Instagram guides are a new format that appeared in preview in May 2020 in response to the health crisis. Content creators and institutions were selected by Instagram to feature guides around the theme of wellness and mental health to support users of the famous platform during this complicated time.

Based on its success with its users, Instagram has decided to make the feature available to its entire community in November 2020.

What are Instagram guides?

According to Instagram, guides are “a way to easily discover recommendations, tips and other content from your favorite creators, public figures, organizations on Instagram.” They allow you to share existing content around a specific theme (in-feed publication, IGTV or even real ones) as a blog post directly integrated into Instagram

Today, there are 3 types of guides

• Places: Recommendation of places to visit (historical sites, Instagrammable spots, restaurants …)
• Products: Recommendation of products available on Instagram shopping
• Publications: Recommendation of posts from your account or another instagram user

For the moment, it is only possible to share the guides in story, by message or on Instagram shopping for the “products” guides

Instagram guides in the Travel  industry

This recent feature that encourages evasion and dreaming reinforces the image of Instagram as a real promotional tool for destinations and actors of Tourism. Instagram guides are an excellent way to highlight a list of places to see according to a certain theme, a list of activities to do or to give advice and recommendations about the destination.

Instagram guides thus contribute to the inspiration of Instagram users and give the desire to discover the destination, they appear as an indispensable tool to plan a trip or learn about a destination. Guides must obviously follow the editorial strategy of the destination on Instagram but still offer a possibility to describe more a place or an activity unlike the classic posts and other formats developed lately by Instagram where the number of characters is limited in order not to lose the user’s attention. This is really THE format that allows you to develop the storytelling and the editorial side of the destination according to its market positioning and the image it wants to transmit.

By using Instagram guides, destinations that do not have a site translated into multiple languages or different social media accounts depending on the target markets, can invest in this feature and take advantage of it, especially by creating guides in multiple languages. One example is @tourismequebec, which has adapted its guides to its two national languages: English and French

The “map” tool of the “place guides” is also a practical tool for users of the platform who will be able to visualize where the places are located and thus plan their own day of visit according to the different locations on the map.

Instagram guides also allow to strengthen the links with its community by highlighting their content and sharing their experiences of the destination on the guides.

Destinations such as Singapore, New Caledonia, Mauritius or the city of Philadelphia have adopted this new format which is still not widely used by destinations and tourism actors.

The city-state Singapore has highlighted its food culture in its first guide with a list of the city’s best Hawkers Centers, which were recently recognized as cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.

New Caledonia uses guidebooks as a small pocket guide to promote the must-see places in each region of the island.

Everything suggests that the instagram guides are real promotional tools and must be included in the content strategy of tourism actors.