Handbook on Tourism and Social Media

Abstract

Taking and sharing photos about individual experiences through social media are getting more attention. Particularly Instagram is a very common platform focusing on user generated content created by both ordinary people and marketers. Food experience sharing on social media which is not simply related to taking and sharing food images, has gained respectable reputation and is encouraged by different psychological and functional motivators. Foodstagramming is one of social media tools which brings blogging and food photo sharing together to boost the attention of the target group particularly with special tags such as "foodporn". Besides mouth-watering photos stimulating the senses of people, sharing food experience photos on Instagram is considered to be useful for people to stage their belongings and express self-identity. In addition to that, foodstagramming is thought as a strong marketing tool for tourism activities creating a wide E-WOM network. This study focuses on explaining sharing photos of food experiences with the case of foodstagramming which is seen as a new phenomenon.