Andalucia is asking for influencers – and will live to regret it

As influencers increasingly present destinations in an idealised way – often getting up at dawn to take photos before the crowds arrive or photo-shopping images to remove ugly details – many popular resorts are facing a backlash from disappointed travellers. 

“I’d seen all these Instagram photos of Santorini and it looked amazing, but they don’t tell you about the crowds at the crater and the huge queues for the funicular. It was a real struggle and I don’t know if I’d go again,” Philippa Starns from Kent, who visited the island in late September, told The Telegraph.

 “Since the role of most influencers is to promote a sleek and sanitised vision of a destination there’s always the chance that visitors will be disappointed, which means that they won’t return,” points out Daniel Kerzner who owns Santorini Sky, one of the first hotels to base itself away from the island’s much-photographed volcanic caldera.