Best Hashtags for Travel Reels on Instagram

The Reel deal

Using hashtags for travel Reels is an excellent way to cut through on Instagram and promote your destinations to active searchers. 

Since being introduced to Instagram in August 2020, Reels have exploded in popularity—quickly becoming an incredibly competitive space for content creators and businesses alike.  

We’re all searching for the best ways to get more engagement on Instagram Reels, and using hashtags for travel Reels might just be the answer we’ve been looking for. 

We’ve already explored hashtags for promoting your travel business, but what about when you want to hone in on Reels? Should you be using the same hashtags or spicing things up with something new? 

Here is a simple and effective formula from the above post to help you maximise your travel hashtag-driven engagement:

#[basic travel hashtag] + #[country] OR #[state] + #[city] OR #[airport]* + #[activity} + #[surroundings/objects] + #[the moment] + #[specialised travel] + #[Instagram specific – optional]

Before exploring the best hashtags for travel Reels, let’s look at why you should be using hashtags in the first place. 

Why Should You Use Hashtags in Reels? 

Hashtags have become a staple of every social media platform under the sun, to the point where using them in your content is an absolute must. If you’re unsure where to start with hashtags, check out our hashtag etiquette post. 

When it comes to Instagram, hashtags for travel Reels serve five primary purposes: 

1. Increase engagement 
2. Targeting a specific audience
3. Embrace trends 
4. Increase awareness 
5. Support causes

Of these five benefits, increasing engagement is the most valuable benefit of using hashtags in your content. If you’re just starting on Instagram, hashtags allow you to get your content in front of people who aren’t following you. 

Most Popular Hashtags for Reels

At the time of writing, the 10 most popular hashtags for Instagram Reels are: 

1. #insta
2. #viral
3. #explorepage
4. #india
5. #likes
6. #dance
7. #tiktok
8. #trending
9. #reels
10. #video

While these hashtags are the most popular on Instagram, don’t think that including them in your captions or comments will send your Reels shooting towards viral success. Breaking through using the most popular hashtags is next to impossible, so focusing on targeted hashtags is a great idea. 

Most Popular Travel Hashtags for Reels

At the time of writing, the 10 most popular travel hashtags for travel Reels are: 

1. #travel
2. #nature
3. #travelphotography 
4. #photography 
5. #love
6. #photooftheday
7. #instagood
8. #travelgram
9. #picoftheday
10. #instagram

Because popular hashtags are difficult to break through with, let’s look at a few strategies you can use to connect with a more targeted audience. 

Keep an eye on tourism agencies and government bodies 

Any tourism agency worth its salt will create branded or campaign-specific hashtags for travel Reels whenever they launch a new campaign. Keeping an eye on what your government bodies are doing and promoting is an excellent way to jump on the hype they’re creating and maybe even have them share your content with their existing audience. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf8hI6ql2lJ/

Tourism WA is using #WanderOutYonder and #thisiswa as their main hashtags. 

Similarly, Tourism Australia’s official Instagram account has been using #SeeAustralia and #HolidayHereThisYear

Look for destination-specific hashtags 

When people use Reels to research a potential travel destination, they will search for location-specific hashtags. You should consider this when publishing content to Reels. 

The ideal hashtag formula for destination reads: #[country] OR #[state] + #[city] OR #[airport]*

(*airport applies if the city’s name is too long)

So, for example, a holiday to Broome might go something like this: #travel #westernaustralia #broome

Some of the top location-based hashtags for travel Reels in Western Australia are:

Some of the best Australia-wide travel hashtags include:

• #seeaustralia
• #australiagram
• #exploreaustralia
• #backpackingaustralia
• #australiatravels
• #travelaus

Need help with Reels? Let’s have a chat!