as “motherland” (ranked 1st), “heroes” (ranked 2nd), and “thumbs up” (ranked 5th), predominantly serve as expressions of excitement and pride among the public. Notably, comments such as “Praise the powerful motherland!” and “Salute to the great astronauts!” eloquently illustrate the profound sense of pride and support exhibited by Chinese citizens for China’s noteworthy achievements in the aerospace domain.

Topic 3, which encompasses focuses and interests in the public sphere, receives notable attention, with 23.3% of the comments falling under this thematic category. This underscores the pronounced significance of the public’s interest and active engagement in the space tourism market. Keywords such as “wealthy” (ranked 4th) and “cheap” (ranked 10th) indicate the public’s awareness of the high costs associated with space tourism and their desire for more affordable options. This, in turn, exerts pressure on companies to endeavor to provide cost-effective alternatives for tourists. Furthermore, the use of the term “going up to sky” (ranked 9th) aligns with the public’s envisioned narrative of space travel, reflecting their collective vision and aspirations in this dynamic and evolving industry.

Topic 4 aligns with science-fiction works, a genre that undeniably shapes human aspirations and perceptions of life beyond our planet. Scientific concepts and science-fiction novels have become one of the hot topics discussed by everyone. From cinematic masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey to the iconic Star Trek series, these works have elevated the role of space explorers in the public imagination (Cater, 2010). Science-fiction narratives vividly portray the possibilities and challenges of space travel, serving as inspiration for the imagination of readers and offering helpful insights for scientists and engineers. Comments such as “Looking back at those science-fiction novels now, it feels like a documentary” poignantly illustrate the profound impact of rapid developments in space exploration, a testament to the remarkable achievements of humanity. These science-fiction works propel continuous development and innovation in space travel technology (Weeks and Faiyetole, 2014).

Discussion

To address our three key research questions comprehensively, we derived insights from the textual and visual results. These findings provide a comprehensive understanding of the development trends, hot topics, and public attitudes about the space tourism sector. First, the analyses reveal two predominant trends: the increasing popularity of terrestrial space travel in China and the growing dominance of commercial space travel around the world. Second, hot topics include scientific concepts with science fiction, and strong support among the Chinese public for China’s space exploration initiatives. Third, in terms of public attitudes toward space tourism, the responses embraced both enthusiasm and thoughtful consideration. Negative perceptions are associated primarily with concerns about risk, cost, and potential harm, while positive outlooks are characterized by terms like “excitement, motivation, and support”.

Development trends

The first trend indicates that terrestrial space travel enjoys great popularity in China, targeting potential tourists. Terrestrial experiences such as visits to planetariums, observatories, and space-themed attractions or museums are highly populated in China. According to Pizam (2008), space-themed tourist attractions have existed for more than three decades. These attractions are designed as “staged-authentic” space-tourism products, offering an immersive experience that satisfies the curiosity and interest of individuals. With uncertain prospects about when outer space will be opened to the masses, developments in the space sector, including terrestrial-based experience programs, continue to attract extensive public interest (Frost and Frost, 2021). Therefore, terrestrial experiences related to space, which provide a highly popular alternative, are gaining prominence. These places allow individuals to engage with space-related activities and attractions on Earth, offering a taste of the space tourism experience before it becomes widely available to the masses.

The second trend is the gradual dominance of commercial enterprises in this field worldwide. The growing involvement of the private sector in a previously government-dominated industry has been an inevitable trend (Paladini et al., 2021). In the era of the new space economy, space tourism has emerged as a novel frontier within the tourism industry, garnering the interest of diverse stakeholders (Khasawneh et al., 2024), with private corporations such as like SpaceX, now taking on more diverse roles associated with space travel (Weeks and Faiyetole, 2014). This shift has led to the emergence of a growing market for space tourism, with the potential for it to become more affordable and accessible to a larger public. Within this evolving landscape, numerous operators are competing for prominence. Among these, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin in particular have achieved great prominence (Friel, 2020). These companies, owned by globally influential and wealthy visionaries, are actively exploring methods to make space tourism more possible (Gupta et al., 2023), promoting scientific research in space tourism and have achieved the pioneering status of being the world’s fully operational commercial space tourism companies (Reddy et al., 2012). Therefore, advancements in technology, human adaptability, and funding have increased space exploration and, in turn, commercial spaceflight.

Hot topics

The first hot topic among the public is scientific concepts and science fiction. The mysteries surrounding space, solar systems, and the universe are particularly popular and widely discussed on social media. These discussions encircled scientific works and concepts that captured the public’s attention. Space has always been intricately connected to the field of science, and its exploration offers intellectual stimulation that satisfies people’s curiosity (Weeks and Faiyetole, 2014). This curiosity is fueled by the desire to learn, explore, discover, create, and imagine. The public’s appreciation and praise for content related to these topics further underline the importance of leveraging the topic of space tourism to engage more consumers, particularly students, to learn about space-related knowledge and cultivate a broader base of space enthusiasts. This recognition serves as an inspiration for content creators and marketers to develop compelling and captivating material that caters to the interests and preferences of the audience. By understanding the public’s interest, content creators and marketers can leverage this knowledge to create engaging content that resonates with the target audience. This can lead to increased engagement, broader reach, and positive reception from the public.

The second hot topic is the high support of Chinese people for China’s space exploration efforts. Among nations and regions worldwide, Chinese individuals exhibit remarkable enthusiasm for space tourism (Le Goff and Moreau, 2013). The frequent occurrence of keywords closely associated with China’s aerospace activities highlights the substantial interest of the Chinese public in the country’s accomplishments within space exploration. The populace regards these achievements as a manifestation of their nation’s global reputation and clout and as a source of national pride. For example, things about space stations are popularly discussed in China. The first human space station, ISS, represents an example of humankind’s efforts to make the space environment part of its domain (Masson-Zwaan and Freeland, 2010). Notably, China has successfully constructed its own space station, further fueling the interest and discussions surrounding this topic. This strong public support can serve as motivation for continued investment in the space sector, both by the government and private enterprises. It also presents opportunities for educational initiatives, public engagement, and the development of space-related industries in China.

Public attitudes

The negative aspect can be succinctly summarized as a combination of “high risk, high cost, and potential damage”. High financial costs and perceived risk are recognized as the main uncertainties and constraints for potential consumers to face (Kim et al., 2023). In general, options for space tourism are often associated with high costs. For example, reaching the space station usually costs millions of dollars. With significant financial investment, the current offerings for space tourism constrain a larger population of individuals who aspire to partake in the ultimate joy ride (Spennemann, 2007), indicating a lower affordability for the public. Meanwhile, the public’s perception of risk entails safety risks, physical risks, and even ethnic problems. The perceived risk of danger to health and the environment may influence the purchase of a space travel product (Strickland, 2012; Sharmina et al., 2021). Thus, space tourism generally seems to attract individuals who are risk-takers and novelty seekers (Olya and Han, 2020). The significant increase in demand for space tourism necessitates an improved understanding of the possible impacts on human health and the environment.

Positive aspects can be identified with words such as “excitement, motivation, and support”. Such positive attitudes can be summarized as “excitement”—excited by the progress of space exploration and technological advances. Excitement is truly the main driver of an increase in the number of people who will enjoy space travel (Le Goff and Moreau, 2013). Additionally, the strong sense of “motivation” is characterized by a longing and yearning for the extraordinary experience of space travel. The motivation for adventure is evident in people such as Charles Lindbergh, Richard Branson, and Dennis Tito (Crouch, 2001). Besides, there is extensive support for the pioneering efforts undertaken by governments and commercial enterprises in this domain. Currently, the development of space tourism is motivated by a cadre of individuals, companies, and governments with strategic visions and developmental objectives (Spector and Higham, 2019). The public holds a supportive attitude toward the development of this sector, and Chinese citizens exhibit a favor disposition toward this upcoming trend.

The identified keywords collectively demonstrate that there is a significant public interest in space tourism as a distinctive and thrilling mode of travel, which is hindered by its affordability, accessibility, and potential environmental impact. Overall, the space community is eager to actively engage and involve the global community in the advancement of outer space (Weeks and Faiyetole, 2014).

Conclusions

Conclusions of the study

This study introduces an analytical framework incorporating multimodal data for effectively capturing development trends, popular topics, and public attitudes in the field of space tourism. Specifically, the analysis applies the LDA model to textual data and uses a self-trained YOLOv8 model for visual information analysis of video keyframes, yielding comprehensive insights.

The key findings of this study, as derived from the research questions, can be distilled into three main points. With respect to development trends, two trends have emerged: the growing popularity of terrestrial space travel in China and the increasing prominence of commercial space tourism in this sector, especially regarding enterprises like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. In terms of trending topics on TikTok, the public interest is focused primarily on scientific concepts, alongside strong support for space exploration among the Chinese population. Finally, the results reveal a duality in public attitudes. Exploring the current attention garnered by the space tourism industry on social media platforms offers valuable insights into public attitudes and expectations, revealing its significant potential impact on the sector. These results contribute to a better overview of the overall preferences and discussion focus of space tourism.

Drawing from the above discussions, we successfully identify space tourism development trends, hot topics, and public attitudes toward space tourism, leading to three meaningful findings.

  1. (1)

    From a global perspective, the commercialization of space tourism was pioneered primarily by private companies in Western countries. In the Chinese market, the actual commercialization of space tourism has not yet been realized.

  2. (2)

    Currently, terrestrial space tourism, being the main product, is accessible to the public, consisting of offline exhibitions and experiential halls, etc., which have been effectively implemented in numerous cities throughout China, targeting parent-child travelers, leisure travelers and space lovers, and have gained widespread popularity.

  3. (3)

    The outlooks encompass both negative perceptions, such as concerns about “high risk, high cost, and potential harm,” and positive sentiments, including feelings of “excitement, motivation, and support”. In general, the public maintains a positive and optimistic stance toward space exploration endeavors.

Research contribution

This research carries broad theoretical and practical implications across dual dimensions. On the one hand, this study demonstrates three key aspects of theoretical innovation. First, it bridges the gap between individual perceptions and industry development, highlighting the role of public attitudes as an “invisible lever” in industry evolution. Furthermore, it introduces a multimodal analysis framework that combines textual and visual data, offering a novel approach to understanding industry dynamics. Finally, it pioneers the use of TikTok as the source for research, capturing user sentiment and providing deeper insights into public engagement, offering a novel perspective for understanding the space tourism industry through the lens of social media platforms. This methodological advancement enriches the understanding of public participation in emerging industries.

On the other hand, for both businesses and policymakers, different strategies arise. First, for business runners, terrestrial space tourism experience is profitable. Not only do they facilitate the exploration and capitalization of a novel market segment, but they also serve as vital incubators for nurturing potential space tourism consumers. Second, for policymakers, governments should work hand in hand with enterprises to accelerate the accessibility of space tourism for the public. Specifically, the government can further facilitate this progress by developing favorable policies, creating an enabling market environment, and providing financial support.

Research limitations and future research

This study holds several limitations. Since only data from the TikTok platform was used, other social media platforms were not considered; therefore, data bias may arise. In addition, considering the research goal to investigate public attitudes, this paper solely utilized the LDA method for textual exploratory analysis, and more research methods are needed for verification and supplementation.

The research lays the groundwork for three key extensions for future research: (1) expanding the multimodal dataset to include audio features and user interaction metrics (e.g., comment networks), thereby comprehensively revealing patterns in consumer microbehavioral decision-making; (2) conducting longitudinal tracking of public attitudes and perspectives to uncover the mechanisms through which they influence industry development, providing actionable insights for governance and strategic planning in the space tourism sector; and (3) performing cross-platform comparisons (e.g., TikTok, Twitter) to highlight cultural and regulatory influences on space tourism narratives, enhancing the generalizability of findings. Together, these directions will deepen the translational value of social media analytics for business runners and policymakers.