Influencing sustainable travel using Instagram

Sustainable tourism is defined as a development of tourism that does not exploit natural and constructed environment and instead preserves the culture, inheritance, and artistic values of the local community (Dávid, 2011). Global mass tourism, a form of tourism that involves tens of thousands of travellers going to the same destination during the same time of year, has contributed to an increase in waste, carbon, water scarcity, cost of living, overcrowding, and misconstrued cultural identities (Juvan, Ring, Leisch, & Dolnicar, 2016; Eraqi, 2014; Smith, 2018). The use of social media has changed the way people discover, research, discuss, and book travel destinations. As a tool that hosts travel discussions and affords travel experiences to be documented, viewed, and narrated, the content posted to Instagram plays an instrumental role in shaping pre-travel narrative. Using studies on sustainable tourism, social media, and persuasive design, this Major Research Project analyzes how Instagram can promote sustainable tourism by integrating new features to its platform.