They say “a picture is worth a thousand words” and, in a day and age like today, social media has brought the power of pictures directly to the grasp of our fingertips. When it comes to traveling, taking pictures is just one way that we hold the memories of places that we’ve visited.
In this data analysis, FloridaPanhandle.com analyzed hundreds of hashtags and attractions of every single U.S. state, along with global data of the most hashtagged, liked, and followed attractions.
Key Findings
- Central Park has 133,881 reviews and still remains at an astounding 4.5 rating… on top of its 437K followers on Instagram.
- The most followed attraction on this list is the Burj Khalifa with over 2 million followers, and the most rated is La Sagrada Familia with over 165,000 reviews.
- Orlando, FL is home to the most hashtagged attraction in America. Walt Disney World reigns at over 10,150,394 hashtags… and counting (#waltdisneyworld)
The Happiest Place in Florida and On Instagram
It may come as no surprise to you, but theme parks are an ideal place to load up on all of the best pictures. Orlando, FL is home to the most hashtagged attraction in America. Walt Disney World reigns at 10,150,394 hashtags (#waltdisneyworld) and continuously grows by the thousands each day.
For the data, we tried to stick to attractions only instead of entire cities, but it’s clear that states like California, New York, and Florida have some of the most highly hashtagged locations like #yosemite with 3,438,096 tags, #timessquare with 4,990,034 tags, and #clearwaterbeach with 1,295,525 tags.
Not only are big cities prone to larger counts in hashtags, but desert and mountain-style states like Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado also have a higher number of overall hashtags. Arizona’s highest count #horseshoebend at 719,211, and #antelopecanyon has over 700,000 tags. Meanwhile, Nevada has the #lasvegasstrip and the #hooverdam at 3,376,477 and 552,882 hashtags respectively.
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One of the most followed and highly hashtagged attractions is based in the beautiful Colorado. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater not only has 1,646,116 #redrocks tags, but the Red Rocks Instagram has over 450K followers.
Over 34 million hashtags create the top 10 most photo-worthy attractions on Instagram….and they are always growing!
Central Park: America’s Heaviest Reviewed Gem
While Central Park is on the list of the top 10 most tagged, it also resides at the top of the most-reviewed location on TripAdvisor. Central Park has 133,881 reviews and still remains at an astounding 4.5 rating… on top of its 437K followers on Instagram.
We analyzed the top 10 and realized that wasn’t enough, so we have shared every single state’s most photo-worthy and “Instagrammable” locations. On this list, you’ll find places like Cloud Gate (The Bean in Chicago), Shenandoah National Park, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and Devil’s Tower in Wyoming.
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Cities and mountaintops aren’t the only types of locations on this list! Beaches are one of the most popular locations to snap a pic at. Cape May is a small beach town in New Jersey with a population under 3,000 and has 731,694 faithful #capemay tags. Other beach attractions like Topsail Island, Myrtle Beach, and Orange Beach have also made the list.
Of course, nothing beats a monument. One monument favorite like the #libertybell has over 150,000 tags, while the #washingtonmonument has over 600,000. When comparing the number of reviews to each, they both have over 4,000 TripAdvisor reviews each and are rated as a 4.5. One reviewer for the Washington Monument stated “Pictures do not do this monument justice.” Which means a lot considering it has over 600,000 pictures dedicated to it on social media.
A few honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the list: Dollywood (Tennessee) with 346,700 #dollywood tags, Empire State Building (New York) with 3,196,554 #empirestatebuilding tags, and Lake Powell (Utah) with 454,563 #lakepowell tags.
France and Mexico: Home to the World’s Most Hashtagged Instagram Landmarks
When it comes to landmarks, there’s none more iconic than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. However, Tulum has snagged the most hashtags on Instagram. Tulum is a town on the Yucatán Peninsula that provides homage to Mayan Ruins. The population runs under 50,000 and is known as an attraction of the ancient ruins.
While Tulum is more of a city-based attraction, the Eiffel Tower itself is a stand-alone attraction which is why we have put both at the top of the list.
Overall, #tulum has 8,897,052 hashtags on Instagram — with the average like hovering over 3,000. The #eiffeltower has 7,464,041 tags on Instagram with the average like almost at 2,000. Both of these grow exponentially each day by the thousands.
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The top 10 tagged attractions in the entire world all leverage over 1 million tags each, making the total hashtags over 41 million combined. That’s a whole lot of photos. Other popular attractions like the London Eye, La Sagrada Familia, and the Colosseum are seen on this list and bring in 3,419,379, 2,793,345, and 1,973,017 hashtags respectively.
The most followed attraction on this list is the Burj Khalifa with over 2 million followers, and the most rated is La Sagrada Familia with over 165,000 reviews. Out of those 165,000, over 120,000 are all 5 star reviews.
London, UK is a Consistent Winner Overall
The entire world is full of incredible and photo-worthy destinations and attractions. While we narrowed down the top 10 in the globe and America, there are plenty more scattered throughout the globe with well over 1 million hashtags and well over 100K followers.
The UK, in particular, is home to several locations with a high count of pictures on social media. #bigben has over 3 million hashtags on Instagram, #towerbridge has 2,762,642, and #nottinghill has over 1.5 million… Not to forget about #conventgarden and #buckinghampalace that each have over 1 million tags.
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Other honorable mentions that didn’t make the top 10 are places like the #cntower in Toronto, Canada and the #sydneyharbour in Sydney, Australia. Sydney also has the #sydneyoperahouse with 1,021,372 hashtags on Instagram and 191K followers on their opera house account.
As you can see, people love to take pictures and they love to make memories in new destinations. Whether you are hopping from state to state and embracing the top attractions in America or you are flying over to new and exciting countries with iconic landmarks and monuments. All of these locations offer the best of the best. Don’t believe us? Hashtag it for yourself!
Methodology
FloridaPanhandle.com used common knowledge and several highly-reputable sources to gather a database of most popular attractions per state and globally. From there, we leveraged social media to gather numbers on each of these attractions and narrowed down the list of most liked, most tagged, and most reviewed.
This is an independent publication by FloridaPanhandle.com. We are in no way affiliated with Instagram or TripAdvisor nor have we been sponsored as such.
All information has been gathered in August 2023
