Analyzing Adventure Tourism Trends through Social Media: An Image Content Analysis of Instagram Posts

Abstract

The paper's primary goal is to examine the utility of image content analysis in evaluating tourism market trends and to make inferences about current trends in the adventure travel industry. A crucial methodological tool in this study is the image content analysis, which is bolstered by cluster and comparative analysis. By evaluating geographical and chronological features, adventure activity categories, and user representation by gender, a thorough analysis of trends in adventure tourism is conducted. The study's findings demonstrated the importance of developing nations as destinations for adventure travel, the lack of seasonality, the predominance of soft adventure activities, and the participation of women in this kind of travel. Additionally, the study allowed for the classification of activities based on the gender structure of the participants, the identification of certain new activities, and conclusions regarding the diversification of the offer. The results might be valuable to the developers of the product on the adventure tourism market, but also to the tourists themselves in terms of ideas and motivation. The study should theoretically help to highlight the dominant perspectives in the literature about the salient characteristics of adventure tourism.