You know the “Insta-tourist”: a world traveler jet-setting from place to place, seemingly without a care in the world or a day job, inspiring all sorts of FOMO.
With its delicate tone, gorgeous content is critical on Instagram, and until recently it wasn’t necessarily the place for criticism. Lately, though, environmental concerns have entered the conversation, identifying international crises like wildfires or condemning celebrities who fly on private jets.
Influencer-driven content flourishes on Instagram — #travel has been used on Instagram over 454 million times—but all that travel can have steep environmental costs.
But behold the rise of a new class of sustainable travel influencers who advocate for a different approach. By educating positively and spotlighting eco-friendly initiatives, groups work with the platform, not against it. It’s still a niche industry—as of this writing, #sustainabletravel has only been used 157,000 times—but it’s growing.
As Instagram experiments with hiding post likes to decrease competition and pressure on users (it was recently named the worst social platform for mental health), and influencers see declining engagement, there's hope that space will open up for stronger connections—and better content. Could sustainable travel fill this void, enabling positivity and change instead of just aspiration?
The perils of Instagram travel
Careless, photo-greedy travel can damage natural landmarks and fragile ecosystems and harm vulnerable populations and endangered species. There’s also not much accountability among Insta-tourists: the goal is likes and ad revenue, not responsibility.
Jessica Nabongo, influencer and blogger at Catch Me If You Can, has 185,000 followers. She advocates for responsible storytelling: different perspectives, fewer assumptions, and respect.
In October, she became the first documented black woman to visit all 195 countries. "Many travelers and influencers aren’t responsible storytellers. We’ve historically always seen the world through the eyes of a white man, so for someone like me to be doing this, we’re getting a perspective that’s rarely seen,” she explains.
Nabongo uses her platform to highlight the damaging impact of plastic. She also makes her travel look real, not staged: "I have no interest in making my life look unattainable.”
“It's such an opportunity to teach people about the world. I'm visiting places that some people have never even heard of. So why should I just post a pretty picture with a fake deep quote (though I sometimes love a fake deep quote!) when I can tell someone about culture or history?"
Part of effective education is repeating the same message until it becomes the norm, and part is building positive relationships. “People tell me: thank you for sharing accurate information about the world," Nabongo says. “I think you have the power to influence people to buy a tube of toothpaste, or you can influence them to create the life they want to live."
How to Insta-travel better
It can feel daunting to tackle sustainable initiatives, especially when there’s so much bad news and potential pitfalls. These accounts find success because they gently encourage travelers to do little things more effectively.
As founder and executive director of the global community and nonprofit Impact Travel Alliance (ITA), Kelley Louise focuses on education and advocacy to bring awareness to sustainable tourism. Louise has seen the ITA community grow globally – 25 chapters and 20,000 people – through social media and word of mouth. Typically, Instagram’s where they see the most engagement that translates into action, like attending an event.
Many people don’t know about or understand sustainable travel. “Nobody wants to go on a responsible vacation,” says Louise. “But if you lead with, ’Here's how you have an amazing experience. By the way, here's all the cool components focused on building a better world through travel,’ that becomes more powerful.” Accounts showing different, more realistic sides to travel are becoming more popular.
She says it’s too early to tell the impact of hiding likes, but there’s potential.
“Each individual can make up their mind for what they think is interesting, as opposed to an act that follows the crowd. If you see something that has 2,000 likes or 10,000 followers, that makes you more likely to follow it, because you see other people engaging,” she says.
She adds, “What you're not seeing of this picture-perfect view is the line of people behind you, waiting to get that same shot.”
One ITA focus is "slow travel”: flying direct, taking the train/hiking/walking, and other ways to minimize emissions. But it’s not just about the environment, more about all the ways every traveler can be sustainable and mindful.
The potential of exciting sustainable travel
Sustainable travel agencies and businesses are seeing more interest. And there’s industry innovation like ViaHero, connecting travelers with locals who plan customized trips off the beaten path.
ViaHero has helped over 20,000 travelers. They’re using Instagram to connect clients with “Heroes”—spotlighting the benefits to the local economy.
With that said, it’s still early days for the sustainable travel trend. “[Eco-friendly] companies have to use influencers,” Nabongo says. “It sucks because a lot of eco-lodges are quite small, and bigger influencers want to be paid.”
She’s working with companies within the travel industry to help them develop strategies to reduce use of single-use plastic. “Basically, it has to look sexy to have your reusable water cup and lame to use plastic straws and plastic bags. It's about shifting the idea around those behaviors."
ITA is doing similar work. “Rather than sitting here and boycotting something we love, we can use the backing of our global community to show that to brands and encourage them to do better,” says Louise.
Topics Sustainability
