"No photo without editing" has become the mainstream approach for young people, especially when traveling. The "In-App Behavior Analysis Report During Travel" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released recently by global travel guide Mafengwo in collaboration with BeautyCam Meitu Camera and four other major brands reveals that 68% of people use various apps to take photos while traveling, rather than their phone's built-in camera; even more notably, 42% use more than one app to edit their photos, with 20% spending over 30 minutes on editing.
Based on Mafengwo’s platform big data and sampled data from online questionnaires, this report provides a comprehensive analysis of how young travelers use various apps during their journeys. The findings show that photo-editing apps have become the third most frequently used type of app after transportation and travel apps, combining both utility and social features, and serving as an important source of travel enjoyment. As "sharing photos" has become a key part of travel, photo apps have naturally become indispensable.
Travel often places people in entirely new and unfamiliar settings, which tends to spark a greater interest in taking photos. The report points out that 90% of travelers will enthusiastically take photos in the same spot until they capture a satisfactory shot before moving on. 71% opt for posed shots, and 8% even continuously change poses to boost their "photo success rate." To get the perfect shot, 47% prepare multiple outfits for their trips, with no difference between men and women in this regard.
This shows that capturing satisfying photos has become an important goal of travel, and when it comes to who takes the photos, interesting gender differences emerge. 32% of women are most dissatisfied with photos taken by their boyfriends or husbands, while men don’t feel the same way—they’re more unhappy with photos taken by strangers. According to survey data, female friends might be the bestphotographersto choose, as their photos receive consistent praise from both men and women.
Selfies are the second most common photo style after posed shots, with 67% of people saying they take selfies while traveling. Of these, 41% can’t accept unedited selfies without beauty filters, while only 19% are willing to post "straight-out-of-camera" unedited photos. The report also found that the more people love to travel, the more they enjoy taking selfies and the higher their standards for photo quality. Among travel enthusiasts who go on trips four or more times a year, 68% love taking selfies.
Nowadays, there are countless photo apps on the market, with "beautification" and "color adjustment" being basic features. According to data from BeautyCam Meitu Camera, the most popular beautification features are slimming the face and body, skin smoothing, blemish and acne removal, skin tone enhancement, and facial feature definition. Comparative data shows preferences for beautification features also differ by gender: women are most concerned about their body shape, while men care most about their skin tone. Additionally, BeautyCam Meitu Camera’s "Movie Studio" feature is highly favored by travelers, allowing them to create cinematic bokeh effects with one tap and capture stunning travel photos.
Moreover, shooting short videos has gradually become mainstream since 2017, with travel videos being a particularly popular category, sparking widespread creative enthusiasm. Mafengwo’s big data shows that when people visit domestic destinations such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Yunnan, Shanghai, and Hainan, as well as international ones like Japan, Taiwan (China), Thailand, Vietnam,Singaporethey are most likely to shoot travel video clips on location.
"For many young people, making travel 'look beautiful' is even more important than the travel experience itself—for example, they may spend a lot of time taking and editing photos. To some extent, travel has become more 'utilitarian' than before," said Feng Rao, head of Mafengwo’s Tourism Research Center. "Young people’s photo-taking behavior during travel reflects a new way of traveling and a new mindset. This behavioral trend has given rise to a new kind of 'travel anxiety': in the past, people’s anxieties during travel usually stemmed from the unknowns of unfamiliar environments, but now they often come from concerns about how many great photos they can take and how many likes they’ll get."
A representative from BeautyCam Meitu Camera’s operations team stated that both travel and photography are parts of people’s pursuit of a better life and important ways of self-expression. "Travel is one of the most significant scenarios for photography, and this trend continues to grow year by year with the increase in the number of travelers. During these rare, wonderful moments of the year, people are even more eager to present their best selves through photos. The original intention of this collaboration between BeautyCam Meitu Camera and Mafengwo is to encourage more people to pick up their cameras, capture every moment of their travels, and record the beauty of life."