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Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Destination Marketing & Management


journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jdmm

Local experiences on Instagram: Social media data as source of evidence for


experience design.
Marika Gon
Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Local experience is a complex and subjective concept, which has moved from the simple consumption of products
Tourism experience design (e.g. local products and local activities) to a wide range of social interactions in both the real and digital world (e.
Local experience g. localhood). In these times of experience economy, destinations will often compete in offering their distinctive
Social media data mining
local experiences and designing experiences has become crucial in destination management and marketing. To
Consumer generated content analysis
Instagram
design and deliver local experiences, destinations need to be supported by methodological innovation and
Leximancer updated data sources. Social media can satisfy these requirements, because it contains user-generated content
about human experiences. Nevertheless, limited research has been conducted, to date to understand the potential
of social media in experience design. The purpose of this paper is to explore how user-generated content can
contribute to design thinking. In agreement with the principle that ‘everyone can – and does – design’ this paper
investigates local experiences in the social media environment, in which everyone can co-produce information.
The paper first reviews the concepts of ‘local’ and ‘local experiences’ in the academic literature and then expands
the research into the discussion of social media, investigating secondary data posted by users with #local* and
#localexperience*. Instagram is one of the most used platforms in the world and it was selected based on pre­
vious research conducted on local experiences.
The results of this study contribute to the understanding of what and who is associated to local experiences,
suggesting that social media can provide new knowledge by expanding on existing topics and introducing
missing dimensions as the basis for a holistic understanding of experiences.
Local experiences on Instagram are related to traveling and associated with outdoor activities and local people.
The analysis reveals insights into the use of hashtags in Instagram: #localexperience* is largely employed by
professional accounts to brand tourism activities, contrary to #local* which is preferred by the vast majority of
users in posting everyday life images. User-generated content is presented as a resource for experience design to
enhance destination marketing and management. A method for data mining and content analysis of Instagram
textual data (hashtags, comments and user profiles) is presented to foster research and comparison among social
media platforms, as a way to address future directions in tourism design management and to develop implica­
tions to destination management.

1. Introduction in the marketing of products, places and destinations (Freire, 2009;


Hampton, 2005; Hultman & Hall, 2012; Morris & Buller, 2003; Russo &
Tourists move across the globe to visit places and search for mean­ Richards, 2016; Sims, 2009, 2013, p. 475). The booming explosion of
ingful experiences and interaction with local people, generically defined collaborative economies (Dredge & Gyimothy, 2015, 2017) and the
as ‘the local atmosphere’ (Pine & Gilmore, 1998, 2011; Tussyadiah & experience economy (Pine & Gilmore, 1998, 2011) have fostered in­
Pesonen, 2016a, b). Local products, food, art, heritage and traditions terest in anything and anyone identifiable as local (Russo & Richards,
have always been used to characterize the specificity of communities 2016). Travelers’ opportunities to meet hosting communities, sharing
and places (Sims, 2009, 2013, p. 475), and their promotion is one of the their everyday life spaces and experiencing the destination by ‘living like
most effective ways through which destinations compete (Du Rand & a local’ (Guttentag, 2015; Heo, 2016; Paulauskaite et al., 2017) have
Heath, 2006). It is unquestionable that, nowadays, ‘local’ is a buzzword contributed to the overall appeal of the local experience. A shared sense

E-mail address: Marika.gon@uniud.it.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2020.100435
Received 30 September 2018; Received in revised form 12 February 2020; Accepted 19 March 2020
Available online 29 December 2020
2212-571X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

of ‘localhood’ is the new frontier of destination marketing, where presented to enhance result comparison among digital platforms (e.g.
“everyone is becoming a local everywhere” (Volgger, 2019, p. 1) and Instagram, Twitter and Facebook) and innovation in social media
local experiences are co-created on-site between residents and tourists research.
(http://localhood.wonderfulcopenhagen.dk). More than ever before,
destinations compete on their distinctive local offer (Russo & Richards, 2. Literature review
2016) and “design as a way of thinking” should guide destination
managers in the experience creation (Fesenmaier & Xiang, 2017, p. 8). 2.1. Local and local experiences
To design and deliver local experiences, updated fields of analysis and
methodological innovation are constantly required (Aho, 2001; Kim & ‘Local’ is a complex concept linked to the idea of place, people and
Fesenmaier, 2017). Furthermore, Russo and Richards (2016) call for a products as a combination of setting, interaction and resources. The
new interpretation of ‘local in tourism’, according to the social media adjective ‘local’ is commonly used to qualify and brand products, places,
shift in communication. Indeed, social media is considered to be a people, and refers to associated memories of experiences and emotions,
realistic source of information and a meaningful tool in tourism research which can be recalled even later, back home (Clark & Chamber, 2007;
(Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2013; Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014b), since it collects Freire, 2009).
data from billions of users, whose knowledge allows multiple perspec­ The academic discussion around ‘local’ and similar sounding terms
tives in the observation of human phenomena (Salas-Olmedo et al., (e.g. locality, localities, locale) dates back to the 1980s. The debate has
2018; Stienmetz, 2018). However, although ‘local experience’ is the new involved several scholars including geographers, anthropologists and
battlefield of tourism competition and social media is a contemporary social scientists, who have tried to define ‘local’ within spatial bound­
source of evidence-based information, only a small number of studies aries, social interactions, resources and settings. Scholars have
have so far specifically addressed local experience through concluded that no clear boundaries can be drawn, since the idea of what
user-generated content (Fischer, 2010; Hochman & Manovich, 2013). and who is local varies from person to person, according to subjective
Only a deep understanding of local experiences co-creation can perspectives of space, time and social relations and “what seems a
empower, first, experience design and, second, destination competitive relatively simple notion of the ‘local’, is in fact really complex and in­
advantage (Gnoth, 2017). The digital era offers the capacity to combine volves analysis of a mixture of social and spatial processes” (Urry, 1987,
large unstructured data to provide detailed information that could guide p. 443). The variety of meanings and uses ascribed to ‘local’ is still vast
the design and development of experiences in tourism (Davenport, and Urry’s call for greater understanding of what is meant by “the local”
2013). Although extensive research has been carried out on the role of (Urry, 1987, p. 443) is still contemporary to the debate in the social
social media in tourism, the potential of user-generated content (UGC) sciences (Allen & Hinrichs, 2007). With reference to studies and
in experience design remains under-investigated, and this has been research in the tourism field, Hall defines “local” as “both a scale of
recognized as a limitation to the potential of design science (Fesenmaier analysis and the characteristics which are associated with a particular
& Xiang, 2017). neighborhood, community, location, place or area.” (Hall in Jafari,
To help address the gap, this paper explores ‘local experience’ in the 2002, p. 360), associating them with something unique which cannot be
social media environment, as an innovative basis upon which experi­ found elsewhere (Freire, 2009). The qualifier ‘local’ has been widely
ences can be understood and designed by destinations. The aim of this used in literature to refer to both products and people, including aca­
research is to investigate what and who is associated with ‘local’ and demic work on food-based tourism (Henderson, 2009) and community
‘local experience’ both in the academic literature and in the social media studies (Beeton, 2006; Jamal & Getz, 1995). At the same time, ‘local’ has
environment, in accordance with the design principle that ‘everyone can become a frequently used label for destination marketing and place
– and does – design’ (Cross, 2011). Who and what is associated to ex­ promotion (Russo & Richards, 2016). Marketing in tourism works to
periences in social media is still an open question (Tussyadiah, 2014) develop a unique selling proposition based on the association of places
and, by answering this question, the potential of social media analysis with iconic products and storytelling about people and traditions. This
will be further explored (Leung et al., 2013; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010). In contributes both to reinforce the local identity (Everett & Aitchison,
order to understand how UGC can support local experience design 2008) and to promote destination visibility, attracting visitors to come
(Fesenmaier & Xiang, 2017; Tussyadiah, 2014, 2017), Instagram was and live out the local experience (Warnaby & Medway, 2013). Accord­
selected as social media data source and text-based analysis was con­ ing to Russo and Richards (2016) ‘local’ has to be read in terms of new
ducted (Highfield & Leaver, 2015; Manikonda et al., 2014). Instagram is tourism products and co-created tourism experience and it is the com­
one of the most popular social media platforms in the world bination of the physical setting and the social milieu that facilitates the
(https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019) and it has been local experience (Warnaby & Medday, 2013).
employed by previous investigations on local experience (Fischer, 2010; In the literature, ’experiences’ are characterized as complex in­
Hochman & Manovich, 2013). teractions between people and places, subjectively produced as each
The paper is organized as follows. The first section reviews the individual understands and interprets experiences differently (Pine &
concepts of ‘local’ and ‘local experience’ in the tourism literature. The Gilmore, 1998, 2011). Experiences are the drivers of tourism consumer
second part focuses on local experience as an object of investigation in behavior and the pillars of the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore,
the social media environment. The methodological chapter details the 2011; Quan & Wang 2004). Tourist behavior is said to be shifting from a
mixed method that is employed, describing the tools used to identify product-based attitude ‘buy local and eat local products’ towards an
quantitative patterns and perform qualitative analysis. The fourth sec­ experience based on ‘sharing with locals’ and ‘experience the local’
tion presents the results of what and who is associated to local experi­ (Heo, 2016; Paulauskaite et al., 2017).
ence, based on Instagram text data (hashtags, posts, comments and user
profile information). The discussion part details how UGC content 2.2. Local experiences and local products
analysis provides new knowledge and a holistic understanding of local
and local experiences, upon which destination managers can design Tourists have always experienced the destination by eating, drinking
experiences to attract tourists. The paper then presents its contributions and buying local products. They create linkages with local people, cul­
and limitations linked to the exploratory nature of the research. Both ture and traditions by meeting, socializing and interacting with resi­
theoretical and practical contributions to tourism experience design and dents. Urry (1992) and Wang (1999) argued that tourists look for
destination management are derived from the analysis of Instagram data ‘typical’ signs of place which, according to own perceptions, are iconic
and research based on hashtags (i.e., #local* and #localexperience*). goods that embody the major form of local culture and identity (Everett
Finally, further research is advocated on the text-based analysis & Aitchison, 2008; Sims, 2009, 2013, p. 475). As a result, visitors are

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

likely to try these products during their holiday: they engage with local used for the first time in the marketing strategy of Copenhagen (Volgger,
traditions, try food specialties, mix with locals to get a sense of place and 2019). It refers to tourist and residents’ relations as the focal point of
better know the hosting community. Indeed, literature has recognized co-created local experiences which can provide benefits to both local
that “food is an important tourist attraction in an assortment of forms community and visitors (http://localhood.wonderfulcopenhagen.dk).
and enhances or is central to the visitor experience” (Henderson, 2009,
p. 317). Sims confirmed that local food is a valuable souvenir and, even 2.4. Local experience, social media and experience design
more, an informed choice visitors make while on holiday to “taste a
place” in order to get better insights into the nature of the destination Russo and Richards (2016) specifically addressed the need to inter­
and live out the local authentic experience (Sims, 2013, p. 329). Morris pret ‘local in tourism’ according to the co-creation process and the social
and Buller (2003) defined local food either in terms of food specialty, as media shift. Despite the ubiquity of social media, only a few academic
in the value added to a product to be sold, or in terms of a bounded works have contributed to the analysis of local experiences in the social
region within which products are produced and sold. However, empir­ media environment, among which are Fischer (2010) and Hochman and
ical studies have confirmed that tourist operators, food producers and Manovich (2013). The first author compared geolocated posts uploaded
stakeholders of the same destination rarely agree on the geographical on social media (i.e. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), by both locals
extent of the area identifiable as ‘local’ (Sims, 2013, p. 475). Studies and tourists, in well-known tourism destinations. Results showed that
have confirmed that local goods and products connect tourists with local tourists tend to post user generated content (UGC) in areas close to the
people and destinations and these connections are powerful parts of the destination center and major tourist attractions, while residents rather
tourism experience (Clark & Chabrel, 2007). Thus, by experiencing what post in the destination outskirts, overlapping only in limited shared
is promoted as local, tourists can connect deeply with people and places areas. In addition, Hochman and Manovich (2013) developed a specific
(Clark & Chamber, 2007), and enjoy the local experience (Sims, 2009, ‘reading of the local through social media’ by analyzing photographs
2013, p. 475). This is based on the reputation of local goods: they are uploaded on Instagram. According to their analysis, ‘local’ is a socially
considered of high quality (e.g. fresh, healthy, better tasting local food), constructed term, defined by people’s experiences rather than the
environmentally sustainable (i.e. by reducing carbon footprints and immanent qualities of products or the physical characteristics of places
supply chains) and supporting the local economy (i.e. providing job or people. They showed that tourists and residents, posting and sharing
opportunities for local people, supporting revenue and incomes). At the data on Instagram, are constantly co-creating and reshaping the mean­
same time, ‘local’ goods, food, drinks and crafts are considered to be the ing of local. Social media users constantly upload and share UGC of their
output of the culture, heritage, identity, local traditions and history of personal experiences and check on peers’ posts to gain information and
destinations and their communities (Allen & Hinrichs, 2007; Sims, 2013, support their decision process. This is even more significant in tourism,
p. 475). where social media affects tourists’ emotions, experiences (Hays et al.,
2013; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010; Zeng & Gerritsen, 2014) and overall
2.3. Local experience and local communities behavior. Sigala (2016) reinforced the idea that tourism experiences are
co-created on social media. Tussyadiah (2014) underlined the relevance
According to Beeton’s (2006) definition of local communities as of design thinking in the process of creating experience within desti­
destination communities, the terms ’locals’, ’residents’, ‘host commu­ nations. Design thinking is increasingly applied in tourism management
nities’ and ‘local communities’ can be treated as synonyms and will be in the areas of destination design and place planning (Dredge, 1999),
used interchangeably in the present paper. Previous literature has product and service development (Hjalager, 2010; Zehrer, 2009),
identified residents as a key element of place branding (Braun, Kavar­ experience design (Tussyadiah, 2014) and design science (Fesenmaier &
atzis, & Zenker, 2013) and destination promotion (Freire, 2009). Locals Xiang, 2017). Design thinking helps destinations to be more innovative,
are both ambassadors and co-creators of destination brand and reputa­ better differentiate their brands, and bring their products and services to
tion, based on their everyday behavior and community attributes such as market faster (Brown, 2009). More specifically, experience design has
social bonding and business creativity (Merrilees et al., 2009). Similarly, become decisive in increasing tourism destination competitiveness and
they are actively involved in the co-creation tourism experience with enhancing destination management (Kim & Fesenmaier, 2017). Design
visitors through collaborative experiences, interacting workshops, or thinking implies a human-centered innovation where consumers, de­
simply sharing destination spaces, facilities and infrastructures (Bink­ signers and managers interact in a collaborative environment toward a
horst & Den Dekker, 2009; Chathoth, Ungson, Harrington, & Chan, holistic experience concept (Tussyadiah, 2014, 2017). Social media is a
2016). Tourists look for communities as the ‘real’ destination of their human-centered interactive environment that can contribute to the
travel and, according to Braun et al. (2013) “residents are the bread and holistic experience design, based on user generated content data about
butter of places”. Moreover “there is increasing recognition of the local experiences. In addition, information and communication tech­
intrinsic role that the host community (or destination community) plays nologies (ICTs) have already been integrated into destination place
in the creation and delivery of tourism experiences” (Beeton, 2006, p. design (Dredge, 1999) and tourism experience design as tools, methods,
16) which is heavily affected by residents’ attitudes. Locals can make or artifacts, end products and triggers for tourist behavior (Tussyadiah,
break the experience for visitors: their perceived willingness to help the 2017). However, a specific focus on UGC is still needed to understand
others, talk with visitors and spend time with them are crucial charac­ social media contribution to design thinking.
teristics of local people in the evaluation of destination. As such, they Social media has been considered to be a significant source of in­
impact on positive word of mouth and willingness to visit again (Freire, formation for research in tourism (Hays et al., 2013; Jabreel et al., 2017;
2009). Marine-Roig & Clavé, 2015; Sigala et al., 2012; Xiang & Gretzel, 2010).
Both the experience and the collaborative economies are enlarging UGC analysis has a number of advantages as a research mode, including
the opportunities for visitors to meet residents and co-create experiences data availability and “its use as a non-intrusive source that lacks the
together. Online players have structured their success on selling local complications associated with direct interactions with human subjects”
experiences, supporting new forms of entrepreneurship based on the (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2015, p. 4). Textual UGC and content analysis are
peer to peer economy and human relationship between residents and the leading type of data analysis and research method employed
tourists (Guttentag, 2015; Heo, 2016; Paulauskaite et al., 2017). Desti­ respectively. This has driven attention to a few social media platforms (i.
nation marketing strategies are investing and promoting the quality of e. Twitter and Facebook), limiting both comparisons among social
human relations within destinations, mainly between local communities media and their overall potential as information sources. However, the
and tourists who constantly co-create local experiences and actively distribution and sheer amount of UGC data available present method­
contribute to the ‘shared sense of localhood’. The term ‘localhood’ was ological challenges in collecting, organizing, and analyzing the bulk of

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

this material in a quantifiable, time-efficient, and ethical manner. In 3. Methodology


addition, “the questions of whom UGC represents, and what the
boundaries for generalizability of results are, are still open” (Lu & Based on Tussyadiah’s (2014) call for capturing experiences from
Stepchenkova, 2015, p. 4). online secondary data and data mining of experiences stored in blogs
To help address the above gaps and answering the call for capturing and social media, the present paper introduces a method to track, collect
experiences from secondary data mining in social media (Tussyadiah, and analyze Instagram textual data. The research combines mixed
2014), the present paper investigates local experience using UGC as a method tools (i.e. Data Miner, Webstagram and Leximancer) to identify
support to experience design at destination level. Two research ques­ quantitative patterns based on hashtags and to perform qualitative
tions guided this explorative study: content analysis (He et al., 2013; Singh et al., 2007) of UGC data
uploaded by Instagram users (Jabreel et al., 2017), according to the
1) What is associated to local and local experiences in the social media approach of Highfield and Leaver (2015). In particular, the method is
discussion? structured into different phases. Firstly, data were collected and
2) Who is related to local experience discussion on social media? extracted based on hashtag selection: #local* (Phase 1) and #local­
experience* (Phase 2a). Secondly, the data associated to #local­
To answer these questions, the paper presents a methodology that experience* was analyzed with Leximancer software (Phase 2b).
extracts meaningful information from UGC as the basis for a holistic Thirdly, the Instagram accounts-holders who mainly posted pictures
understanding of tourism experience design. Coherently with the work with the #localexperience* or presented the keyword ‘localexperience’
of Hochman and Manovich (2013), Instagram was chosen as source of in user names, image titles or comments were identified and categorized
data for this research. Since its launch in October 2010, Instagram has (Phase 3). As in previous studies, only Instagram posts in English were
provided users with an instantaneous way to share everyday life mo­ selected for the content analysis.
ments, becoming one of the most popular social media platforms in the Table 1 summarizes the different phases and the related outputs, in
world (https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019). Despite its relation to the research questions.
popularity, little research has so far been conducted on Instagram. This
is because textual content has dominated social media research, thanks
to the ease of collecting and processing text in comparison to images. 3.1. Social media used in the study
Instagram is commonly perceived as an “image sharing platform”, while
in reality, users always post photographs and videos associated to Instagram was chosen as data source in accordance with previous
hashtags, titles and short comments (Hu et al., 2014). While the content studies on local experiences based on large-scale analysis of images from
of the different social media platforms may be dissimilar, there are some destinations (Fischer, 2010; Hochman & Manovich, 2013). Further­
architectural parallels that encourage comparisons among them (High­ more, Instagram accounts for more than one billion monthly active users
field & Leaver, 2015), specifically the shared use of hashtags to create around the world and it is representative of worldwide population
and joint online discussions and communities (Hu et al., 2014). Never­ (https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019). Lastly, Insta­
theless, Instagram’s potential for fostering research based on the anal­ gram combines the evocative potential of photographs with short
ysis of hashtags, comments, image titles and user profiles, remains meaningful text content, primarily in the form of hashtags, image titles,
under-investigated (Hu et al., 2014). The present paper employs a comments and user profile information. In 2014 further investigation
text-based analysis of Instagram posts (Highfield & Leaver, 2015) to was advocated on the Instagram social media platform in enhancing
complement previous studies on local experience based on geolocalized research based on content analysis (Hu et al., 2014). Lu and Stepchen­
images (Hochman & Manovich, 2013) and to foster both research into kova called for innovative methods to support the comparisons of results
experience design and social media as an innovative field of analysis. between social media (i.e. Facebook and Twitter), thus reinforcing their
potential as a source of evidence (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2015). Highfield
and Leaver developed, in 2015, a method for textual content analysis
based on hashtags on Instagram and adapted from previous Twitter

Table 1
Methodology structure and corresponding research questions. Author elaboration.

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

social media research. In line with Highfield and Leaver study, hashtags 2007) but the large quantity of data requires automated computer
act as a point of departure in the present work. Hashtags are UGC assisted techniques (Liu et al., 2011). To collect data for the present
composed by one or more words combined together, which can be easily study, text mining was conducted based on the hashtags: #local (Phase
recognized by the # character in front. They allow categorizing infor­ 1) and #localexperience (Phase 2a), with DataMiner (https://data
mation according to a topic or main theme and, at the same time, they -miner.io) and Webstagram (https://web.stagram.com) software. Data­
are keywords used to follow, track and contribute to online discussions Miner assists data extraction from any HTML web page and enables to
and make posts discoverable to other social media users through save the information into Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Further­
searching. Although hashtags may represent different individual in­ more, Webstagram performs like a search engine to discover Instagram
tentions, their use reflects peculiar social media practices, shared among data by tags, hashtags or usernames. It allows searching the most pop­
users, and are thus useful filters for defining the scope of research pro­ ular hashtags associated to the user profiles (Phase 3). Only public
jects (Highfield & Leaver, 2015). On Instagram, hashtags play a key role shared posts were accessed, in agreement to Instagram privacy policy.
in searching for topics and contributing to communities’ discussion Overall data was searched through the author’s personal Instagram ac­
through data that are tagged with a specific hashtag. Users usually count and collected at aggregated level, ensuring data privacy (Highfield
provide a long list of hashtags (i.e. a maximum of 30 hashtags to & Leaver, 2015). Data collection was performed between October and
comment section) in order to appear on a public timeline search and, December 2017. According to Liu, Cao and He (2011), extracted data
based on hashtags, they can identify people with similar interests and was organized into a dataset and cleaned from special characters (e.g.
make more connections, co-creating new knowledge. Hashtags allow non-alphabetic character and emoticons). The data were processed in
certain types of communities to emerge and form, including an ad hoc order to remove all information not related to the scope of the research
public, in relation to a particular event or topical issue. Eventually, or not written in English.
frequently posted hashtags can provide indirect information about the
interests of social media users (Manikonda et al., 2014).
Fig. 1 shows an example of Instagram post, composed by an image 3.3. Data analysis
and some associated hashtags. Personal data and user profile informa­
tion have been intentionally cut out. Data associated to #localexperience*, extracted from Phase 2a, were
Since hashtags are the way images and videos are organized, imported and analyzed, using Leximancer software, in Phase 2b. Lex­
researched and accessed by users, they offer researchers a criterion to imancer applies a quantitative method to conduct qualitative analysis
study how social media users document elements of their everyday lives, using its own statistics-based algorithms (Indulska, Hovorka, & Recker,
often supported by short textual information such as comments. At the 2012). While the details of the algorithms are beyond the scope of this
same time researchers can identify groups of users with similar interests, paper, in summary they extract relational information and semantic
gain demographic and psychographic information. Such data allows for meaning, transforming “lexical co-occurrence information into semantic
quantitative and qualitative analysis, although research is still in its patterns” (Smith & Humphreys, 2006, p. 262). “Leximancer offers both
infancy (Highfield & Leaver, 2015; Hochman & Manovich 2013; Hu conceptual and relational analysis tools. In conceptual analysis, the
et al., 2014). presence and frequency of concepts are established by the measurement
of the document in question, while relational analysis concentrates more
on how the concepts are related to each other within the text analyzed”
3.2. Data collection, check and cleaning (Lupu, Brochado & Stoleriu, 2019, p. 157). “The extraction of concepts is
achieved through word association by investigating terms that indicate
Instagram provides open source unstructured information which can meaning around a word … a lexical concept is formed when a group of
be easily accessed, via a user profile, but which needs to be properly related words travels together through the text. From synonyms, ad­
extracted, organized and understood. The Instagram Application Pro­ jectives, proper nouns and compounds, seed concepts are formed and a
gramming Interface (API) gives researchers access to metadata around thesaurus is built” (Harwood, Gapp, & Stewart, 2015, p. 1032).
public content and it allows queries around user-specified tags, Furthermore, themes are extracted from the collection of related con­
providing extensive information. Besides Instagram API, there are cepts in close proximity (Harwood et al., 2015). The final output of the
several tools and services, including commercial and open source freely analysis process is a conceptual map that displays themes and concepts
available applications, which support researchers in obtaining data from in the form of circles and dots and visually shows how they are related to
social media. For the purposes of the present study open source free each other, whereby large circles show key themes and dots individual
versions of programs were used to perform text mining and content concepts or key words (Sotiriadou, Brouwers, & Le, 2014). The relative
analysis in Instagram data. position, as well as the distance between circles and dots, demonstrates
Text mining techniques attempt to extract meaningful information the strength of the semantic links (Lupu et al., 2018). This means that
from unstructured textual data (Cao, Duan, & Gan, 2011; He et al., 2013, when two concepts are close together or overlap on the map, they have
2014). Text mining is mainly data driven and its main purpose is to close semantic links (He & Chen, 2014; Tseng et al., 2015). As evidenced
automatically identify hidden patterns or trends. Applying text mining by previous studies in tourism research (Phi, 2019; Sotiriadou et al.,
to social media data can yield interesting findings on human behavior 2014; Tseng et al., 2015), Leximancer entails a high level of reliability
and human interaction (He et al., 2013; Jabreel et al., 2017; Singh et al., and reproducibility and, on this basis, it was implemented in the present

Fig. 1. Example of an Instagram post, composed by image and associate hashtags, resulting from data mining of #local* research on Instagram. Source: https://www
.instagram.com/p/BvCyqWbFatg/.

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

paper. 4.2. What is associated to #localexperience* on Instagram? (Results from


phase 2)
4. Results
Results from Phase 1 revealed that the hashtag #localexperience
The results of the analysis are presented according to the different summed up to a total of 15,397 posts and was among the 100 most
phases in Table 2. They refer to data collection on December 15, 2017. frequently used hashtags that included the seed word ‘local’. The second
step of the research specifically addressed ‘local experiences’. Data
4.1. What is associated to #local* on Instagram? (Results from phase 1) scraping in Phase 2a showed the existence of other similar hashtags,
used in Instagram to refer to local experiences, such as: #local­
A first list of hashtags was constructed based on Instagram search experiences (1689 posts), #localexpert (6892 posts) and #localexperts
with ‘local’ as a keyword in the searching string of the social media (4703 posts) for a total of more than 28,000 posts all together. Fig. 2
platform. shows an example of an Instagram post resulting from data mining of
In order to produce relevant and consistent results, only the hashtags #localexperience on Instagram.
with more than 15,000 posts were taken into account in the analysis and The four hashtags (#localexperience, #localexperiences, #local­
every hashtag that did not produce a minimum of 15,000 posts was expert and #localexperts) and their 28,000 posts were analyzed with
excluded. The resulting list was made up of more than 100 hashtags Webstagram, to find out the strongest associations, based on the times
which included the keyword ‘local’, and where employed for a total of the hashtags were combined together by Instagram users in describing
48,150,390 posts, as summarized in Table A in the appendix to the images. Results are presented in Table 3. Based on UGC extraction on
present paper. December 15, 2017, a first connection was detected among travel,
The most frequently used hashtag containing the word local was tourism and local experiences. Some tourism destinations were associ­
#shoplocal with a total of 13,233,587 posts, while the #local ranks ated with local experiences, such as Tibet, Thailand and the Dominican
second with a total of 8,880,076 posts. The two hashtags together rep­ Republic. Other destinations were more generically cited with reference
resented nearly half of the most frequently used hashtags in describing to events and attraction points (e.g. #destinationevents, #eventwright,
something or someone local, as shown in Table 2. Five more hashtags #eventprofs, #bestofthebay).
presented a remarkable number of posts: between one and five million. New topics emerged from Phase 2a: outdoor activities (e.g. walking,
They were: #supportlocal, #eatlocal, #localbrand, #localfood and hiking, whale watching and adventure), photography (e.g. photography,
#localbusiness, as summarized in Table 2. These results confirmed the national geographic) and the Instagram community interested in trav­
growing movement of support for local realities and at the same time the eling activities (e.g. #instatravel, #igtravel, #travelgram).
strong association of the concept local with the food-eat area and Furthermore, to test the preliminary results of Phase 2a, thematic
business-brand-shopping activities. and conceptual analyses were performed with Leximancer software on
The remaining 95 hashtags, with more than 15,000 posts on the whole bundle of textual data extracted from the 28,000 posts asso­
December 15, 2017, summed up to a total of 12,704,595 posts with the ciated to the above key hashtags (#localexperience, #localexperiences,
seed word ‘local’ and they were clustered into the following macro #localexpert and #localexperts). Textual data was extracted from
areas: products, people, places, events, experiences, news and means of Instagram, using the Data Miner tool, organized into a working sheet
transport. Only a few tourism destinations were found in the list #local* and inserted into Leximancer software for the content analysis of Phase
and they were: Sydney (#sydneylocal) and Vegas (#vegaslocal), with 2b.
more than 50,000 posts each, together with Indonesia (#local­ Similar words were merged and a thesaurus was generated, ac­
brandindonesia) and Jakarta (#localbrandjakarta) with 35,000 and cording to Leximancer procedure (i.e. #localexperience and #local­
19,000 respectively. Interestingly Lancaster, in Pennsylvania (US), en­ experiences were merged together, and #instatravel, #igtravel, #ig
ters in the top ranking with #localslovelancaster, which has been used to were merged into #travelgram). In contrast to manual coding of data,
describe more than 26,000 images. The hashtags #localtourist, together Leximancer automatically analyses text to create concepts and themes
with #localtourists, sum up to a total of 70,000 posts, which are largely from the uploaded data. Themes are extracted from the collection of
associated to photographs of people, places, attractions and food dishes. related concepts in close proximity and their names correspond to the
The research conducted with Webstagram showed that #travel, most central in meaning or most connected to the other concepts. The
#food, #love, #handmade, #photography, #instagood, #christmas, resulting conceptual map, showed in Fig. 3, allows to visually under­
#fresh, #summer and #supportlocal were frequently combined to standing the Instagram discussion on local experience and, at the same
#local at the time of data extracted from web.instagram.com/tag/local time, organizes the data around major themes (Harwood et al., 2015).
(December 15, 2017). Fig. 3 is the output of Leximancer content analysis, which shows that
textual data associated to #localexperience* and #localexpert* in
Instagram is related to six major themes and concepts: travel (100%),
localexperiences (69%), travelgram (44%), adventure (13%), local
people (9%) and enjoy (7%). The connectivity rate percentage, in pa­
rentheses, calculates the level of closeness and connection within the
themes and reflects the importance of each of them. According to the
Table 2
methodology explained above, the red bubble of travel is the most
The most frequently used hashtag containing ‘local’ seed
important theme among the posts related to #localexperience. It shows
word. Data collection on December 15, 2017. Author’s
elaboration.
100% connectivity which means the topic is strongly linked to all the
others.
# posts
In addition, Leximancer conceptual maps allow discussion to be
#shoplocal 13 233 587 focused on the resulting key concepts by putting the grey node at the
#local 8 880 076 center of the bubble as the major focus of the analysis and expanding the
#supportlocal 5 148 855
#eatlocal 3 051 527
connection web. Fig. 4 confirms the centrality of the concept travel in
#localbrand 2 789 092 Instagram discussion about local experiences: red lines link the concept
#localfood 1 202 482 with all the others. At the same time, the concept localexperiences pre­
#localbusiness 1 140 176 sents strong linkages with all the key words, as shown by the orange
Remains 95 #local* 12 704 595
lines. This resulting map supports the deep relationship between

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

Fig. 2. Example of an Instagram post composed by an image and associated hashtags, resulting from data mining of #localexperience. Personal data, user names,
biographies and pictures covered by watermarks have been intentionally left out from this example. Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/BvVs0lDAo-Z/.

traveling and local experiences. It reveals that #localexperience belongs


Table 3
to the tourism world, as much as to tourists and visitors who enjoy
Combination of #localexperience* and related hashtags. Research conducted on
engaging in photography, as it is represented by the keyword of
Webstagram.com, December 15, 2017. Author’s elaboration.
travelgram.
Key hashtag Related hashtags more frequently associated Focusing on local people we see in Fig. 5 that the concept is associated
#localexperience #travel, #tibettour, #adventure, #localtibetanexperience, to localexperiences, travel, travelgram and enjoy while it is far from and un-
#hiking, #nationalgeography, #photograph connected with the concept of adventure. Similar connections link the
#localexperiences #travel, #bestofthebay, #eventwright, #destinationevents,
concept enjoy to all the main themes apart from adventure. On the con­
#eventprofs, #walkingtour, #instatravel, #wanderlust,
#igtravel, #travelgram trary, the concept adventure is related to local experience and travelgram,
#localexpert #realestate, #realtor, #takemetour, #thailand, as per Fig. 6.
#localexperience These conceptual maps suggest two main interpretations of what is
#localexperts #realestate, #islandtimetours, #whalewatching, #tourism, associated to local experiences among Instagram users. It visually re­
#discover, #RepublicaDominicana
inforces the divide between users who take photographs and create posts
focusing on adventure and open air activities, and others who address
their interest to local people and enjoying the moment.

4.3. Who contributes to local experience on Instagram? Identification of


users’ profiles (results from phase 3)

The last part of the research attempted to identify and categorize,


through web data scraper and descriptive statistics, who contributes to
local experience discussion on Instagram. With this purpose, the analysis
focused on biographical content of user profiles and, at this exploratory
stage of research, two categories of Instagram users were considered:

• users who posted images and videos using #localexperience* and


• users whose Instagram profiles included the world local experience
in their account names.

Fig. 3. Thematic and conceptual map resulting from textual analysis of Insta­ Instagram allows user accounts to be differentiated based on three
gram data associated to #localexperience*. Elaboration powered by Lex­ categories: personal, business and creator. Furthermore, every user has a
imancer free trial version.
profile with name, photo and website and can edit a personal biography
(Manikonda et al., 2014). User profiles associated to #localexperience*
were found by Webstagram, while the research on account names was

Fig. 4. Conceptual map and connections among travel, local experience and the
remaining key concepts. Elaboration powered by Leximancer, free trial version.
Fig. 5. Conceptual map and connections between local people, enjoy and the
other key concepts. Elaboration powered by Leximancer, free trial version.

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

commercial and marketing purposes. The impressive number of posts


pertaining to #local* resulting from Phase 1 may convey that the large
majority of social media users would rather use hashtags different from
#localexperience to refer to their everyday life in their usual
environment.
Overall results answer to Gnoth’s (2017) call for a deeper under­
standing of ‘local experience’ co-creation by providing new insights
from the textual analysis of Instagram data. The literature review
associated ‘local experiences’ to products, services and people, while the
UGC analysis added the new concept of activities as a key dimension of
the local experiences. Activities take place within the destination envi­
ronment (e.g. hiking, walking, destination events and whale watching),
and are co-created with the local communities in the context of trav­
eling. The co-creation is documented both visually (i.e. images and
Fig. 6. Conceptual map and connections among adventure and the other key videos) and textually (i.e. hashtags, comments and likes) on Instagram
concepts. Elaboration powered by Leximancer, free trial version. by social media users and it is associated to a positive sentiment (i.e.
enjoy). These results contribute to a holistic view and provide new in­
directly performed on Instagram search bar. Data Miner supported data sights to both understand and design local experiences, as an important
extraction from user profiles and information was organized into a contribution to marketing strategies in destination competitiveness.
dataset for descriptive statistics. Based on type of accounts and UGC
information provided (e.g. tour guide, travel blogger, vacation home 6. Conclusions
rental, organization or local restaurant), results revealed that, on
December 15, 2017, users who posted with the #localexprience* were Local experience is based on the broader concept of ‘local’, which is
largely tourism businesses (55%) (e.g. explore_tibet, winestronaut widely used in contemporary destination marketing. Locals and local
slovenia wine tours, takemetour_thailand, locogringo_mexico) and experiences are the main attractions of destinations and tourists are in
tourism bloggers (25%). A similar situation could be found within the constant search for the ‘local atmosphere’ (Tussyadiah & Pesonen,
Instagram account profiles whose names included ‘local experience’. 2016a, b) and a ‘shared sense of localhood’ rooted in communities
Despite two single cases of local communities (i.e. localyouthexperience (Volgger, 2019; Warnaby & Medway, 2013) Destination management is
of Alberta in Canada and the.local.experience.llc in California), the facing hard times in providing the best local experience and design
remaining accounts belonged to business activities or small entrepre­ science supports destinations in this process, by providing a framework
neurs who promoted tourism events, guided tours and hospitality to for improving experiences (Kim & Fesenmaier, 2017). Social media
tourists looking for alternative ways of experiencing destinations (e.g. platforms are virtual containers of people’s experiences and they
‘Ashisrck - suggest Japan local experience’, ‘Lombokwatersports - represent an innovative field of analysis for knowledge generation, upon
experience Lombok like a local’, ‘Guido_tragustoegiusto - local food which tourism design science can rely for better design of future local
travel experience’, ‘Balcanicbg - Balcanic: local experiences’, ‘Slocally - experiences (Tussyadiah, 2014, 2017). However, the quantity and
Slovenia Local Experiences’, etc). quality of UGC calls for innovative methods that support data mining,
data analysis and the comparison of results among social media plat­
5. Discussion forms (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2015). The present paper aims to contribute
to tourism-experience design by exploring the concept of local experi­
This exploratory analysis aimed to contribute to experience design ences based on textual analysis of UGC posted on Instagram. It provides
by enhancing the understanding of ‘what’ and ‘who’ can be identified as theoretical, methodological and practical contributions to tourism
‘local’ and ‘local experience’, searching into the social media discussion. experience design and text-based social media analysis for research
Instagram textual data analysis suggests that the hastag ’#local’ was purposes.
associated with support for local community, engagement with local Findings support the literature on local and local experiences and
businesses and entrepreneurial activities (#supportlocal, #shoplocal, enrich the discussion with new insights associated to the ‘what’ and
#eatlocal, #localbusiness, #localfood, #localbrand). The results ‘who’ resulting from the analysis of hashtags, user profiles and com­
contribute to the academic debate answering Urry’s call for in-depth ments on Instagram. The role of local people was identified as central in
understanding, expanding the existing topics with economic insights local experiences both by literature and social media analysis.
and entrepreneurial dimensions associated to the #local. The hashtag Conversely, the literature review and social media textual analysis re­
’#localexperience’ was in the list of the 100 top-ranking #local* sults differ in recognizing local products and services on the one side,
hastages since it was associated to more than 15,000 posts on December and activities and adventure on the other, as focal in local experience
15, 2017. Results from data collection and content analysis performed discussion. By doing so, the present research explores the potential of
using Leximancer suggested that Instagram users associated the ‘local UGC and social media in supporting the understanding of experiences
experience’ discussion with traveling. In turn, the ‘traveling’ theme and providing new knowledge to design science. These findings
leads to two major thematic areas: adventure and outdoor activities, on contribute to the experience design theory in addressing tourism expe­
one side, and local people and enjoyable moments on the other. These rience co-creation process into local community interaction and outdoor
results are visually represented into a thematic and conceptual map, activities between travelers and locals. Instagram data analysis reveals
which supports a complexity reduction around the term local experience that, on December 15, 2017, tourism businesses and bloggers were
and provides new insights for experience design based on UGC. Further employing the term ‘local experience’ mainly for digital communication
investigation explored Instagram users related to local experiences, in strategies.
agreement with Tussyadiah’s idea of design thinking as a human- Furthermore, the present paper develops a method that combines
centered innovation where people co-create. On December 15, 2017, different tools (i.e. Data Miner, Webstagram and Leximancer) to support
tourism businesses (55%) and tourism bloggers (25%) were found to be text mining and content analysis of UGC data uploaded by Instagram
the majority of users contributing with their UGC to ‘local experience’ users. The text analysis method presented complements previous visual
discussion on Instagram. The combined analysis suggests that #local­ geo-referenced data studies (Hochman & Manovich, 2013), contributing
experience is largely used by the tourism and travel sectors, for to a holistic understanding of local experiencing and enhancing the

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

potential of Instagram as source of evidence. Furthermore this study trends. Nevertheless, the paper contributes to a better understanding of
fosters the research on Instagram as data source, since its growing local experience co-creation (Gnoth, 2017) on Instagram social media
relevance among social media platforms and its wide use in marketing and it presents a mixed method that can be used both by researchers and
and advertising (https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019). practitioners in collecting and analyzing data from the social media as
The method presented in this paper can be replicated to include and the basis for tourism design of experiences.
promote research across other social media platforms, thanks to the Practical implications for designing local experiences at destinations
presence of shared content elements, such as hashtags, and fixing a could use the resulting information in two possible ways: by focusing on
common ground of textual analysis for results comparison (Highfield & the relationship and interactions between tourists and local people on
Leaver, 2015). the one side, and by investing into outdoor activities and local adven­
The paper, however, has some limitations. First, it is exploratory in tures to attract tourists on the other. The social media results show that
nature and results describe local experience based on text UGC on the local experience design needs to be enhanced by products or services
Instagram social media platform as per data mining on December 15, consumption based on the dynamic processes of human interaction and
2017. Although Instagram is one of the most-used social media in the the active experiencing of places.
world, users tend to be below 50 years of age and, therefore, age de­
mographics together with privacy settings of user profiles may affect Authorship contribution statement
results representativeness. Though it should be noted that the hastag
’#local*’ research produced an impressive quantity of results, #local­ Marika Gon: Conceptualization, Data curation, Methodology, Formal
experience was one of the less common among Instagram users and it analysis, Writing – review & editing.
was primarily associated to tourism businesses and bloggers. Secondly,
further research is needed to complete the local experience picture, by Acknowledgement
expanding the research to other social media platforms (i.e. Facebook
and Twitter). Research should be repeated over time, both data mining The author is indebted to the Editor, the Guest Editors and the
and data analysis, to compare results within longitudinal approaches, anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive
thus supporting local experience design with updated topics and new feedback.

APPENDIX
Table 1
List of # local seed whit more than 15.000 posts. Own research on Instagram, December 15.

# post ref

#shoplocal 13233587 #shoplocal13.233.587 post


#local 8880076 #local8.880.076 post
#supportlocal 5148855 #supportlocal5.148.855 post
#eatlocal 3051527 #eatlocal3.051.527 post
#localbrand 2789092 #localbrand2.789.092 post
#localfood 1202482 #localfood1.202.482 post
#localbusiness 1140176 #localbusiness1.140.176 post
#localartist 657066 #localartist657.066 post
#localmusic 620971 #localmusic620.971 post
#supportlocalbusiness 615867 #supportlocalbusiness615.867 post
#sydneylocal 549945 #sydneylocal549.945 post
#localart 540479 #localart540.479 post
#locals 532474 #locals532.474 post
#vegaslocal 506804 #vegaslocal506.804 post
#supportlocalartists 497055 #supportlocalartists497.055 post
#consumelocal 479223 #consumelocal479.223 post
#localbrandindonesia 358009 #localbrandindonesia358.009 post
#localbrandid 339812 #localbrandid339.812 post
#localsmd 334623 localsmd334.623 post
#locallove 332565 #locallove332.565 post
#local3 322036 #local322.036 post
#locallymade 291953 #locallymade291.953 post
#localbeer 291183 #localbeer291.183 post
#localproduce 288742 #localproduce288.742 post
#localsonly 284901 #localsonly284.900 post
#localproduct 278873 #localproduct278.873 post
#locallygrown 232264 #locallygrown232.264 post
#localeats 221712 #localeats221.712 post
#local1 216979 #local1216.979 post
#localartists 187244 #localartists187.244 post
#localtalent 133254 #localtalent133.254 post
#localvape 126022 #localvape126.022 post
#localband 122163 #localband122.163 post
#locallysourced 111941 #locallysourced111.941 post
#locales 104464 #locales104.464 post
#localmarket 99041 #localmarket99.041 post
#locallife 99031 #locallife99.031 post
#localdesigner 98283 #localdesigner98.283 post
#localbrew 95662 #localbrew95.662 post
#localcoffee 94463 #localcoffee94.463 post
(continued on next page)

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M. Gon Journal of Destination Marketing & Management 19 (2021) 100435

Table 1 (continued )
# post ref

#localguides 88522 #localguides88.522 post


#locallyowned 87197 #locallyowned87.197 post
#localshop 85549 #localshop85.549 post
#localbands 82334 #localbands82.334 post
#localmade 80549 #localmade80.549 post
#localhoney 75401 #localhoney75.400 post
#locale 72739 #locale72.739 post
#localislekker 71534 #localislekker71.534 post
#localflowers 66173 #localflowers66.173 post
#localnatives 63541 #localnatives63.541 post
#localtourist 62999 #localtourist62.999 post
#localiiz 62238 #localiiz62.238 post
#localbrands 61573 #localbrands61.573 post
#localbrandindo 61195 #localbrandindo61.195 post
#localsknow 60323 #localsknow60.323 post
#localdesign 57658 #localdesign57.658 post
#localnews 52775 #localnews52.775 post
#localglass 51593 #localglass51.593 post
#localfoods 50398 #localfoods50.398 post
#localaz 48988 #localaz48.988 post
#locallyhated 48352 #locallyhated48.352 post
#localheroes 47403 #localheroes47.403 post
#localfashion 46097 #localfashion46.097 post
#localhero 44455 #localhero44.455 post
#localfarms 44079 #localfarms44.079 post
#localphotographer 43704 #localphotographer43.704 post
#localbar 43621 #localbar43.621 post
#localfarmers 41545 #localfarmers41.545 post
#localhistory 40913 #localhistory40.913 post
#localgrown 40588 #localgrown40.588 post
#localscan 39731 #localscan39.730 post
#localcafe 39369 #localcafe39.369 post
#localingredients 35402 #localingredients35.402 post
#localwine 35159 #localwine35.159 post
#locali 35014 #locali35.014 post
#localpub 34552 #localpub34.552 post
#localbrandbandung 34448 #localbrandbandung34.448 post
#localfarm 33875 #localfarm33.875 post
#localbiz 33291 #localbiz33.291 post
#localfollowtrick 33131 #localfollowtrick33.130 post
#localspot 32566 #localspot32.566 post
#locallens 31628 #locallens31.628 post
#localescomerciales 27301 #localescomerciales27.301 post
#localculture 26334 #localculture26.334 post
#localslovelancaster 26131 #localslovelancaster26.131 post
#localwolves 25725 #localwolves25.725 post
#localfruit 25631 #localfruit25.631 post
#localph 25413 #localph25.413 post
#localvore 24811 #localvore24.800 post
#localisthenewblack 24718 #localisthenewblack24.718 post
#locally 24533 #locally24.533 post
#localstore 24489 #localstore24.489 post
#local710 20775 #local71020.775 post
#localtaste 20298 #localtaste20.298 post
#localgoods 19717 #localgoods19.717 post
#localboy 19653 #localboy19.653 post
#localbrandjakarta 19138 #localbrandjakarta19.138 post
#localcraft 18595 #localcraft18.595 post
#localcommunity 17351 #localcommunity17351post
#local600 15763 #local60015.763 post
#localoca 15516 #localoca15.516 post
#localexperience 15397 #localexperience15397post
TOTAL 48150390

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