Oct 11th, 2015, 11:55 PM

Traveling the World with Snapchat

By Jessaline Fynbo
Nairobi was one of many less-traveled destinations featured on Snapchat's live feed.
Could Snapchat inspire people to travel to places they've never thought of before?
I can imagine what you are thinking when you read the headline: How could Snapchat possibly contribute to the tourism industry? Yet for those who use Snapchat avidly, the answer seems quite obvious.
 

Within the past year, Snapchat has added the Discover and live feed features. "Discover" allows users to see short bursts of news and entertianment headlines, but it's the live feed that could prove beneficial to the tourism industry. Snapchat has featured countless live feeds of cities and countries around the world, including Nairobi, Qatar, Irbid, Dubai, Berlin, and Morocco, among many others. The Snapchat live feed gives those who crave travel ideas of places to visit that they may not have thought of before. During the week of Oct. 5, Snapchat featured Irbid, a relatively unknown city where tourists would likely not think of when making travel plans. The feed gives an authentic glimpse of the city, as the feed is generated by locals and tourists who are experiencing the featured city in real time. 
Over the summer, Snapchat received a lot of backlash for featuring Tel Aviv, largely due to the controversy surrounding the Israel-Palestine conflict. After taking the criticism, Snapchat quickly responded by creating a live feed of the West Bank. The beautiful thing about Snapchat is that the app provides a story of a city that is often not seen in mass media.
 
This includes the features of Tel Aviv and the West Bank. Much of the media criticizes Arab countries and paints them as inherently dangerous. Initially, the Tel Aviv feed corresponded with what people would see about the city in the mainstream media. The live feed of the West Bank told a completely different story of what people, especially in Western nations are told. It humanized the citizens of the country and showed the true beauty of the area that you would not be able to see if you were to watch the 6 p.m. news. While it is always a good idea to be cautious and travel smart when going to a foreign country, these city features on Snapchat gave the world a much different view of what the West Bank appears to be, and could potentially inspire others to see what is going on in other parts of the world for themselves. 

Aside from the West Bank, Snapchat feature of Nairobi also taught a lot to people who have never visited. At first, Americans did not seem too happy about the Nairobi feature – some even took to Twitter to say things like, “I didn’t know Nairobi had electricity let alone Snapchat.” Some individuals tweeted negative things about featured cities saying that they would never visit them. However, people have also considered traveling to these places that they have never seen before, like Nairobi and Dublin, perhaps as a result of the live feeds. The popular app is becoming eyes to the world -- perhaps even for the most close-minded people.
 
The fact that people have tweeted that they would like to visit particular places after seeing it on their Snapchat live feed can only mean positive things for the tourism industry. While there are critics within the Snapchat community who take to Twitter to proclaim that they would never go to a city after seeing the Snapchat live feed, the important part is that there are people saying the complete opposite. If Snapchat continues to feature countries that may not be popular tourist destinations, people may start taking the initiative to explore the world and see it for themselves, rather than simply sitting behind their computer, reading other people's opinions about a city. So thank you, Snapchat. I, for one, can’t wait to pack my bags and travel to places I wouldn’t have thought of without you. 
 
(Photos: Jessaline Fynbo/Plume)