Is Social Media shaping travel more than travel itself?

Something I’ve been thinking about lately.

Recently, a traveller sent me an Instagram reel and asked if we could include that exact experience in the itinerary. The same café, the same road, the same visuals they had already seen online.

Around the same time, another traveller told me, “I don’t even want to read the itinerary properly. I just want to go with the flow".

Both experiences stayed with me.

One arrived with expectations shaped by content. The other arrived with curiosity.

It made me wonder how much algorithms now influence not just where we travel, but also how we experience places.

The same cafés, viewpoints, and hidden gems keep going viral until suddenly everyone wants to be in the exact same place. And somewhere along the way, travel starts feeling less personal and more repetitive.

At the same time, it’s also contributing to overtourism in places that were once quiet and undiscovered.

Of course, digital visibility helps destinations and smaller operators get discovered. But I’m curious how others here see this shift.

Are algorithms helping us explore more meaningfully?
Or are they slowly deciding travel for us?