Ideal image in process: Online tourist photography and impression management

•A five-stage tourist image production process was identified.•Impression management underpinned every stage of tourist image production process.•Various self-presentation tactics were identified in tourist photographic practice.•Evaluation of performance could influence future travel and photography decisions.•Social comparison played a crucial role in defining the extraordinary.

This paper discusses the role of impression management in the production of online tourist photography and how it works along with other underlying dimensions that shape photographic decisions at various stages of image selection. The paper illustrates that the selection of photographs is so intimately linked to impression management that it even extends to the decision of whether to bring a camera along on a trip in the first place. Tourists are constantly caught in the dilemma of who to satisfy during the selection process. This study suggests that social media and photography facilitate social comparison, thus the tourist gaze is being redefined even more rapidly nowadays.