the allure of instagram

‘A magazine edited by the people of the world, figuratively and literally reshaping travel’

ON A MOODY August morning in British Columbia, two humpback whales swam beside the floating Great Bear Lodge, exciting guests who watched them feeding and lunging out of the water for fish. Posted to Instagram, the video of the exuberant wildlife encounter went viral and the lodge’s following grew from 600 to nearly 50 000. Booking inquiries jumped 1 350% that week.

Such is the power of Instagram, the popular photo-driven social media platform, now with over 1 billion users. Harnessing it has become a quest in the travel industry, where pretty pictures are staple sales tools. It may be impossible to assemble whales on demand, but travel businesses are otherwise reconfiguring their look and the experiences they offer with visual posts in mind.

“Instagram is figuratively and literally reshaping travel,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and the president of Atmosphere Research Group. “Now you see airports, airlines, cruise ships, hotels and points of interest designing or redesigning their interiors to be Instagram-friendly.”

Among travellers who shop online, it found 71% of those 55 and older use Facebook while 71% of those 18-34 use Instagram.

On the timeline from picking a destination to booking it, “Instagram is still strongest at the top of that funnel, thinking about where you might want to go,” said Maggie Rauch, a research analyst at Phocuswright.

Believe it, maybe

In the world of Instagram travel, the skies are always sunny, the seas calm and the vistas epic, leading sceptics to charge the platform with publishing fiction.

“Instagram is a modern magazine edited by the people of the world,” Ian Schrager, the hotelier, said.

Countering perfection, some handles rely on user-generated rather than commissioned photos or those from influencers who are getting free travel in return. On its Instagram site, Switzerland Tourism only uses images posted by travellers.

“People should not have the feeling it is something they would never see in real life,” said Paolo Lunardi, spokesman for Swiss tourism.

Better design

Where travellers go may seem brighter and better designed today. Murals and other graphic art often act as shutter bait. With Instagram in mind, the remodelled 1926-vintage Hotel Figueroa in Los Angeles features a tropical mural, covering the 13-storey back wall. In Miami, the high-end shopping mall Brickell City Centre installs living walls and neon signs in front of empty storefronts to encourage posts.

Places long beloved for their design are finding new audiences through Instagram. In Marrakesh, the stylish riad El Fenn, whose light-filtered rooms frequently appear in guests’ posts as well as in its own feed in magazine-ready shots, says its guests have changed in the past five years from majority British to more global, and younger by 10-15 years.

“My only worry is that new visitors to El Fenn will already have discovered too much on social media,” wrote Willem Smit, the managing director, in an email.

Digital attention is driving real-life traffic. The Arlo NoMad in New York said it regularly sells out its most expensive room category, window-walled Sky View rooms.

Travellers headed to Louisville next May for the Kentucky Derby may have to book earlier than before at the Brown Hotel, which sold out in December last year.

Overtourism and whimsy

Social media has also driven overtourism. So much traffic to a crooked willow tree in New Zealand known by its hashtag #ThatWanakaTree has threatened its health, causing tourism officials to post a placard warning against climbing it.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

– MARCEL PROUST