Travel Vloggers Bring Relatability and Comfort to Their Viewers
Travel vlogging is a new go-to resource for all things travel. People of all ages planning trips or just fulfilling their wanderlust turn to travel vlogs. The question then becomes why. Why do people feel comfortable letting others influence where people travel and their perception of a tourism destination?
The simple answer is that travel vloggers bring a level of relatability and comfort to people who view their content. These travel vloggers seem more relatable to more everyday people and people trust them to help find the best places on Earth to see, as it is a travel vlogger’s job to find those special places.
As a viewer, one feels more connected to travel vloggers than just looking up travel destinations on their own. One article titled “Top 20 travel YouTubers to follow in 2019”, does a great job explaining the relatability and comfort bond viewers have with travel vloggers.
“Vlogging makes travel personal. There’s something about speaking directly to an audience, looking them in the eyes, and taking them along with you on your travels that gets wanderlusters hooked” (Grow).
Watching travel vloggers describe and show a location makes it feel like a more attainable place for others to visit compared to watching a professional documentary produced by a large company like National Geographic. Not to say that watching professional documentaries do not help with planning a trip, but they are not as relatable to the average person.
YouTube is one of the most popular social media sites and because of that, many younger people turn to YouTube for information. It also happens that most travel vloggers display their content through their own YouTube channels, making it extremely accessible to younger generations.
In the article, “Gen Z Are Starting to Travel- And Instagram and YouTube Determine Where They Go”, the author writes about a young photographer named Riley Taylor. The author talks to Taylor about travel and he responds by saying, “‘From a young age, I really did want to travel and I was always so scared and didn’t think that it would actually happen,’ he says. ‘But from watching so many people on Instagram and YouTube and different social media platforms go to these places and see that it’s not a big deal, I was kind of able to get over my traveling fears and start traveling’”(Jones).
Watching YouTube travel vlogs has also personally helped me similar to Taylor. As a person with life-long wanderlust, I always wanted to travel all over the world. When an Earth-shattering chronic illness diagnosis came my way five years ago, I feared I would never be able to fulfill my travel dreams.
During the years when I was homebound, I found solace in watching travel vlogs. I felt that was the only way I could see those places I dreamed of visiting. Over the years of watching travel vlogs, I began to realize I could still travel; it just had to be done differently than I originally planned.
Watching travel vlogs helped me feel comforted and more prepared for when it came time to travel again. The big decision came to travel to Iceland in 2018, and countless hours were spent watching travel vlogs on Iceland so I would be as prepared as possible.
Without watching travel vlogs for the year leading up to the trip, I do not think I would have been able to go. The travel vlogs were incredibly relatable and comforting. They gave me the courage to go on my international trip.
There are many stories similar to my own about how travel vlogging has helped people to travel. However, there are some skeptics out there who do not believe travel vlogging is that relatable or helpful.
In a CNN article, “Inside the complicated world of the travel influencer”, the author explains the details often not seen about being a travel influencer. Not only are there people who do not believe travel vlogging to be relatable or helpful, but some tourism businesses are also second-guessing the helpfulness of travel vloggers in securing tourism business (Mendez).
Within the article, there is mention of some travel vloggers’ trips being all expenses paid (Mendez). This then leads viewers to question how relatable these travel vloggers actually are if they are being compensated to stay at a specific hotel or destination. If they do not have to pay for a stay, then how can viewers trust them to be completely honest about their thoughts of a location or adventure?
While there is definitely room to be skeptical, viewers must also remember that travel vloggers make a living off creating a community of people who watch and trust their recommendations.
People from all over can attest to how travel vlogging has helped with relatability to tourism and providing comfort to prospective travelers. Anna Zowada, manager of Spear-O-Wigwam Lodge located in Big Horn National Forest, spoke of travel vlogging’s impact on the lodge’s tourism turnout.
Zowada stated that “social media has been a big influence on people coming up to our lodge. Our horse rides, kayaking, and hiking are very popular with vlogging since we are located in the mountains. The mountains add that special touch of being in the wild west and a relaxing setting.”
By travel vloggers sharing their experiences in places such as Spear-O-Wigwam Lodge, people feel more comfortable to come try out some of these activities (kayaking, horse riding, and hiking) that they may not have felt comfortable with before watching the travel vlogs.
Being able to watch vloggers’ experiences in the wild west as Zowada said, may also help viewers feel like they can relate to trying something new and different, and feel less nervous knowing others are trying it for the first time, as well.
Are you convinced yet how travel vloggers can be relatable and bring comfort to the uncertainty of travel? Having a community of others who want and love to travel can be something very special. Communities like this can help people who are a little more timid about travel to branch out because they have seen others do it through vlogs.
