Travelling is no longer just a personal exploration, it has become a cultural phenomenon of social behaviour and visual sharing, Japan has attracted countless travellers with its unique culture and beautiful natural landscapes. In particular, Japan’s Mount Fuji, sakura and hot springs have become popular destinations for travellers from all over the world.

 With the development of Japan’s tourist industry, social media has gradually become an important platform for travellers to get inspiration and make plans for their journeys. Especially for Instagram, a social platform that focuses on images and short videos, has given travel bloggers a great influence.

In the digital age, Instagram has emerged as a significant force in reshaping the landscape of travel.With over a billion active users, this visually driven social media platform has not only transformed how we share our travel experiences but also how we choose our destinations. (Voyage, 2023)

In the past, travellers mainly relied on traditional postcards, and travel journals for sharing, but today, these forms of sharing have been replaced by images, videos, and real-time updates on Instagram. With the rise of popular places to visit, more and more people are relying on social media recommendations when planning their journeys. At the same time, this transition has had a deep impact on the travel industry, destination culture, and ecosystem.“Social-media posts, for instance, are optimised for the maximum accruement of ‘likes’, and as will be discussed shortly, the pursuit of ‘likes’ and an expansive following often steers a tourist’s itinerary” (Smith, 2018, para. 5).

Before the digital generation, travellers relied on a number of classic ways to prepare for their trips. The most common way was to get destination information and making itineraries was through a travel agent, who provided customised travel plans based on the client’s needs, including arrangements for scenic sports, accommodation, transportation and so on. This model allowed the traveller to enjoy a professional experience. This mode allows travellers to enjoy professional services, but it also limits tourists’options for choice and flexibility. Apart from the help of travel agents, travellers often rely on travel information for pre-trip preparation. Examples include using maps to make their own plans and reading travel books to learn about local culture. While these methods are effective, the amount of information is limited and cannot be updated in real time. Travel books and maps often outdated the real situation and could not reflect changes in the destination in a timely basis, and information about the close of scenic spot, renewal of buildings, or the opening of new restaurants is often difficult to find in traditional travel materials. As a result of such outdated information, tourists’ travel plans are probably affected and even waste unnecessary time and money.

And now,travel bloggers on social media have become an important force in influencing travelers’ travel decisions. Travel bloggers using high-quality photos and videos to introduce  the beauty, food and unique experiences of their destinations to inspire viewers to look forward to them. Examples include the summer fireworks festival in Japan, the aurora borealis in Iceland and the sea in the Maldives. Bloggers often share their own personal experiences of travelling, and by viewing the photos and videos shared by bloggers, travellers are able to learn about a destination’s recent news, unique scenes, local food and get a better understanding of the actual experience of a destination, rather than just the idealistic advertising.On Instagram, tags are the key to content discovery.

With the surge in popular social media content from Japan, pictures depicting Japanese culture have become a common sight online. Tags such as “Japan is living in the future” and #japanesegirl reflect the types of social media platforms used in Japan and their global influence. (Saunders-Wyndham, n.d.)

By searching for specific tags, users are able to find relevant travel destinations, activities, meal and accommodation recommendations, which makes travelling more personalised and precise, and can help users explore places around the world according to their interests. There is also geotagging, where users tag the photos and videos they post via geolocation tags. This type of tagging allows travellers to directly relate their location to a specific city or country. Bloggers and travellers often improve their exposure by associating their content with a destination through specific tags.

 The influence of instagram has spread to all aspects of the travel industry, especially in destination marketing strategies. More and more business travel organisations  are realising the power of Instagram and are partnering with travel bloggers and influential social media personalities to promote destinations through the social platform. Therefore, in 2017 Japan’s National Tourism Organisation used Instagram to post a programme called Visit Japan to attract overseas tourists. In the past, tourism marketing usually relied on traditional advertising methods such as TV, radio, print and online adverts, which had a comparatively low reach and spread. Today, this limitation has been broken by the emergence of Instagram, a social platform that allows  business travel organisations to quickly spread the message of a destination in the form of visual content.Instagram’s uniqueness is the strong ability to represent images and videos, which through high quality photos and short videos can immediately attract the attention of thousands of users ,and in this way, and in this way, promote the destination’s visibility and attraction.This promotion is not only limited to traditional tourist attractions, but also brings unknown destinations into the public eye, such as isolated natural sights or hidden restaurants. Places that may have been known by only a few travellers before can now be discovered by a large number of tourists due to a noticeable photo or video. This trend has driven the commercialisation of destinations, especially the rise of some popular online destinations. Certain places have quickly built a large number of ‘likes’ and followers due to their frequent sharing on social media, and tourists are travelling to them in huge numbers. “The Japan Tourism Agency announced that in 2017 the amount of money foreign visitors spent on shopping and accommodations rose to ¥4.4 trillion, up by 17.8% compared to figures from 2016” (Nippon.com, 2018).This represents social media working well to drive economic development in tourist destinations.

However, the wide spread of Instagram has also had some negative effects, with the speed of social media spreading making certain destinations quickly popular, leading to a huge rise in the number of tourists and the problem of over-tourism. Mount Fuji, one of Japan’s most representative tourist destinations, has for a long time attracted a large number of tourists. However, with the increasing number of tourists, Mount Fuji is facing serious environmental pollution problems. In order to take perfect photos, tourists have ignored the protection of the natural environment, leading to a number of problems such as the overflow of rubbish, the damaging of plants, and ecological imbalance. Okada stated that “to preserve the sacredness” of Mount Fuji and its value as a World Heritage site, “over-tourism must be addressed” (as cited in Jozuka, Campisi, & Annio, 2023).

In the mountains surrounding Mount Fuji, many tourists seek camera angles by crossing scenic fences without permission and even stepping on plants, damaging the fragile ecosystem. This has not only caused unreversible damage to the natural landscape of Mount Fuji, but has also damaged the balance of the local ecosystem. To fight against this issue, local governments and tourism organisations in Japan have started to take a variety of responses, including limiting the number of tourists and improving environmental protection promotion.Therefore, although social media has contributed to the development of the tourism economy, there is a need to find a balance between the needs of tourists and the protection of the ecosystem.

Travel bloggers, as an important contributor to the modern tourism industry that cannot be ignored, have attracted a large number of followers and potential tourists by posting high-quality travel photos and videos that show viewers the unique landscapes and cultures of their destinations. However, more and more content on social platforms is purposely edited and embellished, and the line between what is real and what is not is becoming increasingly blurred. This phenomenon is particularly visible in travel content, where in some cases travel bloggers may use an overdose of filter effects to increase the appeal of their photos, adjusting colours and contrast, or even removing people and beautifying the environment through image editing software to make the sights look perfect.This filter culture, while visually presenting viewers with a fantastic travel destination, leads to an unreliable message. This treatment tends to create an idealised expectation of the travel experience for the viewer, believing that they will be able to see the same beautiful sights on their travels.

 However, the reality of the sights is often not as perfect as what is displayed on social media. In Japan, for example, In a BuzzFeed article, one user commented that “Arashiyama Bamboo Forest in Kyoto is much smaller and more crowded in real life than it’s often portrayed” (Loewentheil, 2024).The peaceful bamboo forest has now become a popular tourist destination, with tourists crowding together to take photos, causing the surroundings of the forest to become messy and lose its original quietness and natural beauty.

 This lack of expectation has not only disappointed tourists, but has also led to a wide-ranging discussion about the reality of social media. Many people started to question whether the destinations presented on social media were real and whether they had been overly beautified and embellished.

While social media has brought a huge boost to the tourism industry, making travel more personalised, it has also exposed many hidden risks of over-commercialisation of the environment and culture. Particularly in some popular destinations, the ecological environment has been damaged by the large numbers of tourists, and original natural landscapes and cultural heritage have been forced to face the pressure of commercial exploitation. In addition, social media tends to place more emphasis on showing and sharing than on in-depth cultural experiences when they advertise destinations, which has caused many travellers to ignore in-depth touch with the culture and environment. To deal with these challenges, the tourism industry and social media platforms need to work together to find a balance: one that promotes sustainable tourism while protecting the ecology and culture of the destination. Social media can play a leading role in guiding tourists towards more eco-friendly and culturally respectful travel choices by promoting the concept of green and sustainable tourism. At the same time, countries and governments need to strengthen destination management to ensure that the flow of tourists does not overload the ecological carrying capacity and to prevent overdevelopment and over-commercialisation. The power of social platforms allows us to explore the world in a more convenient and personalised way. But at the same time, it also reminds us that travelling is not just a simple act of consumption, but also a process of cultural exchange and responsibility. While enjoying the convenience of social media, we should also think carefully about how to respect and protect the cultural and natural environments of the places we visit while travelling, as well as being careful about the authenticity of the information we receive.

Reference list

Voyage, M. (2023, November 29). How is Instagram changing the way we travel? Medium. https://matthieuvoyage.medium.com/how-is-instagram-changing-the-way-we-travel-a406a1841cd3

Smith, S. P. (2018). Instagram abroad: Performance, consumption and colonial narrative in tourism. Postcolonial studies, 21(2), 172-191. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13688790.2018.1461173

Saunders-Wyndham, J. (n.d.). Is social media influencing overtourism in Japan? Romancing Japan. https://romancing-japan.com/is-social-media-influencing-overtourism-in-japan/

Nippon.com. (2018, April 10). 2017 visitor spending breaks the ¥4 trillion barrier. https://www.nippon.com/en/features/h00171/

Jozuka, E., Campisi, D., & Annio, F. (2023, September 10). Mount Fuji in trouble: How Japan’s highest peak fell victim to overtourism. CNN https://edition.cnn.com/travel/mount-fuji-overtourism-intl-hnk/index.html

Loewentheil, H. (2024, August 1). “It’s the only place I’ve vowed never to return to”: People who love to travel are sharing the popular places that were extremely different from what they expected. BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahloewentheil/social-media-portrayals-travel-destinations