Travel vlogging as an integrated practice: Foreign travel vloggers' practices in the Philippines

Abstract

Using an integrated practice approach, we examine how foreign travel vloggers document their experiences in the Philippines. By analysing 20 YouTube videos created by foreign vloggers, we reveal the interrelated practices of exoticising, assimilating, sanitising, and monetising, informed by vloggers' roles as tourists, locals, and entrepreneurs. Our findings demonstrate travel vlogging is shaped by inherent destination materials, structures, and technological terrain in which practices are organised. We highlight the market logic of these practices performed by foreign social media influencers who utilise their racial/ethnic capital in documenting their travel experiences in the Philippines. We contribute to the tourism practice literature by diving deep into the oscillating roles and practices of foreign travel vloggers in producing destination representations through vlogs.