Experiencing a City Through Instagram: What Do Tourists Engage with?

Currently, tourists are more active on social networks and get information about cities on these platforms, which highlights the importance of municipalities communicating online. In this way, based on the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, this study intends to verify which type of city marketing content generates greater engagement on Instagram. A comparative study was conducted, where the engagement rates of municipalities were calculated based on their respective creative areas within the network. The aim was to analyse whether the images associated with the network exhibit superior rates compared with standard images. The results show that cities use this platform to communicate with their audience, demonstrating that images associated with creative areas generate better engagement results than those that reflect cities’ day-to-day life. The study contributes to the scarcity of studies related to tourism and Instagram. Additionally, it shows that it is necessary to be aware of what cities need to disclose on social networks to ensure higher and more effective engagement rates. This pioneering study analyses user engagement rates with municipalities on Instagram, being one of the few studies addressing this issue. In addition, the research contributes to the literature on tourism marketing by analysing UNESCO creative cities’ activity on the platform.