We already know that people love coming to Dubai, and we know that when they’re in the emirate, they love to post about it, we just didn’t know how much. In 2016, Dubai was the fourth most hashtagged city on Instagram, according to a study by Hashtag the World.
More than 47 million posts featured Dubai, which is impressive considering that the city had just over 15 million visitors last year. It had an average of 36,847 posts per day, so people clearly kept busy on Instagram. Locals and lifestyle bloggers definitely add to the count, often hashtagging Dubai on posts about food, working out and the hottest spots in the city.
Still, Dubai’s hashtag count pales in comparison to New York City’s 68 million posts. The Big Apple took first place on the list, with London coming in second and Paris in third. Istanbul was just behind Dubai, coming in fifth place.
Instagram is often used to share photos from vacations and travels, with many travel bloggers finding their only permanent home in the image-sharing platform. With so many selfie-worthy sites in Dubai (#burjkhalifa, anyone?), it’s no surprise people kept posting about it.
The study was done to check trends in hashtag use. An obvious example is that #riodejaneiro had risen in popularity this year, probably because of the 2016 Olympics. Because Instagram is so popular, studying what people are posting about can tell us a lot about public opinion.
Every day, about 95 million photos are posted on Instagram, the app has more than 600 million active users who are happy to share what they’re doing. They’re also mostly youth – a Pew Research Center study found that 59 percent of adults between the ages of 18 and 29 use Instagram, the highest percentage for any age group.
You might have helped your favorite vacation spot make the list this year, check the full report here.
