The spatial concentration of tourists poses a challenge for many cities. Understanding the projected and perceived images of the city via social networks may help to improve management of this phenomenon. That said, social networks tend to be studied in quite a uniform way. The present study analyses the differences that could exist between 784 images posted on the Instagram network by tourist boards (projected) and 10.590 posted by visitors (perceived). The study is based on the case of Barcelona. The use of cartographic analysis tools indicates that tourist boards tend to focus on just a few specific locations. Nevertheless, user-generated images show a wider range of locations, which multiplies by seven the area where the images of the tourist board are concentrated. That said, in both cases, the images posted tend to be located in the central areas of cities. The fact that Instagram tends to reinforce the image of central spaces and that it has only a limited capacity to promote new tourist attractions outside what are already the most consolidated areas for tourism has been underlined. •Location of user-generated and tourist board image in Instagram has been compared.•A partial coincidence is observed in the spatial distribution of images.•The tourist board focus on what are already consolidated tourist areas for tourism.•Visiting tourists project a richer and more diverse image of the city.•Instagram tends to reinforce the image of central spaces.