Prices for Instagram tours vary, but range from around $45 for a group tour, which includes a few photos taken by the guide, to $150 or more for a private tour with numerous photos to download. Some companies charge extra for photo editing or special effects like drone cameras to take aerial shots and video. Tours often start early to avoid crowds.

Since tour participants usually have little professional experience in front of the camera, guides coax them into poses and offer modeling tips. Tour guides go to great lengths, crouching in crowded streets or scaling rocks at sites of natural beauty to snap guests from flattering angles. Guests don’t just post the pictures to Instagram: some use them for holiday cards, personal websites, or profiles on dating apps.

While guides recount historical details about the backdrops, some travelers are more interested in having their picture taken than hearing about the landmarks.

“I had the experience that I’m talking and people are just taking photos or checking the photos I took before of them, so I’m like, ‘OK, I will stop,’ ” said Sol Alessandria, co-founder of Barcelona Travel Girls, which offers Instagram tours in the Spanish city’s Gothic quarter and Parc Güell.