If it wasn't on the gram, it didn't happen.
Social media has become a driving force in everything we do.
Whether it's documenting your next meal, showing off your hotel room, or doing the oh-so-original boomerang drink 'clink', it's platforms like Instagram and Facebook that dominate our lives.
But it's not quite as it seems.
Booking.com's new 2019 travel trends has uncovered a darker side to our filter-dominated holiday snaps.
New research reveals #travel actually makes us compulsive liars when posting online.
In fact, 12 per cent of us use an older, more flattering photo taken from a previous holiday, rather than the one we're actually on.
It gets worse.
When it comes to choosing accommodation, almost a third of us base our decision on how it will look like when we post it online.
But that defeats the purpose for 11 per cent of us who go as far as to take a photo from accommodation we're not actually staying in, and post it pretending like we are.
But if we can fudge it, we will.
One in five global travellers admit they choose a place to stay that they can style in vacation photos to look more expensive than it is.
And if we can do it for the rest of our lives, then we'll take that opportunity too.
16% see travel as an opportunity to earn a living as a paid influencer.
Unfortunately for most of us, our 700 followers aren't quite going to cut it.
With anywhere from one to four million followers, travel influencers can take home up to $31,000 US per post which, if they post just one sponsored photo per week, adds up to be $1.6 million over a year.
But we can dream.
And lie some more.
Even when finished from our respective holidays, we continue to lie, and pretend we're still on vacation.
When it comes to social media, narcissism closely follows.
And when it comes to travel, apparently so do the lies.
These statistics were provided to us by booking.com
FULL 2019 TRAVEL TRENDS STATISTICS:
- 12% have used an older, more flattering photo of themselves on holiday from a previous trip, for the trip they were actually on
- 11% have taken a picture of an accommodation, pretending they were staying there when in fact they were staying elsewhere
- 7% have pretended to still be on vacation when they were already home
- 28% of people choose a property based on how it will look when posted on social media
- 16% see travel as an opportunity to earn a living as a paid influencer
- Over half of global travellers (51%) reveal they would like to visit somewhere that's so unique, none of their friends have been there
- One in five global travellers (20%) admit they choose a place to stay that they can style in vacation photos to look more expensive than it is
- Over a quarter of global travellers (28%) admit to wanting to stay in attractive properties that they can photograph and use on their social media accounts as something they think about when choosing travel accommodation
- Over a quarter of global travellers (26%) like statement accommodation that is unique, so they can seem like trendsetters or different from the crowd
