Objectives Explore the differences and root causes between the official projected image and the perceived image of tourists in Sanjiangyuan National Park, and propose a coordination path to bridge the gap between the official projected image and the perceived image of tourists.

Methods TF-IDF algorithm was employed to extract text keywords and summarize the primary image categories. Furthermore, it was utilized to compare the semantic network relationships and to call the Baidu Emotional Tendency Analysis Interface, which was used to analyze the emotional image of tourists through Python.

Results 1) The overlap rate of keywords between the official projected image and the image perceived by tourists was 36%. Additionally, “national park” was ranked 3rd and 15th in the official projection and the image perceived by tourists, respectively; 2) The image of Sanjiangyuan National Park can be classified into six main categories: resource representative, ecosystem integrity, originality, cultural ambiance, public service, and tourism experience; 3) The network densities of the official projection and tourists’ perception were 0.302 and 0.247 respectively. Furthermore, the semantic network relationships of “protection” and “ecology”, as well as “Sanjiangyuan” and “national park” in the official projection, were 0.302 and 0.247 respectively. The official projected semantic network included “ecology”, “Sanjiangyuan” and “national park”, while the semantic network of tourists’ perceptions featured “protection” and “Tibetan antelope” and “wildlife”. The semantic network of tourists’ perceptions demonstrated a robust co-occurrence relationship between the term “protection” and “Tibetan antelope” and “wildlife”; 4) Positive emotions accounted for 93% of the tourists’ comment texts, and negative emotions accounted for 6%.

Conclusions 1) There were significant discrepancies between the projected and perceived images, and tourists demonstrated a low level of awareness of the national park; 2) Both officials and tourists exhibited a lack of attention to the intrinsic ecological and cultural values of Three-River-Source National Park; 3) From the semantic network analysis, officials focused on publicizing ecological protection, while tourists paid attention to the protection of natural scenery and wildlife resources; 4) Positive emotions were pervasive in tourists’ affective images, whereas negative emotions were attributed to various factors, including the remote location, inhospitable environment, plateau reaction, traffic and transportation, and other considerations.