Influencer marketing has seen a great increase in usage, and is considered a cost-effective
marketing strategy, where companies and brands are collaborating with influencers to promote
their products. Influencer marketing covers a large variety of niches, such as for example travel,
and many millennials use social media to gather information and inspiration for travel
activities. Previous research has noted a lack of an ethical framework for influencers, and the
need to research ethics in relation to the strategy. Here the focus has generally been on
influencers' view of ethics and choices in relation to this. It was further identified that previous
research lacked a focus on followers’ interpretations of ethics in influencer content. Therefore,
this thesis aimed to look into followers' interpretations of ethics in travel influencer content,
and how authenticity might affect their interpretation as well.

This was done through semi-structured interviews with millennials, who follow one or more
travel influencers. They were considered to have knowledge about travel influencers, both in
terms of content they prefer, but also the elements in said content, which has a negative or
positive impact on the viewer experience. Through the interview replies, patterns and themes
were determined, to gather insight into how the followers interpret ethics. Here it was
considered that personal values of the followers’, determined the interpretation of ethical
content. If content did not align with their values, it was more likely to be considered unethical,
or at least give a negative impression. Authenticity was in this regard considered a guiding
factor of creating ethical content, but at the same time this concept was also viewed to have
limitations based on a variety of factors. Overall, the followers had a lot of concerns in certain
types, which means there is a potential need for a clearer guideline, or ethical framework for
travel influencers.