Instagram e Visual Tourism. La rappresentazione delle destinazioni turistiche in Oman

This research focuses on the “public” image of sites with tourist value in Oman studied through the analysis of stories, comments, pictures posted on Instagram. Thanks to the variety of the Omani landscape, it was possible to analyze the multiplicity and diversity of forms of narration and storytelling of tourist areas in order to obtain useful elements to define the degree of popularity of tourist resources, the landscape, environmental, and cultural contexts while investigating the narratives published by users, presumed to be tourists. For current tourist destinations, it is vital to be popular on social networks, as, through information and the sharing of content and pictures, modes of interaction are activated in which destinations dialogue “as equals” with tourists and the local community. In addition, the support of social networks to the tourism system can promote the integration and extension of the local territorial offer towards citizens.