Before any trip abroad, I turn to TikTok \u2013 not so much for inspiration as to gather tips on what not to do. As much as I\u2019ve been \u201cinfluenced\u201d into buying pastel cookware or acrid powders to reduce bloating (spoiler: they don\u2019t), the idea that anyone would base their holiday around what vloggers say is faintly abhorrent. <\/p>\n
And yet, it happens.<\/p>\n
Call me dramatic \u2013 a snob, even \u2013 but many influencers, especially those with large followings, tend not to venture outside the confines of their five-star resort unless it is for something with the crowd-pleasing aesthetic that you could find anywhere in the world. <\/p>\n
Case in point: the fitness influencer (and Molly-Mae Hague\u2019s sister), Zoe Rae, who this week bemoaned the famous Indonesian province, Bali, because it wasn\u2019t how it looked on social media.<\/p>\n
In a YouTube video about the trip, she described the high expectations she and her husband, Danny, had when they visited for their wedding anniversary. \u201cWe had seen on social media that everyone was having such a lovely time. Lovely places to eat and beaches, and lovely gyms and coffee shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don’t think the reality of Bali is shown much at all, and I do think it is down to a lot of influencers posting the more luxury side of things.\u201d <\/p>\n
Almost inevitably, the couple left Bali after 48 hours in favour of Dubai.<\/p>\n
Now, don\u2019t get me wrong. Had Rae cited safety concerns, an incident or even a lack of satisfaction with the resort she had (presumably) forked out for, that would be one thing \u2013 it was a special occasion, after all.<\/p>\n
But she didn\u2019t. She didn\u2019t even expand on what bothered her about the \u201creality of Bali\u201d, beyond the purported lack of \u201clovely cafes\u201d. I don\u2019t know about you, but when I fly for 16+ hours, the thing I am most desperate to see is not a coffee shop.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, Rae is slating a destination to her hundreds of thousands of followers that not only is part of a developing country, where an estimated four per cent of its people live below the poverty line, but where tourism accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of its regional GDP. It\u2019s also pretty tone deaf in this climate, as many people cannot afford to go away, full stop, let alone jet off to another location on a whim two days later.<\/p>\n
To me, it confirms something I have long feared to be true: that critical thought is dead and, what\u2019s more, the art of travel is, too \u2013 all because of social media, where having content to share afterwards can seem to matter more than the trip itself.<\/p>\n
What happened to exploring? Whatever happened to doing research and using more than one source to figure out your plans? <\/p>\n
\u2018Social platforms have made travel far more accessible and community-focused. However, many online recommendations now are not based on authenticity, quality or even value, but rather, aesthetics\u2019 (Picture posed by model) (Getty Images)As an avid solo traveller, I tend to do a lot of research in advance \u2013 mainly because I want to ensure I am safe and I don\u2019t get caught out. Unlike travelling with friends or a partner, you only have yourself to rely on. I also have an irrational fear of ending up in a mediocre restaurant or a tourist trap through lack of foresight.<\/p>\n
That said, I don\u2019t have a detailed itinerary with set times, and I only book a place if I genuinely would hate to miss it. I certainly don\u2019t visit places because of TikTok-induced queues or novelty dishes that will end up in the bin after a mouthful filmed for the \u2018gram. <\/p>\n
To go to any country and not experience an iota of its culture is pretty ghastly. <\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying recommendations are without their benefits \u2013 nor am I saying that giving them is reserved only for journalists, authors or the elite. Before TikTok, there was Instagram. And before Instagram, there were travel blogs, reviews and \u2013 stretching back a bit here \u2013 almanacs. In some ways, these platforms have made travel far more accessible and community-focused.<\/p>\n
However, and I believe this to largely be because influencers\u2019 experiences are often #gifted, many online recommendations now are not based on authenticity, quality or even value, but rather, aesthetics. It\u2019s all about \u201cthe scene\u201d. And even the genuinely good recommendations have been ruined by word of mouth and, therefore, overtourism.<\/p>\n
That isn\u2019t what travel is about. We shouldn\u2019t rely on being spoon-fed to figure things out, nor should we travel halfway across the world just to take a photo in some cafe. <\/p>\n
Can we please bring back independent thinking, and maybe even normalise a bit of \u201cgatekeeping\u201d? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before any trip abroad, I turn to TikTok \u2013 not so much for inspiration as to gather tips on what not to do. As much as I\u2019ve been \u201cinfluenced\u201d into buying pastel cookware or acrid powders to reduce bloating (spoiler: they don\u2019t), the idea that anyone would base their holiday around what vloggers say is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n