Rio is the Most Popular UNESCO Site in the World, According to Instagram

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The most popular UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world, according to Instagram, is Rio de Janeiro. The city has been tagged over 23 million times using Instagram’s geotag feature.

The Latin American Travel Company analyzed the top one hundred UNESCO World Heritage Sites on Instagram. Rio de Janeiro boasted over 23 million geotags. The coveted number one spot highlights its popularity among residents and travelers alike.

UNESCO awards the accolade of World Heritage status to areas that are considered to be of “Outstanding Universal Value”. The UNESCO World Heritage status is awarded based on cultural, historical, or natural value.

UNESCO’s praises of Rio de Janeiro highlight all three categories “the urban landscape of the city has been shaped by significant historical events, influenced by a diversity of cultures, is perceived to be of great beauty.” However, Rio is classified by UNESCO as an overall cultural heritage site. The city of Rio was declared a world heritage site in 2012.

At the moment of writing, there are 1121 UNESCO World Heritage Sites listed. Brazil claims 28 World Heritage sites: seventeen cultural, ten natural and one mixed. Paraty is a classification of both cultural and biodiversity.

Brazil has, in addition to Rio at the top spot, the city of Brasília in the fourth position with over four million geotags. Brasília became a cultural UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. There were no other Brazilian entries in the top one hundred entries from geotags on Instagram.

Instagram, the world’s second-most-used social media, has a geo-location tag feature that allows users to identify the location of where the photo was taken. Rio de Janeiro has 62 percent more geotags than the second contender for the hot spot, Budapest in Hungary, which has 8.9 million tags.

Latin America boasted three other entries among the top ten. The city of Quito in Ecuador holds the sixth position with 3.8 million tags and Cartagena de Indias in Colombia holds the tenth position with 2.5 million tags.

Following Rio de Janeiro, the top ten most Instagrammed UNESCO World Heritage Sites were:

• Budapest, Hungary
• Historic Center of Oporto, Portugal
• Brasília, Brazil
• Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, Japan
• City of Quito, Ecuador
• City of Verona, Italy
• Historic Site of Lyon, France
• Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Paris, France
• Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The significance of these findings highlights the popularity of Rio among its UNESCO peers. It showcases the adoration of both tourists and residents alike that have posted about the “Cidade Maravilhosa” (Marvelous City) more than 23 million times.

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