The #travelgram bubble is bursting – is it time to think about travel content differently?
Travel and Instagram go together like Facebook and surveillance. Although snapping shots while travelling seems to be a significant purpose of the platform, stories continually emerge about the problematic impact of Instagrammers on tourist spots. From stripping off at religious landmarks (Cambodia) to falling of cliffs to get the perfect shot (Norway) or hanging out of trains crossing bridges (Sri Lanka), Instagram seems to be an excuse for lots of bad or dangerous behaviours while abroad.
#travelgram
Of course, offensive or dangerous behaviours are the most egregious examples, but standard #travelgram (the stereotypical hashtag for travel shots on Instagram) behaviour is causing broader problems. In 2015 the town of Wanaka invited dozens of Instagram influencers to the town to promote it. The campaign resulted in a 14% increase in tourist numbers, but photographs soon emerged showing queues for tourist-influencers attempting to re-create the same shot at Roy’s Peak, overlooking the lake near Wanaka, resulting in a line towards the ideal Instagram shot. Many of the photographs of Wanaka that emerged were similar, if not identical, with Roy’s Peak and the ‘Wanaka Tree’ being the most popular. Many tourists will visit Wanaka specifically to recreate these shots.
Other places have reported increases in poor behaviour by tourists, particularly linked to taking exotic or unusual photographs to post on their Instagram accounts. Re-creating shots popularized by other Instagram influencers is a particularly popular hobby. There are several Instagram accounts dedicated to calling out such behaviours, particularly those that damage the environment people seek to photograph.
This is nothing new
Taking photographs of oneself close to beautiful scenery, exotic animals or famous landscapes has been a part of tourist behaviour since the invention of cameras. The big change that Instagram has facilitated is that these photos are now public, rather than stuffed away in a photo album. People can use travel photographs as part of their public persona, a way in which they ‘perform’ their values – travel usually stands for being curious, culturally sensitive and adventurous.
Several Instagram accounts exist to call out the behaviour of other Instagrammers
Instagram & the travel industry
While many, many travel companies have embraced the use of Instagram, there are knock on effects for the industry and the content it uses and produces. Stunning travel photos are becoming the norm for travel companies, who can utilize influencers or their own customers as a source of content. These photos are often fairly homogenous, recreating the same destinations or layout (such as a stunning, exotic background with a half-clothed woman in the foreground). Alternative perspectives of the world are rarely shown, as are people of colour or anyone who does not conform to being a young, sexy white woman. Travel photos are often abstracted from their context, appearing alongside a host of other technicolour photos, rather than with other photographs of the same destination.
Is it turning people off?
While some might argue that travel has never accurately portrayed different places, there is a risk that this type of content – whether produced by companies or influencers – is turning people off. A significant segment of the travel market is starting to look at travel from a different way. Skift published a report about the rise of experiential travel – travel that goes a level deeper than mainstream tourism and focuses on having meaningful experiences, rather than seeing Top 10 sites. The report cites experiential travel as,
“no longer just about trekking to Buddhist monasteries in Bhutan or sipping Malbec in Mendoza. It’s about how we experience those places viscerally, and how they change us when a monk or winemaker provides a new way to understand the world” —Skift
While such people are as susceptible to a beautiful travel shot as anyone else, they are more likely to want something more than mere aesthetics. Adventurous, curious travellers are beginning to feel uneasy with the #travelgram aesthetic and the problems it Photoshops out. Perhaps it’s time to think about travel content differently, to focus on how photographs and written can take people a layer deeper and intrigue them. Connection with places, and a subsequent desire to visit them doesn’t come from a filtered photograph but from stories. In order for stories to be effective they need to be rich, authentic and given context – all things which Instagram and its adjunct #travelgram have trouble with.