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A number of TikTok and Instagram videos have sparked backlash after influencers visited Jamaica in the midst of Hurricane Melissa.
A TikToker with over 150,000 followers posted a video of himself. travel to jamaica During a historic Category 5 storm.
“Hurricane Melissa is disrupting my vacation,” the caption reads.
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Another video showed two people frozen cocktail The caption reads, “Pretending like a Category 5 hurricane isn’t hitting Jamaica.”
The video now appears to have been deleted.
Some TikTok influencers (not pictured) came under fire for posting vacation content during Jamaica’s Hurricane Melissa. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
Another traveler with 680,000 followers was seen posting a video on “.Hurricane fit check” video has received thousands of reactions.
Hundreds of other TikTokers took to the comments section to voice their opinions on the video’s sensitivity.
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One user said, “This generation is really dishonest.”
Another said: “I have no idea what I’m about to go through. Stay safe. ”
Social media experts have called it “tragic tourism” as various TikTokers (not pictured) appear to be capitalizing on Jamaica’s Hurricane Melissa to gain online content and followers. (AP Photo/Matthias Delacroix)
“It’s completely surrounded by unboarded windows. Why?” the user warned.
“This is so out of line,” one TikToker wrote.
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One user commented: “If you’re going to get through broken glass, nails and flying debris, you’ve got bad hurricane gear.” “You don’t know what you’re up against.”
Another person wrote: “I’m so glad you’re all doing well and staying positive.”
A social media critic said: “The rise in tragedy tourism, where would-be influencers use disasters as content, is just despicable.” “It takes attention and resources away from the actual victims.” (Ricardo Makin/AFP via Getty Images)
Brad Porambo, a Steamboat Institute fellow and social media commentator, told Fox News Digital that this is an example of “.tragic tourism. ”
“The rise in tragedy tourism, where would-be influencers exploit disasters for content, is just despicable,” he said. “It monetizes human trauma by taking attention and resources away from real victims. This is emblematic of the social media attention-at-all-costs culture going in the wrong direction.”
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He said young people engaged in tragedy tourism may not be aware that they are profiting from suffering, using it as “fodder for outrage”. influencer culture” has become commonplace on social media.
Polumbo said the trend is part of Gen Z and social media culture’s “widespread obsession with attention as currency.”
A man looks at a fallen tree in St. Catherine, Jamaica, just before Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on October 28, 2025. (Ricardo Makin/AFP via Getty Images)
“Young people are motivated to do anything to get attention, no matter how insensitive, offensive or dangerous it may be,” he says. “There are many examples, content creator They literally died doing stunts for “content”. ”
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“Intentionally flying into the path of a hurricane is just one example of this self-defeating tendency,” Polumbo added.
The scope of the disaster in the wake of Hurricane Melissa is finally starting to come into focus a week after the record storm made landfall. fox weather Reported.
It was the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica.
Jamaican authorities said on Monday that at least 32 people were killed by Melissa, and eight more unidentified deaths were under investigation, the source said.
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Fox Weather also reported that at least 31 people were killed in neighboring Haiti due to flooding caused by the storm, according to the country’s Civil Protection Agency.
It was the most powerful storm to hit Jamaica and the first major hurricane since 1988, Reuters said.
