Influencers chasing Hurricane Melissa facing backlash for Jamaica trips

Many TikTok and Instagram videos are sparking backlash as influencers travel to Jamaica during Hurricane Melissa.

A TikToker with more than 150,000 followers posted a video showing him traveling to Jamaica during the historic Category 5 storm.

The text in the video read, “Hurricane Melissa is ruining my vacation here.”

CATEGORY 5 Hurricane MELISSA HIT THE ISLAND, Texan honeymoon couples stranded in JAMAICA

Another video showed two frozen cocktails with the caption: “Pretending there wasn’t a category 5 hurricane hitting Jamaica.”

The videos now appear to have been deleted.

Another traveler with 680,000 followers was seen sharing “hurricane adaptation check” videos and received thousands of reactions.

Hundreds of TikTok users took to the comments section to voice their opinions about the sensitivity of the videos.

EMERGENCY ADVISER FOR SAFARI SUPPORT WARNES ABOUT THE RISK OF ‘TERRORISM VIOLENCE’ AND ‘UNILEST’

“This generation is so frivolous,” one user said.

Another user wrote, “You have no idea what you will experience. Be safe.”

One social media expert called it “tragedy tourism” when he saw various TikTok users (not pictured) taking advantage of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica for online content and followers. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

One user asked: “You are completely surrounded by windows that are not boarded up. Why is this?” he warned.

One TikToker wrote: “This is so irrelevant.”

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

“If you’re going to be navigating through broken glass, nails, and flying debris, it would make for a terrible tornado outfit,” one user commented. “You have no idea what you’re dealing with.”

Another person wrote: “So glad you’re in good spirits and staying positive.”

“The rise in tragedy tourism, where aspiring influencers use disasters for content, is truly despicable,” said one social media critic. “It diverts attention and resources away from the real victims.” (Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images)

Steamboat Institute fellow and social media critic Brad Polumbo told Fox News Digital it’s an example of “tragedy tourism.”

“The rise in tragedy tourism, where people who want to be influencers use disasters for content, is truly despicable,” he said. “It diverts attention and resources away from real victims and monetizes human trauma. It’s emblematic of everything that’s wrong with the care-at-all-costs culture on social media.”

CLICK TO REACH THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION

He said young people engaging in tragedy tourism may not realize they are profiting from pain due to the normalization of “outrage bait and influencer culture” on social media.

This trend is part of Gen Z and social media culture’s “broader obsession with attention as currency,” Polumbo said.

A man walks to St. Louis, Jamaica, shortly before Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 28, 2025. Catherine looks at a fallen tree in her city. (Ricardo Makyn/AFP via Getty Images)

“Young people are encouraged to do anything to get attention, no matter how insensitive, obnoxious or even unsafe,” he said. “There are many examples of content creators literally dying during their stunts for ‘content’.”

CLICK FOR MORE LIFE STORIES

“Deliberately flying into the path of a hurricane is just another example of this self-destructive tendency,” Polumbo added.

The scope of the disaster in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa is just beginning to become clearer, a week after the record-breaking storm made landfall. Fox Weather reported.

It was the strongest storm to directly hit Jamaica.

Authorities in Jamaica said at least 32 people were killed by Melissa on Monday, and eight more unconfirmed deaths were being investigated, the same source said.

TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ

Flooding from the storm killed at least 31 people in nearby Haiti, according to the country’s Department of Civil Protection, Fox Weather reported.

According to Reuters, it was the strongest storm to directly hit Jamaica and the first major hurricane to do so since 1988.