Representation of Third-World Tourism Place in Instagram

Abstract

The representation of third-world destination in the various forms of tourism marketing media was highlighted by previous studies. Meanwhile, social media were used commonly by tourism agencies to engage with tourists for the purpose of destination marketing. However, minimal research reported on third-world tourism representation in social media. Guided by orientalism theory, this study analysed photos and their captions posted in the official Instagram account of Indonesia Tourism Ministry to identify how third-world tourism was represented. The findings of the study showed that in terms of the destination, the theme of the landscape was promoted more prominently than two other themes (culture and service). Two sub-dimensions were highlighted in terms of people (the host and tourist) depiction: physical role and clothing. The study pointed out that the host was more represented in their active roles and in cultural/festival custom as well as in uniform; meanwhile, the tourist was more presented in their passive roles and in casual, and swimwear. Two ideas of binary position were uncovered by the study based on those findings: modern/traditional and master/servant. Besides, some related issues were raised through the study findings and recommended to be addressed for future research.