The objective of this study is to evaluate the quality of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) data for the purpose of describing patterns of visitor movement within a tourism destination. Using a Southern United States tourism destination as a case study, this research quantifies visitor flow networks using both data mined from Instagram and data collected using a traditional online survey methodology and then conducts a series of statistical analyses to compare results. In doing so, this paper highlights the advantages of using VGI data for tourism research, but also draws attention to potential trappings.
Keywords: Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), Instagram, visitor network, digital footprin
