Pictures and videos are more influential in travel now than they have ever been. On TikTok alone, the hashtag “travel” boasts 194.6 billion views, while some 701 million Instagram posts are about travel too.
A recent 2022 study also showed that one in three travellers now turn to social media for holiday inspiration. However, culture is still important for holidaymakers in 2023, with 84% of millennials now expressing that they want to travel somewhere they can immerse themselves in local culture, according to a survey from American Express Travel.
In light of this and World Photo Day which takes place on August 19th, the travel experts at European Waterways have analysed Booking.com, TripAdvisor and Instagram data to reveal the most picturesque ‘must visit’ cultural landmarks in the EU for that perfect holiday picture!
Without further ado, the results show that the Eiffel Tower is Europe’s must see landmark in the EU, with over 7.4 million results.
To see the the top 20 results, please find the table below:
| Landmark/Area | No. of Hashtags | City |
| Eiffel Tower | 7,465,006 | Paris |
| Louvre Museum | 3,811,923 | Paris |
| Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris | 3,119,670 | Paris |
| Montmartre | 2,244,150 | Paris |
| Camp Nou | 2,091,851 | Barcelona |
| Arc de Triomphe | 1,327,436 | Paris |
| Casa de Campo | 1,220,902 | Madrid |
| Champs-Elysees | 1,080,893 | Paris |
| Sacre-Coeur | 1,001,169 | Paris |
| Charles Bridge | 742,279 | Prague |
| Malasana | 741,726 | Madrid |
| Prague Castle | 627,931 | Prague |
| Gran Via | 614,200 | Madrid |
| Alexanderplatz | 613,638 | Berlin |
| Plaza Mayor | 610,725 | Madrid |
| Rathaus | 592,523 | Vienna |
| Unter den Linden | 526,635 | Berlin |
| Stare Miasto | 525,602 | Krakow |
| Centre Pompidou | 520,102 | Paris |
| Red Light District | 517,157 | Amsterdam |
To achieve these results, the team analysed the latest data from Booking.com to identify the top 10 European cities for history and culture, before then analysing the top sights and landmarks to visit for each city based on reviews of 4 stars and above with a minimum of 500 positive reviews. They then found relevant Instagram hashtag results for each landmark to determine the most photographed and ‘must visit’ locations
Analysing the study further, the results also show that Paris is the go to destination for holiday photos and culture, as 40% of the top 20 landmarks are located there. Madrid follows in second place with 20% of landmarks in the top 20 located there.
