Beyond User Gaze: How Instagram Creates Tourism Destination Brand?

The Immediate Impact of Instagram Posts on Changing the Viewers’ Perceptions Towards Travel Destinations

“…UGC is considered as a third party on SNSs in a form of "text, images and videos etc." In a DI context, Instagram has been identified as an important social media platform towards building an image about tourist destinations (Fatanti & Suyadnya, 2015). Some researchers further stressed the value of Instagram as an effective communication medium for tour operators and travel agents to promote a destination (Hanna & Puitit, 2014).…”

“…Yet, the attention to Instagram is limited (Miguéns, et al, 2008). The work of Fatanti & Suyadnya, (2015) contends the process of promotion through Instagram to be complex and different from other SNS sites. Marchiori & Cantoni, (2015) found that UGC is more likely to alter DI formation in the case of exposure to users who haven't visited a particular destination or have little to no prior knowledge in contrast to those who have had a real experience with the destination.…”

“…The process of DI formation has shifted since the arrival of the digital era and is no longer controlled solely by Destination Marketing Organizations (DMO) as todays internet users are exposed to a wide range of posts in various forms of videos, images, texts and stories, particularly posts around vacation and holiday experience from Social Network Sites (SNS) users. As a result, companies and scholars alike have observed that SNSs are not simply used as interaction or communication tools but also as an active component in the DI formation process (Fatanti & Suyadnya, 2015). The literature presents strong evidence around the ability of marketing messages on the DI formation, all be it that different information sources influence tourists' perceptions to a different degree, this warrants the need for further investigation into the role of UGC on DI formation (Beerli & Martin, 2004).…”

Liminality in nature-based tourism experiences as mediated through social media

“…To begin with, one does not need to be followed back in order to follow another user and interact, which can be done by liking and commenting posts, as well as by instant-messaging through the 'Direct' feature (which is a tool for getting in personal contact with those posting images on Instagram). Moreover, in addition to sharing their content with their followers, users are able to share their posts to users outside their circle, by turning single words typed in a post into hashtags, tagging pages and other users, as well as sharing the post on other social media (Cuomo, Tortora, Festa, Giordano, & Metallo, 2016;Fatanti & Suyadnya, 2015). By connecting online photography with a more personalized expression of being in a specific place in a specific way, Instagram is capable of conveying personalized definitions of space, time, experiences and the way these connect with the user's identity, interpretation and imagination (Lo & McKercher, 2015;Pink, 2006;Pearce & Moscardo, 2015).…”

“…Most of the existing studies implement covert and/or quantitative data collection. Examples of notable exceptions are Fatanti and Suyadnya (2015), Baksi (2016) and Lo and McKercher (2015), who adopted photo-elicited interviews to deepen the understanding of posters' relationships with their posts.…”