The title of influencer tends to leave a sour taste in the mouths of anyone who utters it and even to this day, despite the prevalence of social media ‘influencers,’ people, especially influencers themselves, still baulk at the thought of being referred to as one. Instead, many choose to refer to themselves as ‘content creators’ or ‘online personalities’.
The word influencer is often used to mock – the influencer pose, the influencer greeting, the influencer everything has become a standard.
Amongst the many subgenres of influencer types, one of the most popular and also the original influencer genre is that of travel influencers. These are creators who likely had a true wanderlust within themselves and chose to document their adventures, soon amassing a massive following living vicariously through their incredible experiences.
The travel influencer sphere has grown so much that it has become an invaluable part of the travel industry. Travel destinations, luxury hotels, and even tourism campaigns for entire states have relied on travel influencers to take their message out into the world.
However, while being a travel influencer is no doubt incredibly rewarding and also lucrative, it is interesting to note how homogenous the travel influencer ecosystem has become.
When you think of travel influencers, what type of content comes to mind? If we exclude adventure travellers, then it is likely that you thought of an attractive woman either scantily clad or perhaps (and frankly, more rarely) wearing a stunning gown captured amidst a picturesque backdrop.
This is the influencer standard for travel content. Of course, there are those who are different but they are the exception and not the rule.
Now that we have considered the most common denominator – a woman photographed with the destination being advertised set as her backdrop – why do you think this has become the industry standard?
According to travel content creator Hiran Daniel, it is simply a matter of appealing to the masses. “Women are generally just more appealing and pleasant,” he noted, adding that by having women as your centre stage focus, you touch both bases. For men, this image is attractive and desirable and for women it is aspirational.
This can be summarised as the effects of the ‘male gaze’. Feminist theory coined the concept of the male gaze to explore the way viewers and consumers engage with visual media in a way that sexualises women in order to empower men. It is specifically targeted at heterosexual men and sees the objectification of women as a fulfilment of male desire.
Hiran noted that the mechanics of travel influencers of this type – the beautiful woman with the beautiful backdrop – was almost always a team effort. Behind every stunning capture of the woman and the views is a skilled photographer, who, according to Hiran, is almost always a man, and what he captures is his preferred visual, lending itself to the male gaze.
He said: “There’s not a lot of these photographers who are also going to be the subject of their capture. They want to capture something that is appealing to them.
“The rare occasion that you actually see the influencer’s male counterpart is when the vlog channel or Instagram page is a couple’s page. Even on such occasions, the page gains popularity if the male partner is also very attractive or when the male partner is not so prominently featured but tends to be an occasional featured guest.”
He noted that it was simply easier to promote a woman since “it is what men want to see and what women want to be”.
While this is a product of the patriarchal structures we operate under, it is our present reality. Hiran stated that most social media platforms were after all visual mediums and everyone wanted to catch people’s eyes; the best way to do that was to play into the programming we have received all our lives – to objectify women.
Male travel influencers
There are many male travel influencers, but they often tend to be in the adventure travel genre or some form of technical subgenre where they share information with their travel enthusiast audience about the ins and outs of the places they travel to.
The most famous examples of male travel influencers include American creator Jay Alvarrez, German Toni Mahfud, global citizen Sasha Juliard, and several others who create a mix of adventure travel content and luxury travel content.
The rare few who follow this style of luxury travel blogging attempt to take on a more masculine approach, adopting a more muted personality as opposed to the commonly seen excitable high energy version that is seen in their female counterparts.
This latter group is the reason why the moniker of influencers has become so distasteful. Historically, the things that women get excited about have been considered lesser. Society has always found ways to shame or dismiss girls and women for their interests and passions. You see it in the way that fangirls are treated when they express their love of boy bands or any other types of music or art, and for the longest time being called ‘girly’ was an insult.
Similarly, female influencers who express themselves through their video logs speaking excitedly and sharing their experiences are widely mocked. It is considered ‘influencer speak’ and something to be made fun of.
Others will perform a high-pitched exaggerated impression of these women to mock them for the way that they choose to present their content (in fact, it was one such piece of content mocking travel influencers ‘in general’ but so heavily skewed towards mocking women that sparked The Sunday Morning Brunch’s rumination on travel influencers, gender, and the male gaze).
It is incredibly disheartening to see that even in today’s world, where we are attempting to change our ways and trying to embrace people’s differences, women must still be shamed for their interests and the way that they choose to present themselves.
In Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka Brunch spoke to Kaweesha Gamage, a popular Lankan travel content creator on Instagram, who shared her thoughts on the Sri Lankan landscape when it comes to travel influencers.
She too noted that the majority tended to be women. “It is clearly a majority of women. I wouldn’t say it is 100%, but at least 90% of the travel content creators are women,” she said, adding: “I think this is because that is where the audience is – it is popular since there is an audience for it.”
Kaweesha shared that while she had seen many men also attempt to start up travel content pages, it was often women who were able to develop and maintain travel content pages to a large extent.
“Even in my case, both myself and my husband create travel content but it is evident that I am able to garner a wider viewership than he can, despite us travelling to the same destinations and even with our content likely to be similar,” she noted.
Hiran also added his thoughts on this matter of travel influencers being mostly women in Sri Lanka, noting that one major component could be that most influencers, while they may not have personal relationships with one another, were observing each other very closely.
He said that if a piece of content blew up and started to gain a significant amount of views, then that content would be replicated. “It is, after all, about visibility. As a result, there isn’t a lot of innovation, especially in this genre. It has a lot of the same content,” he said.
He did however note that while this trend of women-centric travel content was unlikely to die down, there could potentially be a slight shift in the way that travel influencers approached content with Instagram choosing to be a more video-centric platform.
“We are already seeing new changes to types of content that show up on international platforms. This is also mostly because Instagram reels were late to come to Sri Lanka, so Lankan influencers have to play catch-up with the trends. However, what is coming to the forefront is more personality-based content or content that has technical flair.”
Hiran therefore noted that while at present it may feel as though Lankan travel influencing had not evolved since its beginnings, there was a high likelihood that things may change and they may change for the better.
