The Instagram Effect: Is Social Media Influencing Visitation to Public Land?

Abstract Public lands in the United States have recently experienced significant increases visitation. Journalists and park managers suggest Instagram as a reason for increase. We explore this issue Oregon State Park system by combining visitation data with park-specific georeferenced content engagement indicators from Instagram. Using several empirical specifications, we show suggestive evidence that is not likely correlated to increased everywhere, but only few locations generating high user participation within app. find no contemporary effect positive association cumulative on visits at subset of parks.