Did Hemingway pave the way for today’s travel influencers?

Before we head to the airport or directly to our destination, we need something to get us to travel. According to McKinsey, $8.6 trillion will be spent on travel in 2024, which is about 9 percent of this year’s global GDP. But imagination must be more important than wallet.

Books, magazines, movies, TV shows, and influencers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook can influence us to choose a particular travel destination. A recent article, How Ernest Hemingway Became Idaho’s First Travel Influencer, got me thinking about how writers like Hemingway influence travel decisions.

Matt Kirouac’s story is about Hemingway’s long love affair with Idaho. Like a modern-day influencer, the writer was often photographed there hiking, hunting and fishing. But Hemingway’s life in Idaho began in a surprisingly commercial way, according to Kirouac. The author was invited to Idaho by the developers and promoters of the newly opened Sun Valley. The deal was that he could use the facilities in exchange for being photographed for promotional purposes.

Many of Hemingway’s works have influenced travel to this day, although not directly or commercially. A movable feastIn his work, published posthumously in 1964, he wrote: “If you were lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, it will stay with you for the rest of your life, no matter where you go, because Paris is a moveable feast.”

Hemingway’s adventurous lifestyle and descriptive writing style took readers to Italy, France and Spain. He vividly described the running of the bulls in Pamplona in The sun also risesappeared almost a hundred years ago. The romance of the African safari is expressed in his stories. In his writings about Cuba and Florida, such as The Old Man and the Seahe talks about the ocean, the fishermen and the elusive swordfish they hunt.

Hemingway is known for his books and the films based on them. But like today’s influencers, he wasn’t shy about showing himself in the areas he promoted. How many photos are there of Hemingway beaming next to a giant fish caught in Florida? In Idaho, Hemingway was photographed hunting and fishing with movie stars like Gary Cooper, reinforcing the myth of the rugged outdoors.

The images of Hemingway’s work remain in many minds. In Key West, I felt his presence everywhere. We stood in line with dozens of people from all over the world for a tour of Hemingway’s home, 63 years after his death.

“Hemingway experienced more in his 61 years of life than almost anyone else,” said the travel guide. That is certainly the image that travel influencers want to convey today.

Of course, many of the things Hemingway “influenced,” like big game hunting or bullfighting, are no longer considered acceptable today. When was the last time you heard an American couple say, “We’re going to Spain to see the bullfights!”

Still, the power of Hemingway’s work continues to inspire interest in travel. Even the annual Hemingway Lookalike Festival draws visitors to Key West each year.

Nowadays, influencers work in many mediums, such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, blogs, websites, and even Facebook. Some travel influencers and bloggers make over $1 million a year through sponsorships, affiliate marketing, product placement, and the like. They are hard-working people who constantly promote themselves and their sponsors to gain more followers and subscribers.

A phrase I learned from travel influencers is, “The camera eats first.” When a special dish or drink is served, followers will see the picture before the influencer eats dinner.

Today, films and especially television do much of this work, from Game of Thrones to Sex and the City.

Reality shows on television like Parts unknownhosted by the late Anthony Bourdain, were popular and sparked interest in exotic locations such as Myanmar, Colombia and Koreatown, Los Angeles. This followed No reservationsbroadcast on the Travel Channel, Bourdain’s book Kitchen confidentialand the posthumous bestseller “World Travel: An Irreverent Guide”.

Fictional films and television shows also spark interest. When I visited Spain in 2019, I was impressed by the enormous crowds visiting Gaztelugatxe, an island in the Bay of Biscay that became Dragonstone in 1972. game of Thrones. breaking Bad has boosted tourism to Albuquerque, New Mexico, while Stranger Things spent much of a season in Lithuania. One day I hope to visit the Hobbit Shire in New Zealand, where Lord of the rings was filmed.

However, books remain an effective medium for conveying travel dreams. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia sent thousands of travelers to those countries. Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trailhas inspired many to escape from everyday life by camping and backpacking. The film adaptation starred Reese Witherspoon in the lead role.

Gilbert and Strayed certainly did not follow Hemingway’s example, but their vivid descriptions of places contribute greatly to the popularity of their works.

Bourdain, Gilbert and Strayed may not have achieved the overwhelming fame of Hemingway, but their works remain popular and available in a variety of media. In fact, six years after his death, a new film about Bourdain is in the works.

Will today’s influencers have the same staying power? As the saying goes, the internet never forgets.