How Instagram influences Visual Destination Image: a case study of Jordan and Costa Rica

The Social Web is increasingly taking up the daily time of consumers and is becoming a primary source of impressions about tourism destinations. The recent shift towards more visual content, as evidenced in the fast growing social network Instagram being largely a photo sharing site, means that DMOs need to consider how photos of their destinations can be influencing consumers’ destination image. We present what may be the first study on how the selection of images from a social media site (Instagram) to promote a destination can be used to influence destination image. As a basis for our study, we have selected the DMO channels of Jordan and Costa Rica in Instagram. Through focus groups and a Likert-scale survey, we draw first conclusions on which types of photos are most effective to positively promote a destination and how the consumers’ previous image of a destination could affect this