Going beyond selfie tourism. That is, how to move from the rapid sharing of images to a deeper understanding of places, restoring meaning to travel

'Selfie tourism' has become the symbol of a profound transformation in travel: increasingly, destinations are consumed as backdrops, evaluated for their photogenic quality and shared on social media before they are even truly understood. Yet the problem is not the selfie itself — it is a model of tourism that privileges visual performance over experience, and digital presence over knowledge. This talk explores the opportunities offered by offline travel practices, grounded in slowness, in the participation of local communities, in the discovery of lesser-known places, and in building a more responsible relationship with cultural and natural heritage. Moving beyond selfie tourism means rethinking the very meaning of travel: not accumulating images, but experiences capable of transforming the traveller and generating value for those who inhabit these places. Topics covered include: the image as the outcome of a lived experience, relational tourism and the role of local communities, the shift from the photo album to continuous social media storytelling, the phenomenon of 'Instagrammable destinations', and the loss of a sense of place.