Instagram: Inspiration, social identification and motivation in the destination choice

Abstract

Instagram is a social media network that uses mainly images that offer information on places and tourism. It allows people to explore destinations through content published by family, friends and acquaintances, tourism companies, or by public figures such as travel bloggers or influencers. The objective of this study is to analyse posts on Instagram of a group of influencers and their possible relationship with inspiration, social identification and motivation in the destination choice of their followers. A qualitative analysis of several Instagram posts uploaded by travel influencers was carried out identifying manifest and latent content of the same relating to the research objective. The findings show that the followers express their social identification with the influencers in comments of support and likes, for the activities the influencers carry out and they express their motivation to travel to the same places.