The latest destination for social media influencers is an abandoned city devastated decades ago by a nuclear disaster.
Thanks to the popularity of HBO’s miniseries “Chernobyl,” travel to the Ukrainian ghost city has reportedly spiked, and influencers are visiting the site of the 1986 nuclear plant explosion.
Amid the ruins of Chernobyl and its environs, visitors are sharing pictures of themselves wearing radiation suits in front of rusted fairgrounds or staring contemplatively out at the forsaken city. On Instagram, posts are tagged with hashtags including #Chernobyl, #ExclusionZone and #nucleardisaster. (Radioactive isotopes linger in the air there, but nuclear experts consider the pollution tolerable for people visiting for limited periods of time.)
The Instagram account @juliabaessler—which is followed by 319,000 people and typically posts shots of a woman in bathing suits or gym clothes—shared a series of Instagram posts and Stories of the same woman deliberately posing in front of the ruins.