The Instagram Effect: Is Social Media Influencing Visitation to Public Lands?

Ashley Lowe Mackenzie, Steven Dundas and Bo Zhao

Land Economics, 2024, vol. 100, issue 2, 256-277

Abstract: Public lands in the United States have recently experienced significant increases in visitation. Journalists and park managers suggest Instagram is a primary reason. We explore this issue in the Oregon state park system by combining visitation data with park-specific georeferenced content and engagement indicators from Instagram. Using several empirical specifications, we show suggestive evidence that Instagram is not likely correlated to increased visitation everywhere; rather, it is only in a few locations generating high user participation within the app. We find no contemporary effect and a positive association with cumulative Instagram engagement indicators on visits at this subset of parks.

JEL-codes: Q26 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
Note: DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/le.100.2.122920-0192R1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/100/2/256
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:uwp:landec:v:100:y:2024:i:2:p:256-277

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Land Economics from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().