Foreign travel vloggers are reshaping how the Philippines is portrayed to the world, as a new study reveals that their videos are curated not only for cultural storytelling but also for strategic monetisation. These creators, mostly from Western countries, are engaging in practices that simultaneously depict, sanitise, and commercialise the nation’s image. The findings were published in the journal Annals of Tourism Research.
Researchers analysed 20 YouTube videos by popular foreign vloggers and identified four key practices: “exoticising”, assimilating, sanitising, and monetising. Together, these actions reveal a pattern of content production that blends personal travel experiences with deliberate branding, often driven by commercial and social media incentives.
“Exoticising” involves highlighting elements of Filipino life and landscape that seem distant or unfamiliar to a Western gaze. Beaches, local markets, and interactions with street vendors are portrayed through a lens that amplifies their difference. These depictions tend to favour romanticised images of rural simplicity, tropical beauty, and friendly locals, reinforcing long-held stereotypes of Southeast Asian destinations.
At the same time, vloggers engage in assimilating, where they immerse themselves in local culture by participating in daily activities such as eating with their hands or learning basic Filipino phrases. This performance of integration is often surface-level, aimed at increasing relatability with local viewers and reinforcing a narrative of open-minded travel.
One striking element is the act of sanitising, where vloggers selectively focus on the more visually appealing and politically neutral aspects of the Philippines. The study found that even controversial areas, such as Manila Bay’s artificial beach project, were framed in a positive light. These omissions suggest a tendency to avoid critical engagement in favour of promoting a more polished and marketable destination image.
Monetisation plays a central role in shaping these narratives. Many vloggers receive sponsorship from local tourism boards or businesses, while others rely on the engagement metrics of likes and views to earn through YouTube’s advertising system. Sponsored content often includes glowing reviews of resorts and tourist sites, reinforcing the notion that vlogs function as soft marketing tools as much as personal travel diaries.
The popularity of these foreign vloggers in the Philippines is partly tied to the country’s complex colonial history and the continued prestige of Western influence in Filipino society. This gives foreign creators a kind of symbolic capital that enhances their credibility and reach within the local media ecosystem.
The study challenges viewers and tourism stakeholders to critically assess how digital narratives are crafted. It suggests that while travel vlogs may contribute to destination marketing, they also risk perpetuating simplified or skewed representations. For destination managers, the findings offer a reminder that strategic partnerships with content creators should be pursued with awareness of the broader implications on cultural representation.
