Running out of social media ideas for your travel business? Browsing the best travel Instagrams in the business will stimulate your imagination and inspire your creativity. 

Social media and content marketing are vital elements for modern travel companies. These low-cost tools assist you to build a strong brand persona and a tight bond with your followers, customers, and prospects. Yet even the most enthusiastic marketers can run out of steam after a while. It’s hard to keep coming up with new ideas to promote the same brand identity and travel offers.

Scroll through some recent posts from the best travel Instagrams and see how they’re using images to build their identity and better connect with their followers. Take note of which posts are generating interactions, which ones stir wanderlust in your heart, and which types of posts you could translate to fit your brand’s identity.

Your social media posts should complement your content marketing strategy, crystallizing your brand into images, videos, and quick captions that whet travelers’ appetites for the kind of experiences you offer. 

National Geographic Travel

With 42 million followers, @natgeotravel is the most influential travel brand on Instagram. The brand has consistently showcased some of the most exciting travel photography on Earth across more than 14,000 posts. 

Photographers dream of working with National Geographic, and the magazine uses its social media to spotlight the accomplished artists they work with.

National Geographic’s photos are known for their immediacy — the way they place the viewer on the inside of the scenery — and for their tendency to showcase the surprising and unknown. 

Note how the Instagram account first chooses images that reflect the brand’s sense of discovery and wonder, and then pairs them with educational captions. This allows you to meet the photographers and leaves you feeling just a little bit smarter with every post. 

Mehmet Sert

More than a million Instagrammers follow @mehmetsert’s travel photography account. His images are mostly drawn from Turkey and its neighboring islands, although he does venture into other countries from time to time. 

His photos cover a wide spectrum of subjects, from cities to forests to coastlines. What they have in common is that they capture a mystical, dreamy quality that offers the viewer a sense of peace and joy. Mehmet’s brand is his own optimistic view of the world and his way of translating that through the lens.

Murad Osmann

Russian travel photographer Murad Osmann has a gimmick that took his account viral and helped him accumulate more than 4 million followers. Most of his photos feature his wife, Nataly, holding him by the hand and pulling him (and you) toward an intriguing experience.

The images are highly staged for a mesmerizing effect. Nataly is often wearing a local costume, or clothing chosen to enhance the shot. The result is a series of charming photos that tell a story about a place and a relationship. It’s a story that people want to be part of. 

In a market as crowded as travel, a well-thought-out gimmick might be just what you need to separate your account from the herd. How can you stage your photos to reflect your brand?

Oneika Traveller

The Oneika Traveller account belongs to Oneika Raymond, a well-known travel industry leader who hosts two different shows on the Travel Channel. 

Oneika’s images reflect a bright, colorful brand. She achieves that effect through neon — wearing something hot pink, red, orange, or yellow in nearly all of her photos. No matter how spectacular the backdrop is, Oneika and her brand are always front and center. 

Oneika’s images sometimes tread close to the stereotype — a sundress, a straw hat, etc. — but the photos are usually taken from a distance, with Oneika standing out like a superhero in her vivid colors. 

This is a great way to showcase a blogger’s personality and cultivate an image. 

Chris Burkard

A travel blogger, Chris Burkard fits into an obscure and rather narrow niche —  he’s an arctic surfer who shoots photos of waves in locations like Alaska and Iceland. That may not sound like something most people aspire to, but Chris has accumulated more than 3 million followers on Instagram. 

His images are unique. He loves to capture patterns in waves, snow, clouds, sand, and anywhere else they might appear. When Chris appears in his own photos, his joy is absolutely infectious. 

Chris’s successful social media account demonstrates that people are hungry for dramatic images (even if they’re photos of icy places folks probably wouldn’t want to visit). When people are scrolling through their feed on a coffee break or while they wait for the dentist, they relish a little drama and vicarious adventure. 

Broke Ass Girl Travel

As Mally Walker’s Instagram handle implies, she’s not a luxury traveler or professional blogger. In fact, she describes herself as a “fake blogger.” Her account is aimed at ordinary people on tight budgets who want to put more travel into their lives — a niche that feels very accessible to ordinary folks.

How does she capture this brand in her images? 

Like many travel bloggers, Mally brands her images by featuring herself in them. However, she’s rarely gazing off into the distance looking dreamy under a sunhat. Instead, down-to-earth Mally usually looks surprised and overjoyed to find herself in such gorgeous scenery. 

She’s also happy to celebrate her curvy figure, which helps make her lifestyle feel more attainable for many people.

The Bucket List Family

The Lee family sold everything they owned back in 2015 and set off on what was meant to be a limited six-month adventure. By the end of this period they were still having a great time and they had built a travel blog to support themselves. Now the family has settled in Hawaii, but their Instagram is still wildly popular. 

What’s their secret? Intimacy, for one thing. 

The Lee family’s images feature lots of candid shots of themselves, usually with faces, so followers feel like they know this family as well as their own relatives. They’ve watched this family get haircuts, put up their Christmas tree, and brush their teeth. 

Authenticity is another part of the mix. The Lees haven’t hesitated to share minor injuries, meltdowns, and setbacks along their travels. The third factor is participation — you’ll notice lots of drawings and giveaways in this feed.

What can you learn from the best travel Instagrams?

How can your posts enhance your brand identity while inspiring your followers to dream of travel? Adding the best travel Instagrams to your feed will help you generate new ideas every day when you scroll through your feed. 

For more digital marketing advice aimed at the travel and tourism market, be sure to grab your copy of our free guide, The Download. 

This beginner-friendly handbook will take you through the basics of marketing your tourism business. 

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