Bangkok Features Among top Instagram Hits

The Thai capital, often referred to as the City of Angels, zipped ahead of Rome, Milan, Paris, London and other international favourites and was second only to Los Angeles as the city that most drew people to hit Instagram’s heart button.

Airline transfer company Hoppa’s report into the most “shared” cities on photo-sharing platform Instagram looked at 50,000 photos taken over the course of a month in the world’s 50 most visited destinations, according to website brlliantmaps.com. The pictures were also examined to find what types of post were most popular in each destination. Bangkok came second in terms of “liked” photos with Los Angeles taking the first place. London and Taipei came fourth and fifth.

Research has shown that “likes” on popular social media sites; such as, Instagram are increasingly becoming a factor for people deciding which destinations to travel to. A report by travel site Amadeus identified one group of travellers as “Social Capital Seekers” who use social media, updates, real experiences and “likes” from friends and family to guide their decision making about places to visit, rather than being swayed by marketing. These people also travel to certain destinations based on their social media credibility.

Destinations in the Hoppa survey were also separated into subcategories – selfies, couples, scenery, shopping and food. The researchers found that uploaded photos with the most “likes” were those with bright scenery, eye-catching cuisine and famous landmarks. Thailand’s holiday island of Phuket came first for numbers of food posts, in front of Shanghai and Guangzhou. The resort town of Pattaya took fifth place on the culinary list. This is testament to Thailand’s fine dining with its colourful tasty dishes that people love to share with friends via photographs.

This isn’t the first time that Bangkok has starred on Istagram’s Wall of Fame. Shopping mall Siam Paragon took first place as the Most Instagrammed place during 2013 and fourth place for the same honour during 2014, beating even the Louvre in Paris.