Instagram has had a significant impact on the travel & hospitality industry over the last few years. This is because of the visual content it creates and shares daily. If you follow the travel industry, you will notice that hotels, restaurants & attractions are investing in social media marketing to attract millennial travelers. The impact of social media is a game changer for the hospitality sector. It has changed the way travelers search for information about new hotels & locations to visit. 

From general photography to specific locations, new hotels & restaurants have been discovered from this photo-sharing platform. Here, we will explore how Instagram has impacted the travel & hospitality industry by looking at influencers, tagging locations & visual storytellers. What influenced the hospitality industry- from destination marketing to online booking and how you can leverage its power for your business or personal brand.

Substitute for handy books/guidebooks: The visual content of Instagram has been the best feature that attracts customers in making decisions. In a survey conducted on Instagram, the platform is the go-to social media network for people to choose their next holiday destination. Today’s travelers like pictures with live scenes and natural colors, making it more reliable than book pamphlets for traveling. Posts shared by travelers, & influencers on Instagram are candid & realistic. Hence, it's more appealing to engage customers as content is natural & real.

Users making Quirky & catchy captions on Instagram make other travelers preferable to the service, business, or destination, which adversely gives hits to CTA.

Instagram with a massive opportunity for travel marketers & online agencies, one can book tickets to their escape destination at their leisure immediately. Apart from their websites, these agencies use Instagram to sell holiday packages, and book tickets, flights & hotels.

Cost-efficient traveling with Instagram: Many travelers & tour guides use Instagram to post about the destination, giving travelers a clear picture of what they can expect before departure. This includes accommodations, local markets, cycling/ rental vehicles, street foods, etc. This can help the travelers overpay & fall into tourist traps.

Instagram features are reasons that have made traveling easier and more interesting:

Hashtags/ Locations: Just by using hashtags & geotags one can stumble upon a new destination they have never heard of. This has helped smaller cities/ destinations with fewer crowds to expand their audience & gain more tourists than before, giving an opportunity for small tourism businesses and hospitality to market themselves.

Display different Destinations: Travel businesses should put their most popular/ beautiful tourist destinations as short-time escape places. This can help you grab a wide range of audiences for different destinations. For example, Showing off your destination by sharing experiences from the most beautiful places in the world to real & inspiring stories from their guests Airbnb improves inspiration has always been the goal for many destination marketers.

Make Partnerships/ Collaborations: Instagram collaborations are one of the best ways to capture a large and right audience. This feature lets you collaborate with influencers and travelers on posts, feeds & stores to promote your business as they can share the content with their followers.

Instagram Stories: Uploading visual storytelling videos & reels on Instagram stories of beautiful destinations bring in more visitors to the profile and increases followers than the Instagram post feed. Users tend to tap on stories to check interest & entertaining reels. Hence short videos or reels with relevant information will increase Instagram video views & generate visits to websites.

Instagram can be a powerful tool for promoting travel and hospitality businesses. By using a multi-channel strategy that includes Instagram and Facebook, companies can target their audience and keep them engaged and excited about their locations. You can check out these unique services for Instagram engagement & growth