Apparently, according to Expedia that is, it’s the Insta-worthiness of a location that truly makes a vacation. Expedia’s Social Travel Report shows that a startling 67 per cent of travellers consider the quality of photos they can share on Instagram the most important factor when choosing a holiday destination.
While that’s nothing new (considering that Instagram and Facebook images have been inspiring envy since their inceptions), the travel survey also finds that men are twice as likely to fake having a good time on vacation as compared to women. According to the sample size of 1,000 Australians aged 18 to 49, more than 40 per cent of men (and only 21 per cent of women) admitted to posting a fake holiday photo to social media sites.
Travellers also place higher value on #inspiration #moodboard locations with 20 per cent of respondents admitting that they’d chosen certain destinations to capture a similar image to one they’ve seen on social media.
With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that travellers are increasingly choosing holiday destinations based on its Insta-credentials. Except, it doesn’t quite stop there. At the holiday destination itself, about two-thirds of travellers spend time working on the perfect holiday image to upload. The report even claims that of the 72 per cent of travellers who spent time while travelling documenting their holiday on social media, they spent an average of an hour a day on social media.
While there’s no word on how much time is spent on re-touching said images, more than one in five Aussies surveyed were surprised to discover that iconic sites look nothing like the way they’re been portrayed online. The top landmarks found to be least like how they imagined includes the Sydney Opera House in Australia, the Taj Mahal in India, Stonehenge in the United Kingdom and Times Square in the USA.
So there you have it. If you are ever hit by a terrible bout of travel envy, blame it on your social media feed. To break the wheel of envy, why not do as Robert Frost says, and take the road not taken. It might just make all the difference.
