Textual and Visual Narratives of Travel Experiences on Instagram in a Social Performance Context

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that sharing travel experiences on social networks is performative. This study investigates the tourist narratives used to communicate travel experiences, which partially reflect their needs and strategies for exchanging relevant information under social performance pressure. An analysis of over 8,000 Instagram datasets revealed that a tourist narrative pattern prevailed on image-based social media platforms, characterized by a role-centric narrative structure and three visual presentation sets. The study identifies key features of the narrative pattern and concludes that tourists seek acceptance within social media communities by providing anticipated content and mediated access to their travel experiences. Furthermore, the study explores the implications of this narrative pattern for tourism marketing, proposing that the prevalent pattern may reinforce destination stereotypes. However, this issue can be mitigated by enhancing tourist engagement through a series of mediated strategies.