Dianelle Rivers-Mitchell , a travel influencer and the founder of Black Girls Travel Too, said that influencers should learn about the places they’re asked to visit before promoting them for a free trip. “I’ve sat at boardroom tables with tourism boards who have offered to provide me with the red carpet treatment just to promote their destination,” she said. “I’ve walked away from several tourism boards because of the way they treat their citizens within that country. It’s not worth it.”

While many countries will provide a private guard or security to make an influencer’s experience better, Ms. Rivers-Mitchell said she would worry about recommending those places to average followers without the same access. “You have followers who breathe, eat, and sleep what you say,” she said. “If you have followers who take you up and visit that destination, but experience something totally different, they’re going to vocalize their experience from the mountaintops.”

Influencers are discovering that it’s easy to get backlash if they’re perceived as glossing over the harsher realities, even of their own experience of a destination. When travel influencer Brooke Saward posted from a tour of Pakistan in April, some commenters said that she had glossed over safety concerns for western tourists and the country’s record on women’s rights. “I’m glad your organized trip let you explore the country in new ways, but truthfully that same freedom and safety would be elusive for many travelers and even citizens there,” the journalist Miranda Green commented.

In 2016, a group of travel influencers faced criticism after traveling to North Korea and posting what many perceived as government propaganda to their YouTube channels. “I’m trying to focus on positive things in the country and combat the purely negative image we see in the Media ,” the YouTuber Louis Cole wrote in the description of one video.