This Is the Most Picturesque Destination in the World, According to Social Media

According to data pulled from TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, London is the most photogenic destination in the world.

If you didn't post about your vacation on social media, did you even go on vacation?

Ok, we know that's a highly controversial statement to many, but the idea of documenting a vacation and sharing the photos with friends and family goes back further than the advent of Instagram. Come on, who wasn't invited over to a friend's house, in the '80s or '90s, for a projector slideshow party after that friend returned from the Grand Canyon? Now at least we get to peruse our friends' travels from the comfort of our own homes. We can also now see which spots get the most love from travelers on vacation thanks to Money.co.uk; the company analyzed social media metrics to find the most mentioned, and most beautiful, destinations around the globe.

Coloured town houses in Notting Hill, London - stock photo
Karl Hendon/Getty Images

The financial company analyzed more than 100 popular destinations sourced from Euromonitor's Top 100 City Destinations Index 2021 and various articles around the internet. It then looked at the hashtag or search term volume to find which places have the highest number of posts across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Finally, Money.co.uk crunched the numbers to give each destination a search and hashtag volume score out of 10 to determine the world's most picturesque destinations.

People walk on Millennium Bridge, facing St. Paul's Cathedral
Nina Ruggiero
Landscape view of people enjoying a sunny day in Greenwich Park in London
Nina Ruggiero

So, which spot came out on top? That honor went to London.

"The most popular destination on all three social media platforms combined is the capital of the UK, London," says the blog post put out by Money.co.uk, noting it scored a whopping 9.83 out of 10. "There are more than 150 million posts on Instagram mentioning the city, more than 28 billion views on TikTok, and 150,000 searches for vlogs on YouTube."

The city also came out on top on Instagram thanks to its "iconic landmarks seemingly everywhere you turn, as well as a number of fancy bars and restaurants to explore and share with your feed."

A London bus in the city centre
CHUNYIP WONG/Getty Images

Other top destinations included Dubai, which ranked no. 2 overall and no. 1 on TikTok with more than 65 billion views on the platform. Paris also came in third, with an impressive score of 9.74 thanks to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame, which are both wildly popular attractions on Instagram. See all the destinations that made the list, along with the full methodology of the study, here.

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