A growing number of companies are building their business models around the selfie, attracting people with destinations that beg visitors to take out the phone and snap away.

Instagram playgrounds, as some people are calling them, are a new type of destination where consumers pay between $25 and $50 to experience a creative, themed environment, custom-designed to make their next self-portrait stand out on social media.  

One of these playgrounds is the Museum of Illusions in Toronto, which features specially constructed rooms that use a combination of painted walls, tilted floors, mirrors and other devices to give visitors the sense they're off balance, or make them appear larger than they are or as though they are hanging from the ceiling.

Picture-taking is encouraged — markers on the floor show the precise spot to stand in order to capture the best angle on the illusion.

Michaela Radman bought the Canadian franchise rights to the Museum of Illusions from a company in Croatia that originated the concept in 2015. The chain has 15 locations around the world, with Toronto as the first in Canada.

"I've been lucky to have travelled quite a bit for my job, and as I went to Asia and other places in the U.S. like Los Angeles, I saw other brands that were emerging and saw the growth that was happening for them," she said.

Educational value

Radman, who still works a day job as a marketing executive while her husband manages the museum, is sensitive to the suggestion that her venture is has no purpose other than as a backdrop for selfies. 

"There are obviously really Instagram-worthy pictures you can take here, but the underlying element that's of real value here is that it's educational," she says.