Thought by some to be the parasites of the modern world, self-named ‘influencers’ regularly come under fire for prioritizing the perfect shot over the wellbeing of anyone or anything else. Their latest victim? The delicate ecosystem of Lapland.
Influencers have been taking a particular interest in an area on one corner of Tshahkajärvi lake, in the far north of Lapland, Finland. Homegrown tourists as well as people from the UK, Taiwan and Germany have been hiking to the remote area, all to get a photo of a dilapidated old wooden boat.
Run down and decaying, the boat sits on the shore of the lake, completely unaware that it has become an unlikely Instagram star.
As the trend continued to gain traction, doctoral researcher Elina Hutton was in the middle of a dissertation about the environmental impacts of tourism in the Arctic.
“New destinations like this rise quickly on social media,” Hutton told Yle, the Finnish Broadcasting Company. However, with the influencers' desperate need to be original, they have been venturing into more remote locations, with a previously very low human footprint.
“The ground surrounding the boat has been completely trampled by people, and vegetation beneath the snow is dead,” says Hutton.
There's a heavy irony in these influencers making what I can only imagine is a pretty tricky journey to a “secret” location now known for its outstanding beauty, only to be part of its destruction.
"People get the impression that everyone else does it, too – that it's okay to go to places even though they're on private property, in protected zones, or even if it's dangerous," Hutton explained.
She reported that the number of calls to rescue services in the area has also increased, as ill-equipped, common sense-lacking tourists get themselves stuck in the pursuit of an Instagram photo.
The thousands of online photographs portray the area as a secluded wilderness, but this is another social media lie.
"In real life, people can be seen everywhere there. You can see power lines and other things," Hutton explained. "The way nature is presented in social media images also affects how people think about nature.”
There are multiple fancy hotels and restaurants only a 12-minute walk away, just off a highway – sorry to burst the bubble.
Hutton lives in Tromsø, an island city in northern Norway where the Northern Lights can be seen. She’s caught tourists urinating in her boathouse, and taking photographs of her clothesline. There have also been issues in northern Norway with tourists camping in churchyards, as well as other inappropriate places.
"It shows that tourists don't consider that locals are living their normal, everyday lives," Hutton said.
With Finland and Lapland's travel and tourist Instagram pages also sharing images of Tshahkajärvi lake, social media influencers can’t be entirely blamed. Part of me thinks good on these people for flying to Lapland, rather than posting yet another croissant and matcha latte flat lay.
What I really struggle to understand, however, is how these people, who spend their lives on social media chasing likes and follows, fail to realize they are not the only people going to these places – and therefore having an impact.
Despite the reason they know about a new beauty spot, brunch place, or bar, influencers act completely clueless to the problems caused by a sudden, mass influx of crowds – making them both the cause of the problem, and the problem itself.
If you feel like doing some ethical tourism, why not take a look at our guides to the best 360 cameras, the best cameras for wildlife photography, and the best waterproof cameras.
