You probably experienced it. A cool new little eatery opens up in your neck of the woods. It’s yours and yours alone, until some Instagram influencer comes along and puts it on blast. Suddenly, the place that was your delicious little sanctuary is packed at all hours. Good for the owners, bad for you.
That’s essentially what happened to a rock formation in Australia’s Blue Mountains.
Lincoln’s Rock used to be a quiet, rocky ledge with beautiful, wide-open views that only a few people in the know knew about. A single Instagram post changed everything, and now it’s an obnoxiously Instagram-famous spot where, if you want to selfie, you’re going to have to wait in line.
A K-Pop Star Turned This Rocky Ledge Into a Viral Travel Destination
As CNN reports, it all started with a K-pop star back in 2023. As the world was reawakening after its pandemic slumber, Jennie Kim of the mega-popular K-pop Blackpink shared photos of herself sitting on the cliff’s edge. In the photos, her legs were dangling over the drop.
She deleted the pictures, but given that she’s a member of one of the world’s most popular musical acts, they had already spread far and wide, especially in Asia. Almost immediately, fans started traveling to the site-specific to re-create “the Jennie photo.”
Local officials say visitor numbers exploded to the thousands per day at peak times, even at a lookout spot with only 16 parking spaces. Long lines formed as people waited to sit in the exact same spot for the same picture, reaping the diminishing returns of social media validation.
The Blue Mountains are a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s one of the most beautiful spots on the planet, and according to officials, almost none of the sudden influx of visitors are there to see any of it other than the one spot that a K-pop star took a picture at one time. Many of them take the photo and leave.
This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the throngs of people itching to get the same picture didn’t leave such a damaging environmental impact. Conservationists say that heavy foot traffic is damaging low-lying plants that feed the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo, with fewer than 8,000 remaining in Australia.
Local leaders of indigenous tribes worry that the spiritually significant and largely undeveloped mountains could rapidly become an overdeveloped tourist hotspot due to viral marketing. There’s also the issue of safety. The cliff has no barriers. It’s only a matter of time before someone takes a tumble.
It’s all got to be so much that the Blue Mountain City Council temporarily closed access to Lincoln’s Rock last month to debate long-term management plans that could include some safety fencing, a daily visitor cap, or a timed entry system like it’s a ride at Disney. Local businesses are none too pleased with the sudden temporary closure. That is the unfortunate give-and-take as a suddenly popular place deals with its immense overexposure.
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