Did Hemingway Pave The Way For Today’s Travel Influencers?

Before we drive to the airport or directly to our destination, something must drive us to travel. According to McKinsey, $8.6 trillion will be spent on traveler outlays in 2024, representing roughly 9 percent of this year’s global GDP. But the imagination must be captured before the pocketbook.

Books, magazines, movies, television shows, and influencers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook can move us to choose a particular destination. A recent article, How Ernest Hemingway Became the Original Travel Influencer in Idaho, led me to think about how writers like Hemingway influence travel choices.

The story, by Matt Kirouac, talked 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 newly opened Sun Valley. The deal was that he could use the facilities, in return for being photographed for publicity.

Much of Hemingway’s work has continued to influence travel, if not so directly or commercially. In A Moveable Feast, posthumously published in 1964, he wrote, “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

Hemingway’s adventurous lifestyle and descriptive writing brought readers to Italy, France, and Spain. He vividly described the running of the bulls in Pamplona in The Sun Also Rises, published almost a hundred years ago. The romance of the African safari appears in his stories. In his writings on Cuba and Florida, like The Old Man and The Sea, he speaks of the ocean, the fishermen and the elusive billfish they hunt.

Hemingway is remembered for his books and the films made from them. But like today’s influencers, he was not shy about showing himself in the areas he promoted. How many photos are there of Hemingway beaming alongside a giant billfish captured in Florida? In Idaho, Hemingway was photographed hunting and fishing with movie stars like Gary Cooper, deepening the mystique of the rugged outdoors.

The images from Hemingway’s work remain imprinted on many. In Key West, I felt his presence everywhere. We waited on line with scores of people from all over the world to pay to tour Hemingway’s house, 63 years after his death.

“Hemingway packed more into his 61 years of life than almost anyone else you can name,” the tour guide said. That is certainly the image travel influencers want to convey today as well.

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

Nonetheless, the power of Hemingway’s work continues to drive interest in travel. Even the annual Hemingway look-alike festival brings visitors to Key West every year.

Today’s influencers work in many mediums, such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, blogs, websites and even Facebook. Some travel influencers and bloggers earn over $1 million per year, from sponsors, affiliate marketing, product placement and the like. They are hard-working people, constantly promoting themselves and their sponsors as they try to gain more followers and subscribers.

A phrase I learned from travel influencers is that “the camera eats first.” When a special dish or drink is served, the followers see the image before the influencer gets to dine.

Films and especially television do much of the heavy lifting now, from Game of Thrones to Sex and the City.

Television reality shows like Parts Unknown, hosted by the late Anthony Bourdain, were popular and drove interest in exotic places like Myanmar, Columbia and Koreatown, Los Angeles. This followed up No Reservations, broadcast on the Travel Channel, Bourdain’s book Kitchen Confidential, and the posthumous best seller, World Travel: An Irreverent Guide.

Fictional films and television also generate interest. Visiting Spain in 2019, I was struck by the enormous mob of people visiting Gaztelugatxe, an island in the Bay of Biscay that became Dragonstone in Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad has driven tourism to Albuquerque, New Mexico, while Stranger Things spent much of one season in Lithuania. One day I hope to visit the hobbit “shire” in New Zealand where Lord of the Rings was filmed.

But books remain an effective medium for conveying dreams about travel. Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, sent thousands of travelers visiting those countries. Cheryl Strayed’s Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, has inspired many to get away from it all camping and backpacking. Reese Witherspoon starred in the film version.

Gilbert and Strayed were certainly not channeling Hemingway, but their vivid descriptions of place are a key part of the popularity of their work.

Bourdain, Gilbert and Strayed may not have achieved the overwhelming fame of Hemingway, but their work remains popular and available in different mediums. In fact, a new movie about Bourdain is in the works, six years after his death.

Will todays influencers have the same staying power? As they say, the Internet never forgets.