Traveling, discovering new destinations, and breaking the routine to embrace days of relaxation, fun, or adventure—whatever your idea of a vacation may be, in the era of social media, the common denominator is sharing.

Instagram and TikTok are the go-to platforms for travel tips, with tourism boards increasingly active in promoting their destinations and travel creators serving as goldmines of advice for their followers.

With this in mind we at Theoria commissioned Inflead to conduct a study on social trends and opinion leaders in the travel sector. The research analyzed trends, hashtags, emerging topics, and key personalities that have driven discussions about travel and destinations on social platforms between summer 2022 and the current season.

Summer Means Beaches—but Only on Instagram

An analysis of keyword usage and the total number of posts in each category reveals that among destination types favored on Meta’s platform, beaches take the lead (26.8%), followed by mountains (10.9%) and outdoor camping (7.2%). On TikTok, however, budget travel dominates (31.1%), while beaches and mountains are nearly tied, at 5.3% and 5.8%, respectively.

The Most Beloved Italian Destinations

In the rankings of Italy’s most popular locations on Instagram during summer 2022, Sardinia secured the top spot (featured in 10.2% of analyzed posts on Italian destinations), followed by the art cities of Rome (7%) and Venice (5.8%). Campania shines with Positano (5%), the iconic Amalfi Coast town, and Capri (4.8%), the magical island of the Faraglioni and Blue Grotto. Other popular destinations include the Dolomites (3.7%), Puglia (2.8%), and Milan (2.6%). Palermo (1.8%) and Florence (1.7%) rank ninth and tenth, respectively.

Trending Hashtags on Instagram and TikTok

On Instagram, the most-used hashtag by Italian influencers in summer 2022 was #italy (41.6%), followed by #travel (29.5%), #italia (28.6%), #sardegna (11.4%), #nature (8.4%), #sea (6.6%), #dolomiti (3.8%), #mountains (2.5%), and #trekking (1.9%). On TikTok, the hashtag #viaggiare appeared in 20.3% of posts by Italian influencers, followed by its English equivalent, #travel (19.3%), then #tiktokviaggi (16.5%), #tiktoktravel (15.6%), #consiglidiviaggio (15.1%), #fyp (14.2%), #lowcost (7.1%), #mare (4.8%), and #dolomiti (4.7%).

The Most Influential Travel Creators on Instagram and TikTok

Among the 50 Italian influencers who published the most travel-related content on Instagram in summer 2022, those with the highest engagement were: @thetravelization (average engagement: 37,638), @rotoloandoperilmondo (18,121), @enricotravels_insardinia (10,905) @gaiaconsalvo (10,768), @kavalaomer (10,734). On TikTok, the rankings were led by: @giovanniarena_ (average engagement: 57,929), @gaiaconsalvo (45,078), @iam.polets (30,093), @sivola.it (26,266) @vanvangulo (25,068).

Discussions about vacations on the influencer profiles considered for the ranking (with over 100K followers) garnered an average of 3,722 likes and 62,363 views on Instagram, compared to 34,583 likes and 331,646 views on TikTok. The average number of followers among these influencers was 190,179 for Instagram and 548,457 for TikTok. The Influencing Value stood at 20,207 on Meta’s platform and 576,368 on TikTok, with an efficiency rate of 26% on IG and 139% on TT. A key finding from 2022, projected to continue into 2023, is that travel-related content generates significantly more engagement on TikTok compared to Instagram.