No selfies, please: An analysis of travel texts and images from Reddit

Purpose: This research will analyse the main posts from Reddit, more specifically, the subreddit dedicated to travel known as r/travel.Methodology: The 946 most relevant posts and their 891 images were collected by webscraping and their titles were analysed and gathered using the image classification technique. Findings: Results show that most Reddit posts do not have people in the pictures, drifting away from the popular selfies that are ubiquitous in other social networks. It is believed that users prefer to post images on Reddit without people due to its anonymous appeal. Moreover, there is an evident focus on images associated with natural environments and less so with urban environments; also, images taken at or around cities and countries out of the beaten track are favoured and it supports the idea that Reddit users search for less-known destinations to guarantee exclusivity during the tourist’s experience.Originality/Value: Even though there is a high number of tourism research connected to social networks, there is none that tries to understand Reddit users' approach to tourism. It is also important to highlight that there are a few studies using the image classification technique towards the identification and quantification of objects included in travel photography.