The research, conducted on Instagram, looked at the emotions people had for tourist attractions, towns and cities. Despite having town status, Watford was ranked in the top ten spots. Brochure printing campaigns can be useful for marketing locations and their landmarks, especially when a positive story can be told about an area.
Peter Taylor, the Mayor of Watford, has looked at the research findings and has told the Watford Observer:
“I suspect the main reason Watford is quite high up is because of the Warner Bros studios, but we have some great things here in Watford so it’s great that we are so high up.”
Taylor pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has had a big impact on residents as well as tourists. He suggested that local people had been affected by not being able to watch the football, which was, like many other sporting events, been postponed because of the pandemic. In addition, he indicated that shoppers have not had the opportunity to use Watford’s High Street in the usual fashion.
A hashtag of #takemeback was used by the Instagrammers involved in the project. Almost 210,000 posts were analysed by the research team. This sample was taken from several million uploads.