A frantic search was triggered recently when a Scottish travel influencer was reported missing after a night out in Morocco. In 2021, vanlife vlogger Gabrielle Venora Petito was killed by her fiancé during a road trip across the United States. Youtuber “Callum Abroad” filmed footage of a slum in Brazil that provoked a threat to a man’s life. These are just some of the nightmare stories affecting the world of travel content creators and raising questions about how safe it is to post online about travel lifestyles.
With travel consumers increasingly willing to be led by tech tools and online advice, there has been an unsurprising proliferation of travel-inspired internet content—and an accompanying rise in incidents where the creators take chances with their safety and that of others. From the public dissemination of a traveller’s itinerary and location to the high-octane nature of the exploits that go viral, posting about one’s adventures carries a degree of risk. Is it possible to stay safe in this universe?
Entertainment or education?
Research published in March 2026, in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism notes that “social media travel and adventure influencers present both challenges and opportunities for outdoor recreation management and public safety.” One of the major issues revealed is that “influencers generally position themselves as entertainers rather than educators, distancing themselves from responsibility for followers’ behaviour.” Rejecting the ultra-curated take and the teams of runners and gofers who ensure television goes smoothly, they also view “risk-taking and autonomy” as “a key part of influencer identity and online credibility,” the authors say.
That drive to keep viewers entertained, clicking on engaging content, rather than dealing with drier subjects such as safety, creates an online environment where risky behaviours appear to be rewarded. One influencer told the study: “People want to watch people do crazy things… not talk about risk.” Even doing nothing, but doing it in an extreme way, as seen with the advent of “rawdogging,” presents the potential for harm that seems to attract clicks.
Normalisation of risk-taking and over-sharing
Worse, pervasive risk-taking-for-views on social media, in turn, “normalises” dangerous antics. The “consequences,” the researchers say, are deadly: often “falls and drownings. People are risking their lives at cliff edges, mountain overhangs and around water. In fact, 379 people died taking selfies between 2008 and 2021.”
Horrifying statistics and a lack of caution applied to one’s own surroundings are only one of the dangers to consider here. The rise of online publishing includes live location sharing or time-limited releases like Instagram Stories, posted for only 24 hours. These formats create a risk in themselves. They effectively reveal to others where the original poster is geographically, within a given timeframe. That means bad actors could physically stalk the poster, or work out that they are “not at home” and target an empty domestic address.
Staying safe
One safety initiative from Yale University underlines that “cybercriminals will use all methods to learn about your travel plans. When you post on social media about your plans, you make it easier for them to target you.” Yale urges people not to post details about their itinerary, and to wait until they return home before sharing holiday posts. The university also recommends setting accounts to private (not good for would-be influencers looking for a wide pool of followers) and turning off GPS tracking.
Other good practices for travel influencers include setting up a “safeword” or “emergency word” with friends and relatives, using emergency contact features on their phones, and ensuring they tell trusted local providers, such as hotels or walking refuges, about their plans.
Legal issues
Even when well-intentioned, influencers can end up in legal hot water, like American teen and charity fundraiser Ethan Guo, who was stranded in Antarctica and held for weeks on a Chilean military base after landing his plane in a restricted area without permission.
Doing due diligence on relevant history and rules applying to their destinations is a must for any traveller. In March 2026, Dubai police arrested at least 109 visitors of various nationalities who had shared images of war damage in Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE.
Another risk facing influencers, then, is legal liability. Real-world guides and outdoor pursuit leaders must usually operate under strict guidelines and certifications, but in theory, anyone could broadcast travel influencer material, no matter their level of expertise. And lawmakers around the world are catching up with regulating the online sphere, passing bills to hold individuals and platforms to account when they publish content that causes harm.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act (2023) has introduced new criminal offences that include “encouraging or assisting serious self-harm.” In other jurisdictions, such as the US, legal experts like Professor Max Helveston of DePaul College of Law have argued that negligence laws could hold influencers accountable, though Helveston acknowledges that proving direct causation of harm in a court of law might be tricky.
The “free speech” defence
Influencers have long claimed they are covered by US free speech laws, but legal cases have now been successfully won against people deemed to have caused harm with their online activity. (Infowars host and conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, repeatedly claimed that the Sandy Hook school shooting never happened, assuming the statements were constitutionally protected opinion, hyperbole, or rhetoric. The courts disagreed, eventually hitting him with a $1.4 billion liability for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.)
Professor Helveston also points out that influencers might in fact enjoy fewer free speech exceptions than they imagine, since their monetised posts can be considered “commercial activity”, which is less protected.
Don’t become the next big show trial
The line between personal and public responsibility has recently been tested in the Austrian courts, after 37-year-old Thomas Plamberger left his girlfriend to freeze to death on Grossglockner, Austria’s highest peak, in January 2025. Despite not being a professional mountaineer guide, he was convicted of her manslaughter.
As well as the personal hazards that travel vloggers flirt with, from unwittingly revealing their whereabouts to eating a poisonous devil crab for the cameras, they could be flirting with another hazard in their search to become the next big thing: becoming the next big legal liability case instead.
