PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Mackenzie, Ashley Lowe
AU  - Dundas, Steven J.
AU  - Zhao, Bo
TI  - The Instagram Effect: Is Social Media Influencing Visitation to Public Lands?
AID  - 10.3368/le.100.2.122920-0192R1
DP  - 2024 May 01
TA  - Land Economics
PG  - 256--277
VI  - 100
IP  - 2
4099  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/100/2/256.short
4100  - http://le.uwpress.org/content/100/2/256.full
AB  - 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.