Instagram has just announced that it now has more than 400 million monthly actives with Australia being the most popular country on the social channel.
As Instagram continues to grow, it is also becoming more international: more than 75% of the community is outside of the US. Instagrammers now share more than 80 million photos per day.
The Instagram community has evolved to be even more global. More than 75 percent of the Instagram community lives outside of the US. Among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia.
Instagrammers continue to capture incredible photos and videos from all corners of the earth (and even the solar system). We’ve seen inspiring moments like the first surface image of Pluto and Champions League celebrations, as well as striking locales like the white pools of Turkey and a Namibian desert ghost town.
From an Australian travel perspective, Tourism Australia Managing Director John O’Sullivan said @Australia was the most popular national tourism destination Instagram page in the world, with more followers than the Canadian Tourism Commission (@explorecanada), Tourism New Zealand (@purenewzealand),VisitBritain (@lovegreatbritain) and South Africa Tourism (@meetsouthafrica) combined.
“This type of advocacy is incredibly valuable to us ‐ an increasingly important and cost effective part of our overall destination marketing strategy,” Mr O’Sullivan said. “Our followers are posting these images because they have a genuine desire to share their many personal and positive Australian holiday experiences and, by doing so, play a part in promoting a country they love,”
John O’Sullivan, Managing Director, Tourism Australia
Mr O’Sullivan said that Tourism Australia’s Instagram page was much more than just ‘big numbers’ and ‘pretty pictures’, and actually played an important role in increasing holiday preference for Australia.
In a survey conducted last week of more than a 1,300 of its Instagram followers, 69 per cent of Australian respondents said they thought posting their photos on Instagram could help promote travel to Australia.
Australia is the most popular country on Instagram
Eighty‐eight per cent said the page had influenced their likelihood of travelling more around Australia. Amongst international followers, 91 per cent of respondents said @Australia inspired them to find out more about Australia as a holiday destination, with 87 per cent of respondents saying the content made them more likely to travel to Australia.
Forty‐three per cent of international respondents said they were currently planning a trip to Australia.
“This research shows that the incredible images that we receive and share daily provide inspiration to Australians and international travellers alike to visit and explore our country. And, importantly, our Instagram page is inspiring would be visitors to take the next step and find out more – whether that be clicking through to a tourism operator’s website, visiting australia.com or starting an internet search,”
John O’Sullivan, Managing Director, Tourism Australia