4 in 10 travellers visit tourist sites to capture social media content

Social media is problematic but documenting your vacations and showing it to other people has always been part of traveling.

for people like me who dunno about this secret, seems basically like Travelblog.org with few extra features

> article about how traveling nowadays needs to be documented and is about experience as much as your feeds... I... felt old.

this has nothing to do with nowadays really, people were documenting their travelling and sharing it with family/friends since invention of camera, personally I take photos to serve as my memory, not really to share them, I may share them through whatsapp private chats with my parents and maybe 1-2 friends who could find them interesting, in past I've had travel blog/diary as well, but certainly didn't visit any place or take any photo for my readers

> I often saw hordes of Chinese tourists (but there are of course simply a lot of Chinese people) take turns in front of a waterfall (on flip flop or even heels), have some pics taken and go back to the bus.

Japanese were doing this decades ago before Chinese, it's just that Chinese now have money (unlike Japanese who can less and less aford to travel abroad) and there is lot of them, so they just replaced Japanese doing this superfast photo tours (at least in Europe)

> I also visited food-markets and saw food stalls with large lines of people, where as some had hardly any people waiting, I ask: Why this stall? "It's popular on Chinese social media"... One by one they snapped a pic as the cook made their meal, and waited for >30 mins to do so.

again, nothing new, Lonely Planet guidebooks had same effect in past and for me they were pretty good list of places to avoid for accommodation/food

> Wow 5 weeks in Malaysia, you could have done Thailand, Vietnam, etc, etc as well!" Well yeah but I like to take some days to explore and not rush and get to know a nice restaurant and eat there again and rent a scooter or bike and drive around a bit.

5 weeks for mainland Malaysia is really a bit much, KL needs few days to city sightseeing and enjoy food, cameron highlands few days to do hiking, penang again few days to enjoy food, history and hiking, perhentian islands few days to snorkell and enjoy beach and you cover pretty much everything without repeating same stuff, <2 weeks in very very laidback pace for these 4 locations considering Malaysia is compact and there are cheap/fast air tickets/buses, I also don't like to rush, but not everyone has months long vacation or gap year to travel so people wanna see as many places as possible, so I can understand them, I spent travelling around SEA around year, but still can't imagine spending 5 weeks in row in Malaysia or basically any other country besides China (not in SEA, but neighbor), I would get bored

The ‘sweet smile in front of the camera, obsessive competitive behavior when no one is looking’ is a huge thing culturally.

In the early 90s in my region in southern europe we'd joke that the only Chinese tourists you'd see would be referred to as "5min for photo". They always only needed 5mins to get out with camera, snap pics, get back in. This is not a new phenomenon.

I like the memories. I enjoy looking through a photo album many years down the line and reminiscing about a great trip.

People take photos to brag.

People take photos to prove to non-believers that something happened.

People take photos to capture beauty.

People used to take photos and people continue to take photos. I suspect the reason has changed.

You, I believe, are making a different observation, which is that taking a photo or recording a film has long been a component of many tourist trips. Which is of course true.

I'll add that likely more people would have done so had film and film development been a lot cheaper. We certainly did trips in the 1980s where we took no camera, or if we did, only a few pictures or perhaps a single roll.

Going literally to just get photos was also somewhat limited, because who would be crazy enough to go just to get photos for a few friends and acquaintances and never even attempt to enjoy it? A limited number of people.

Social media has really amped it up, including the competitive aspect of it, and the number of people trying to be professional at it.

No, it was not always thus. People would take a camera or a disposable camera, sure, but it wasn’t the focus - it was “oh we should grab a photo for aunt Mabel”. And you’d have 30 shots. For the entire trip.

When I'm in a new place, I want to be present within that place.

I have photos I’m genuinely happy with, years later.

I'll add that New Zealand's government does see influencer photography as morally inferior. You're not free to use the otherwise public national parks for commercial activity, which includes taking photos you're going to post on social media if you're a paid influencer. They have some permit process and you have to pay a fee for the privilege.

If I'm a hundred meters away from a tourist site that I'm not overly interested in but can snatch a quick picture to send to friends? Well sure. I'd admit to that.

I visited the world's largest paving stone in Brussels to grab a picture for a friend who had told me about it.

> For 18% of respondents, an obsession with photos and social media can be considered a red flag when choosing a travel companion.

This is the number that surprised me. I'd thought that would be much higher.

Amazed by the number of kids on this thread going “but it’s always been like this!” - much like they always assume I had social media as a kid. In the 80s.

personally I prefer exact percentages instead of fractions, but apparently people in news/PR disagree with me

> Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.