COVID-19 Pandemic has led to global crises in various sectors, including tourism. It has automatically affected Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism in marketing and promotional activities. However, the preliminary observation on its official Instagram account indicates that the audience engagement before and during COVID-19 outbreak stays relatively the same; and the only distinction between the pre-pandemic Instagram feeds and the during-pandemic ones is on the caption delivery. This study investigated the Instagram captions of @indtravel from the SFL perspective in order to find transitivity elements and explain which ones are dominant. The qualitative-descriptive method was used. The data collection technique included documentation, with Instgram account @indtravel as the data source. 10 Instagram feeds with most audience engagement during COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed mostly based on Eggins’s transitivity theory (2004). The results exhibit occurrence of the transitivity’s three main elements: process, participant, and circumstance. (1) 9 different types of Process are found, with Material Process being the highest percentage of occurrence (37%); (2) For the Participant elements, of 13 types indicated, Carrier is the most emerging on; (3) The Circumstance covers 6 distinctive types, with Location of Place reaching the highest percentage (25%). In conclusion, this SFL analysis reveals certain transitivity elements in the Instagram captions that reflects a good strategy to maintain follower engagement despite the unfavorable condition of COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic, Instagram Caption, SFL, Social Media, Transitivity