Call it the social media generation's version of a pilgrimage.
Hashtags and geotagging mean anyone can follow their favourite Instagrammer to even the most remote locations, tempted by their deliberately styled "un-style" and flawless tans.
Take Lauren Bullen, proprietor of the Instagram handle @gypsea_lust and at last count more than 825,000 followers. In mid-November, she accused one @diana_alexa of copying her travel photos down to juice stand and swimwear selection.
Many cried hoax on the whole situation, and Bullen has declined to talk further about the incident, even deleting the original post on her website.
These are the not uncommon pitfalls of travel Instagram. The world where a lucky few post pictures in exchange for subsidised travel to exotic locales, to which we, the thirsty masses, yearn to follow. Desperately, perhaps, in @diana_alexa's case.
The double up was uncanny, down to the poolside breakfast situation.
Dabble for long in the world of travel Instagram, though, and you'll find something like the same photo being replicated at the world's most photogenic swimming pool. The pictures are so similar in aesthetic (white neo-hippy wanderer, if you were wondering), everyone could have been at the same pool party.
Everyone that's not you, of course, languishing in your office chair with a half eaten bagel.
It could be the best evidence yet of social media's ability to homogenise any experience, even a trip to a medina in north Africa. But the pool's owners are not mad about it, and they're definitely not mad at @gypsea_lust, who they believe began the Instagram deluge.
The lucky hotel is Riad Jasmine in Marrakech, Morocco. Run by a French couple, Gabriel Paris and Alice Tassery, it opened in 2002 and is owned by Gabriel's father.
The pair took over in 2015, they told Mashable over email, renovating and setting in motion a whole new blogger-focused social media strategy.
Tassery, a former communications manager in France, said Riad Jasmine got started on Instagram in Sept. 2015.
"In February we had our first Instagrammer @galabcn, a fashion stylist brand in Spain," she wrote. "She was the first to promote the Riad via her Instagram. At this time, she had 10K followers which appeared to me a lot as we only had maybe 200-300 followers."
But the Riad became truly "famous" on Instagram after Bullen and her partner Jack Morris of @doyoutravel (1.6 million followers) posted that picture of themselves breakfasting by the pool. The shot so impressive that @diana_alexa, or whoever she is, just had to have it.
"We earned so many followers and new guests after they shared it. It has been a crazy time and a win/win collaboration," Tassery added.
It's well known that hotels and tourist boards around the world pay social media influencers to visit, and Bullen told Mashable over email there was some quid quo pro involved.
"We stayed there for a couple of nights in exchange for a post each," she said. "The posts went viral and now everyone wants to stay there and have the same picture."
Room costs, per the site, vary between 95 to 125 euros per night.
Tassery wouldn't share more about how she tempts bloggers, whether with free rooms or other benefits.
"All our collaborations are different, depending on how many followers, feeling, what they offer," she wrote.
"We do not want to say much about our way to work with travel bloggers as we do not want people to copy us, we can just say that there is no rules for collaborations and always something to discuss in order to have a win/win relationship :)"
Either way, it's working. Since August, Tassery estimated that more than 80 percent of guests come to the Riad because they've seen pictures of it on Instagram and Pinterest.
They currently host two to three bloggers per month. "We cannot accept more because we are a small Riad of 7 rooms and want to keep it intimate for all the others guests ... Each guest wants his picture in or by the pool," she said.
One travel Instagrammer planning her trip is Teri Yeung (1,208 followers). After finding the Riad on Instagram, she's booked to visit in December.
"I pick my destinations based on a lot of factors (time of year, available travel partners, flights deals, etc...) but Instagram is definitely where I go for travel inspiration and wanderlust," she told Mashable in an email. "They didn't subsidize my stay in exchange for social sharing but I guess that's the dream!"
So, why does everyone take the same photo? Tassery pointed to the pleasing display of colours, beds and palm trees -- "relaxing, calm, zen."
"The symbol inside the pool represents the Amazigh symbol (Berbere culture) which means free man, the land and the language. And it is part of the charm of the Riad," she added.
That's the kind of vaguely spiritual pic that would look great on your Instagram, right?
Topics Instagram Social Media
