What is Insta tourism and how is it impacting travel?

Last updated: 8 October 2026

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with more than 3 billion monthly active users. But what is Insta tourism, and how is social media changing the way people travel?

This article explains what is meant by the term Insta tourism, how Instagram and other social media platforms have become an important part of the tourism industry, and what the positive and negative impacts of this are.

What is Insta tourism?

Insta tourism, also referred to as Instagram tourism, is a form of tourism that has emerged in response to the use of the social media platform Instagram. Today, the same trend can be seen across other visual platforms such as TikTok, and it is sometimes referred to more broadly as social media tourism.

Instagram reached 3 billion monthly active users in 2025, according to Meta. Users share images and videos from all over the world with their followers. While some Instagram users share content mainly with friends and family, others are paid influencers with thousands or even millions of followers.

Users are often inspired by photographs that they are exposed to through the social network, which has seen a rise in tourism to places that have been featured in said images, particularly those that are shared by large-scale Influencers.

Video: The growth and power of Insta tourism

Insta tourism definitions

Insta tourism is a relatively new concept. When the term first emerged in the late 2010s, there was very little academic research on the subject, and most discussion came from travel bloggers and the media. Since then, a growing body of research has examined how Instagram and other social media platforms influence destination choice, tourist behaviour and overtourism.

Writing in the area of Insta tourism seems to focus on two main areas:

1. the marketing/promotional value that Insta tourism can bring to a destinations/attraction
2. the negative impacts associated with Insta tourism, with references to the way in which Instagram is ‘ruining travel’ or the ‘Instagram effect’ (discussed further below)

With this in mind, Insta tourism can be defined as follows:

‘Insta tourism involves the use of the social media platform Instagram, which enables organisations and individuals to promote or research travel opportunities. Insta tourism is commonly associated with social media influencers and does not necessarily depict a true picture.’

How Insta tourism is changing travel

Travel and tourism is inextricably linked to our visual senses. Exotic and romanticised images have helped to sell holidays since the days of the Grand Tour and the rise of Thomas Cook, so it is no surprise that Instagram has become a prominent player in the tourism industry.

Instagram now has more than 3 billion monthly users, and social media plays a major role in travel inspiration. In a 2017 survey by the UK-based holiday rental insurance company Schofields, 40% of millennials said that the ‘Instagrammability’ of a destination was the most important factor when choosing where to go on holiday, ranking higher than personal development or sightseeing. Almost all travellers in the millennial age range (those born between 1981 and 1996) record their travels on social media, and Gen Z travellers are even more likely to be inspired by TikTok and Instagram content.

Furthermore, research by Media Post found that 48% of Instagram users rely on the images and videos that they see on the social media platform to inform their travel decision making and 35% of users use the platform to discover new places.

Insta tourism has developed in parallel with the growth of Instagram. Destinations that were once visited only by the most determined travellers, such as small islands or remote viewpoints reachable only by long boat journeys or hikes, are now seen by the world through the Instagram lens.

People now flock to places that they had never heard of before because they have seen beautiful pictures on social media, resulting in significant growth in tourist numbers in some areas.

Social media can even influence how tourists dress and behave. In Oia, on the Greek island of Santorini, crowds gather every evening to capture the perfect sunset photo, and many visitors dress in white to match the images that they have seen online.

Iceland’s tourist board has acknowledged the role of Instagram in the rapid growth in tourist numbers visiting the country, explaining that photos of the natural elements on offer in the country have attracted visitors.

New Zealand’s Lake Wanaka region was one of the first destinations to work with Instagram influencers. In 2015, the local tourism organisation hosted influencers to promote the area, and it reported a 14% increase in visitor numbers. Today, almost every tourist board runs social media campaigns.

Instagram acts as a powerful marketing tool for all areas of the travel and tourism industry. It’s not just destinations that are promoted on Instagram, it’s also hotels, attractions and businesses.

Posting photos isn’t the end of the story either. Instagram’s hashtag, mention and geotagging features allow people to easily search and browse images and find out where they are located.

The role of influencers in Insta tourism

It is clear that Instagram plays a key role in the promotion of destinations. Destination management organisations (DMOs), tourist boards and tourism organisations commonly recruit influencers to promote their products and services.

Many people make a living doing this. Influencers are frequently offered expenses-paid trips and fees in return for promotion on their social media channels. In many countries, including the UK, advertising rules require influencers to clearly label paid content, for example with #ad.

Academic research has examined the role of cognition, emotion and trust in online travel marketing, as well as the work of travel influencers themselves, including their pay, working hours and sources of income.

There has been some debate over how reliable said influencers and their photos may be, however. Photos taken at 6am before the crowds arrive, that have been amended using photo editing software (modern AI features like Generase out there allow you to easily remove people and objects from photos) or that are misleadingly captioned have been the source of controversy in the media.

Positive impacts of Insta tourism

Insta tourism has been beneficial in that it has attracted visitors to parts of the world that they did not previously travel to. Resorts have opened up, new tourism businesses have been set up and tourism-based operations have become more profitable as tourist numbers to certain areas have increased.

As a result, Insta tourism can have a positive economic impact on the local area, creating jobs and collecting taxes, which can be reinvested in the local economy and used in other areas such as education or healthcare.

It can also have positive environmental impacts. Travel pictures will typically show elements of nature (think beautiful beach, lush rainforest, crisp white snow) and in order for tourists to see this nature, it must be protected. As a result, Insta tourism can help promote environmental protection and preservation.

Read also: Sex tourism: What, why and where

Negative impacts of Insta tourism

Unfortunately, the media publicity surrounding the concept of Insta tourism has revolved largely around the negative impacts that are associated with it.

While increases in tourist numbers can do wonders for a local economy, they can have devastating consequences for the natural environment and the host community. Complaints of overtourism come hand in hand with Insta tourism. Areas that were once untouched can suddenly struggle with capacity issues.

Erosion, littering, resentment from the local population, increases in crime, rising property prices: the list goes on. Unfortunately, the tourism industry does have a lot of negative impacts if not managed properly. The problem in many cases is that Insta tourism has grown so quickly, that it has been difficult for the different levels of tourism planning to adjust in a timely fashion. This makes it difficult to achieve the ideals of sustainable tourism.

There have even been deaths linked to Insta tourism. A study published in 2018 in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care recorded 259 selfie-related deaths worldwide between 2011 and 2017, as reported by the Washington Post. While not all of these were tourists, many travellers pose for photographs in dangerous locations, often inspired by similar images that they have seen on social media.

Geotagging has been seen as one of the biggest culprits of the negative impacts of Insta tourism. Geotagging allows people to show exactly where in the world their photograph was taken, enabling the people who view the Instagram post to visit that exact same location.

This means that small, remote and hard to reach areas are being sought out by many tourists seeking the same photographs. They are visiting a location because of its ‘Instagrammability’ and if it were not for the social media platform, they would probably never have visited said location.

Many photographs might make it seem like the person in it is the only tourist around, but what you often won’t see is the queue of tourists behind the photographer, waiting to take that same Instagram-perfect shot….

All of this is the result of people sharing photos.

Some destinations have launched campaigns to manage the negative impacts of Insta tourism, from asking visitors not to geotag fragile locations to introducing visitor caps and booking systems.

The instagram effect

The Instagram effect is the psychological impact that the things we see on Instagram have on our brain. This isn’t necessarily related to travel. We might want to buy a new dress because we saw a photo of someone wearing it on Instagram. We might want to buy our children a new toy because we saw a celebrity’s kid playing with it on their social media channel. We might want to hike to Trolltunga because our favourite influencer did it.

When most people reference the Instagram effect, however, what they are really referring to is the negative impacts of Insta tourism, most notably, overtourism.

How destinations are responding to Insta tourism

As the negative impacts of Insta tourism have become clearer, destinations around the world have started to take action. Examples include:

• Blocking photo spots: in 2024, the town of Fujikawaguchiko in Japan put up a large black screen to block a viral photo spot of Mount Fuji above a convenience store, after crowds of tourists caused traffic, litter and trespassing problems.
• Restricting access: the Austrian village of Hallstatt, famous for its lakeside views, has introduced limits on tour coaches and, in 2023, briefly put up a fence to stop visitors crowding a popular selfie spot.
• Closing sites to recover: Maya Bay in Thailand, made famous by the film The Beach and countless social media posts, was closed between 2018 and 2022 to allow its environment to recover.
• Discouraging geotagging: some tourism organisations, such as in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, have encouraged visitors to use a generic geotag rather than tagging the exact location of fragile natural sites.
• Charging fees and introducing booking systems: cities such as Venice now charge day-trippers an access fee on peak days, and many natural attractions require advance booking.

The top ‘Instagrammable’ destinations

The word ‘Instagrammable’ has become an everyday term, used to describe places that make an attractive backdrop for photos. Some locations have become famous almost entirely because of social media.

Well-known examples include the ‘Gates of Heaven’ at Lempuyang Temple in Bali, Trolltunga in Norway, the blue-domed churches of Santorini in Greece, the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, Machu Picchu in Peru, Maya Bay in Thailand, Hallstatt in Austria and the ‘swing at the end of the world’ at La Casa del Árbol in Ecuador.

It does not take much more than a bit of scrolling on the app to find which destinations are considered ‘Instagram-worthy’, and these are often the places where the impacts of Insta tourism are most visible.

Insta tourism: A conclusion

Insta tourism may not yet be a concept that everyone recognises, but it has become a major force in the tourism industry. From its marketing potential to the risks of overtourism, Insta tourism is one more type of tourism that needs to be carefully managed to ensure sustainable tourism. You can read more about related trends in these articles on e-tourism and smart tourism.

Insta tourism: FAQs

Below are answers to some of the most common questions about insta tourism.

About the author

Dr Hayley Stainton is a tourism academic, examiner and the founder of Tourism Teacher. She has a PhD in tourism and more than 20 years’ experience teaching travel and tourism at school and university level. Read more about Hayley