Against Social Sustainability? Gender Role Models and Tourism Influencers’ Success on Instagram

In today’s digital landscape, social media users continually shape their identities by sharing videos, photos, and texts, blurring the line between active contributors and passive observers. The widespread use of social media has given rise to a growing number of influencers who document their daily lives, engage communities, and express opinions on various topics, brands, or products. In this era, individuals can independently create and influence their own communities, impacting follower numbers daily. Particularly among younger generations Y and Z (born between 1980 to the late 1990s and 1997 to approximately 2010, respectively), transparency and authenticity hold significant importance [2], qualities often conveyed by influencers to their communities.

This transformative shift positions the Internet not only as a replacement for traditional media like television and radio [1], but also as a force shaping social relations, cultural values, and communication methods. The study at hand explores the consequences of digitalization and influencer marketing on social sustainability. Here, social sustainability refers to a society’s long-term capacity to challenge harmful cultural and societal expectations that perpetuate discrimination and limit opportunities, with a specific focus on gender stereotypical representations and stereotypes among influencers.

The study deals with the consequences of digitalization and influencer marketing on social sustainability, the latter understood as a long-term capacity of a society to maintain and enhance the equity by challenging harmful cultural and societal expectations that limit opportunities and perpetuate (gender) discrimination. This research investigates the extent to which a gender stereotypical presentation is used in photos presented by tourism influencers. In a more focused approach, the study asks, to what extent do gender-stereotypical (self)presentations increase influencers’ (self)marketing value? Are there gender differences in these representations?

For influencers, creating captivating content that appeals to a broad audience and is easily consumed by many potential followers is crucial. Self-presentation within established gender roles is significant, as deviation from these roles may lead to rejection [5]. Selfies, in particular, serve as a vital interface between the digital and real worlds, fostering a sense of closeness between influencers and their followers [18].

In the tourism industry, gender differences among influencers arise from prevailing stereotypes about vacations. Women are often associated with a focus on recreation and shopping [19, 20], emphasizing emotional warmth through eye contact or smiling in their social media presence. On the other hand, men are seen to prefer adventurous vacations [3] and tend to highlight their status by showcasing expensive clothing or special objects like cars [18].

The study by Döring et al. [18] explored the content of selfies on social media, with a focus on how these images either reinforce or challenge gender stereotypes. The study also aimed to compare gender representations in selfies with those in magazine advertisements. Analyzing 250 selfies, the authors found that women’s selfies statistically featured more kissing mouths, while men’s selfies emphasized muscles. Interestingly, the study revealed that gender stereotypes were more prevalent in selfies on Instagram compared to images in magazines, suggesting that Instagram selfies contribute to the propagation of gender stereotypes in the public sphere.

Butkowski et al. [21] delved into the relationship between Instagram usage and body image concerns among young adult women. The study sought to understand how the time and effort invested in seeking feedback on Instagram selfies might influence these concerns. Content analysis revealed traditional expressions of feminine gender presentation in selfies, including techniques like ‘loss of control’ (appearance of spontaneity or a lack of complete control over the image), ‘body display’ (emphasis a body in a flattering way), and ‘leaning’ (tilt of a body or head at an angle). Despite the prevalence of these stereotypical cues, the study observed a certain subtlety in the expression of gender poses. Notably, there were no statistically significant differences in factors such as race, sexuality, and political ideology.

Regarding the current state of research, existing studies do investigate gender stereotypical portrayal on social networks, however, there are research gaps in relation to tourism and marketing.

The methodological approach is underpinned with quantitative content analysis using MAXQDA. Through content analysis, an effort was made to simplify a complex social phenomenon, which in turn raised questions about the way we perceive social reality [23]. In quantitative content analysis, measurement plays a major role, whereby a translation into numerical units is carried out [24], which in turn enable generalizable statements about the research topic [23]. At this point, the categories/concepts are numerical units, which can be found in quantitative content analysis, for example in frequency distributions [23]. Results are therefore often descriptive, showing how often a word appears, for example [23]. In this way, the focus is on the ‘what’ question and not the ‘why’ question [25].

The methodological approach combines several conceptual perspectives, integrating manifestations of emotional/body labor, (traditional) gender stereotypes, and tourism influencer marketing. It deploys visual material to facilitate analysis, since visual media are easily accessed, consumed, and shared by broad social groups without communication difficulties. The novelty of the approach lies in the attempt to decompose the complexity of the meanings pertinent to gender stereotypes, and demonstrate how single categories related to gender are mirrored explicitly by tourism influencers. Using this methodology, new insights with regard to effective methods in destination and influencer marketing, but also social sustainability, can be gained. Moreover, the approach considers both male and female travel influencers, and is thus able to elaborate a holistic view on the gender dimension related to social sustainability.

In order to move closer to answering the research question, twelve (travel) influencers (seven women and five men) were randomly selected on Instagram through a keywords based search. Instagram is suitable for this analysis because this platform is used internationally by people of all ages and backgrounds, especially by younger generations, with self-promotion and marketing playing a major role in its use. The data were collected in June 2023 and refer to all photos of each of the twelve influencers posted from January 2023 to May 2023, amounting to 427 pictures. We deliberately decided to exclude the Covid-19 years, since travel was restricted in many countries at that time, and analysis of that period would have been biased. Besides, while browsing through the profiles of prominent travel influencers of pre-Covid-19 years, we were surprised to detect that many were not as active as they used to be, which indicates a devastating effect of the pandemic, not only on travel, but also on influencer business. In total, the male influencers published 135 posts in the period under review, while the female influencers outnumbered this with 292 posts, which indicates an overrepresentation of female tourism influencers in the sample. This imbalance reflects gender representation within travel influencer marketing [14].

When selecting the influencers themselves, care was taken to ensure that the words “travel” or “reisen” could be found in each profile, which can be found using the search bar on Instagram. Reels, conventional videos, and storyposts were neglected, as the analysis of these contents cannot be realized within the scope of this project. Even with the so-called ‘carousel posts’, where several images can be published in a single post, only the cover image was considered, since this is also displayed in the feed of the influencers and thus creates the first impression for the entire post. In addition, care was taken of the frequency of influencer content during the study period, which meant that influencers with only up to ten photos were excluded. Furthermore, persons with less than 10,000 followers were excluded to foreclose micro-influencers.

Subsequently, we undertook the categorization of the photos. Categories for further analysis relating to gender representations were developed, which were then reflected and revised in order to secure the unambiguity of the terminology as well as to prevent measurement errors. The following categories were used: (1) Influencer’s Name, (2) Gender, (3) Post text, (4) Hashtags, (5) Number of likes, (6) Date posted, (7) Date checked, (8) Number of comments, (9) Engagement rate [26], (10) Cooperation (link to other people or products), (11) Sum of product ads (definitely paid ads), (12) The way community is addressed, (13) Destination/location, (14) Destination description, (15) Activity type, (16) People (alone or with others), (17) Pose, (18) Muscles (yes/no), (19) Beard (yes/no), (20) Make up (yes/no), (21) Naked (1 = yes, 5 = desexualized), (22) Slim body (yes/no), and (23) Focus point of the camera.

These categories were deployed to find out how the influencers present themselves on Instagram, which poses are adopted, whether other people are pictured, to what extent make-up is visible and how much skin is shown. Furthermore, it is of interest how many likes and comments the individual photos received, how often influencers achieved collaborations, whether the community is addressed directly (e.g., through the text under the photo), and whether there are frequencies regarding the locations of the photos taken (Table 1).

Male influencers comprise albertvicente, andymtzurita, chrisburkard, lucafroehlingsdorf and mikelboisset. Together they have 6,746,000 followers. Anajohnson, cassidy.hornberger, liv.yah, nastjastasia, pilotmadeleine, sophiachiara__ and yvonnepferrer, on the other hand, are all female influencers who together have a reach of 4,983,200 followers.

Dividing the variable likes by the gender of the influencers, we see that female influencers, with a mean of 30,826.64 likes, generated more likes than their male counterparts. The median here is 16,722 likes and this is also higher than the median of the entire group. The male influencers achieved an average of 27,670.63 likes with a median of 13,529.5 Likes. For the female influencers, there were 68 missing values, while among the men, only 12 posts had likes deactivated. It is striking that, despite their overall lower reach, the female influencers achieved more likes on average than the male tourism influencers.

Differences can also be found between the genders with regard to self-portrayal in their own photos. If we first look at the variable of physique, it is noticeable that all influencers in the sample were slim. A total of 28 posts were published by the male influencers in which they cannot be seen or in which their body shape cannot be clearly assigned. In the case of the female influencers, there is no such post − they were always themselves in one of the posted pictures. With regard to further categories, it can be observed that on 47.1% of the analysed photos, make-up could be seen visibly and 51.6% of the photos did not show any make-up, while 1.3% of the photos could not be assigned. In addition, in no photos of the men was make-up clearly visible. Moreover, a beard could be seen in 25 photos, which corresponds to 5.9% of all photos. The body of the influencers was often in the center of the photos (24.3%) (Fig. 1).

In the pose category, 60.1% are assigned to the term ‘artificial’ (unnatural) and 23.6% are assigned to the term ‘natural’. 16.3% cannot be clearly determined. It is particularly noticeable here that the selected influencers predominantly adopted an unnatural pose in the photos. Moreover, muscles were visible in 42 photos (18.9%) of the women with none being visible in the remaining 180 (81.1%). For men, muscles were shown in 24 photos (22.0%) and none in 85 photos (78.0%). Additionally, influencers’ own slim bodies were identified in 98.2% of the women’s photos and 99.1% of the men’s photos. The selected influencers present slim body figures in almost all photos. Furthermore, the category naked shows that 3.8% of the women’s photos were assigned to number one on the scale (revealing e.g. underwear), with comparatively no photos being assigned to number one for the men. The photos of the women reach 28.3% for number two on the scale and 14.7% can be assigned to the photos of the men. Number three on the scale is assigned 15.5% to women and 9.2% to men, and number four is assigned 13.4% to women and 12.8% to men. On the other hand, number five on the scale (little to no skin is shown) is assigned 38.6% to women and 63.3% to men. With a value of 3.74, the mean value of the overall group shows the tendency to publish rather moderate to not at all sexualized pictures of themselves. The mean value for female influencers (3.55), however, is lower than that of their male counterparts (4.25). In comparison, male influencers dis not post any strongly sexualized posts. Among the posts of the female influencers, however, there are eleven posts in which the female influencer presented herself naked or strongly sexualized (Fig. 2).

In the category collaborations, men included links on 46.3% of their images. The women, on the other hand, included links on 16.1% of their images. Overall, there are no links on most of the photos, which is again strongly influenced at this point by the fact that the images of the women predominated. The correlation between the variables naked and collaborations indicates that regardless of the permissiveness, fewer influencers market collaborations on their posts. In percentage terms, however, we observed that 27.78% of the posts that are not permissive (Cat. 5 of the variable naked) are connected with a cooperation. In contrast, only 9.09% of the revealing pictures (Cat. 1 of the variable naked) were posted in connection with a cooperation. According to the category Community addressed, direct engagement with the community was observed 105 times, however, it was not clear in detail which type and manner of communication was meant. Furthermore, the community was addressed in 123 of the women’s photos. In the case of the men’s photos, communication with the community could be observed in 61 photos, although not a single direct address could be found. This shows that the women addressed the community more frequently than men.

Among the female tourism influencers, it could be observed that they were more active on Instagram and posted more photos compared to the male influencers. Furthermore, they achieved more likes on average, while the engagement rate for both genders varied to a similar extent. With regard to the female tourism influencers, it was also noticeable that they more often disabled the viewing of likes; one female influencer had used this feature for her entire profile, an aspect that has not yet received attention in previous research. It can be assumed that the deactivation of the like insight is accompanied by a detachment from the metric evaluation of one’s own content or serves to ‘hide’ less successful images. The deactivation thus offers users a possibility to publish content that also deviates from the expected gender role without being confronted with direct rejection.

Tourism influencers have recognized the concept of ‘travel’ as a work opportunity and thus diligently share impressions of their vacations to the most diverse countries in social media. Not only does the place itself play an important role, but also how the influencers present themselves. Especially on visual platforms such as Instagram or TikTok, appearance plays a decisive role when it comes to attracting potential followers and retaining them in the long term. Thus, tourism influencers also orient themselves to the common ideals of beauty and reproduce them by sharing their content. In this respect, the digital world is a mirror of the real world.

Tourism influencers also have a stronger position in this respect than other influencer groups. By traveling to different tropical locations, they often show themselves lightly dressed or in swimwear, which means that their bodies are more often represented, which can cause followers’ desire to establish a similar body. This can create a distorted body image, especially for adolescents in their formative years, in which an ideal of beauty is strived for, yet barely possible in real life. Conventional attractiveness seems to support this attraction factor, since not only the desire to travel, but also one’s own ideal of beauty and the self-optimization of followers are addressed in such posts.

The analysis showed that the female influencers often adopt an unnatural pose in the pictures, with the body depicted in the foreground. In addition, mainly slim body figures are portrayed in the photos. In general, there is a difference between the posts of male and female tourism influencers. Female tourism influencers are more likely to post sexualized images of themselves more often than male tourism influencers. The latter, in contrast, post pictures in which they themselves are less likely to be seen, but only the nature and the surroundings of the visited places are in the foreground. For female influencers, on the other hand, their bodies and the representation of them seem to be an essential part of their content. While women are more often seen in bikinis or skimpy clothing compared to men, muscles are rarely presented in the photos, which is contrary to expectations. Furthermore, make-up is clearly visible on almost half of the women’s photos, which is not the case on the men’s photos.

The sexualization of one’s own body on social media is a stylistic device often used to draw attention to one’s own profile. This is primarily evident among female tourism influencers. In terms of gender-specific body features, female tourism influencers are distinctly more likely to present themselves according to the prevailing beauty ideals and also transfer this to their audience. For female influencers, gender stereotypical representation seems to be an important aspect of their content. These insights are in line with other findings documenting the power of scarce clothing, background settings, and physical postures in attracting attention [27‐29] and redeeming it in the (self)marketing value, which often implies emotional or visible labor.

All in all, presentation within the gender-stereotypical framework contributes to the (self-)marketing of tourism influencers. This refers not only to body image, but also includes self-presentation in the gender-stereotypical roles, such as mother. Also, the assumption that female influencers post more sexualized images of themselves can be confirmed on the basis of the profiles studied. Thus, female tourism influencers are more likely to present themselves in their gender-stereotypical frame, while male tourism influencers sometimes even completely refrain from self-promotion on their profiles. One could argue at this point, however, that the distance between the influencer and the platform – or between the influencer and their following – is an aspect of male rationality and representation of their competence, which is also inscribed in the stereotypically male role image. Thus, this reproduction of the male gender role is subtler than that of the female, which may account for the overrepresentation of research regarding female social media use.

This has important implications for social reality and the public sphere, in general, and social sustainability, in particular. Influencers take advantageous poses, emphasize their bodies, show themselves in beautiful places, use make-up or even filters, which shifts the reality of their body and lives. At the same time, they perpetuate gendered ideas about how women or men should present themselves or how they should look. The visualization of gender stereotypes is significant against the background of current efforts towards a reduction of attributions and gender-based expectations as well as social sustainability. In the course of further research in the area of tourism influencers, the Instagram profiles of popular vacation providers should also be examined. It would be intriguing to investigate which influencer brands choose to collaborate directly as well as whether and to what extent an adaptation to gender roles is represented or how often people are revealed who do not conform to the Western ideal of beauty. Besides, investigating non-binary tourism influencers might be another research avenue, if such exist at all. Since the tourism influencers considered in this study act within the binary gender system, the question arises whether and how people succeed in establishing themselves in this field if they do not conform to heteronormativity.