Culture Vultures: The Unenforced Ethics in Travel Blogging
To me, travel writing is more than just a passion, it’s a connection to the world I may not get to see. I’m envious I didn’t get the name before TheBlondeAbroad, and I would do most anything to be a writer on the CNTraveler website. But at what point does travel writing border on exploitation? We’re often so concerned about what to pack, what to bring, that we don’t take the time to think about how to carry ourselves in certain locations, and rarely think about the implications of our actions. Plus, with the rise of travel blogging and writing, not to mention the social media infatuation with travel, the ethics on travel blogging become murkier and more crucial than ever. At the time of writing, The World Counts estimated that over 256,000,000 tourist arrivals haven taken place this year. It’s MARCH. Tourist sites around the world are being destroyed every year. I was particularly hurt to see the reefs of Cozumel, Mexico (the birthplace of love of travel, I would argue) hurting and broken from the influx of tourists.
Travel blogs remain immensely popular online, even with the rise of social media. Passionfruit writer Anmol Ifran writes that, “With 57% of Gen Z travelers turning to social media to plan future travels, travel content creators are one of the fastest-growing groups online.” In a post from earlier this year, blogger GlobalViewpoint says,
“To put things in perspective, I get over 250,000 pageviews per month, which is a small drop in the bucket compared to the largest travel websites, but the year-over-year growth has been phenomenal. Even the pandemic hasn’t stifled growth for travel blogs like myself, which focus on unique getaways, road trips, and nature trips. The best blogs for travel aren’t going anywhere, especially for those who are subject matter experts on their particular niche.”
Clearly, the views aren’t going down, and I would argue that post-pandemic travel is on the forefront of many readers’ minds, as many are desperate for a getaway after years spent inside. Given the mass reach of some of these blogs, how ethical is travel writing really? Research has been conducted on ethically sourcing statistics through travel blogs, and researchers Hailey Stanton and Elitzia Iordanova wrote that “It can be argued, however, that the nature of travel blogs extends beyond the notion of simply documenting experiences, with many travel bloggers now running their websites as a career option, where the aim is to enhance readership and to facilitate opportunities to make money through aspects such as advertising, as opposed to simply documenting their personal experiences.”
Trouble in Paradise
Travel writing has the unique ability to create a connection between people and places or cultures they may not get to experience. The best travel writing will transport you to a far off continent, surround you with smells and color that seem unimaginable to the mind. The worst can devastate a culture. Take Hawai’i, for example, the state that has essentially begged travelers to keep away post-covid. Travelers, ever the fickle bunch, seem to have mostly ignored this warning. The pollution increases, the roads crowd, and travel blogger Seaside with Emily writes, “Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of Hawaii’s most remarkable natural assets, is slowly being degraded by mass amounts of pollution resulting from overdevelopment and an increase in tourist populations.”
Still, the blogs keep blogging. Even big publications like Vogue can’t keep away, publishing an article just a week ago on “ethically touring Hawai’i.” The answers vary (all from Native Hawaiians) but the underlying tone is still there. You want to help? Don’t come.
Rule #1: Don’t Fly a Drone Over an Airfield
The big case covered in ethical travel blogging revolves around a couple who were imprisoned in Tehran following them flying a drone near a military base. Blog “Life on the Mediterranean” echoes my thoughts when she gives her opinion, “Innocent, harmless and naïve don’t cut it. This is where travel bloggers, social media influencers, Youtubers, you name it, get it wrong. Their unethical practices ruin the reputation of honest travel bloggers who provide honest, ethical travel information about a place you may want to visit.” It is our responsibility as a travel blogger to provide the research for those who read our work, particularly when regarding sensitive information or cultural expectations (though I hesitate to say that “knowing to not fly a drone over a military base” is a cultural expectation, more of a general life rule.)
Another semi-chilling discovery was made when I continued reading on researchers Haley and Elitzia’s work, essentially discussing the ethics of using travel blogs to mine personal data and research about tourists. They beg the question, who are these blogs for, and where does their privacy end? They also discuss the differences in blog types, saying, “for instance, the backpacker may produce their blog with the intentions of only their family viewing it, thus perceiving it as private, and although publicly available, they do not consider the possibility that people they don’t know may also view the content. Another travel blogger, however, such as the person running their blog for monetary value, may be very aware of the potential publicity of what they publish because the content is situated in the public domain.” To be quite honest, I’m a little confused on the general reasoning behind researching a travel blog from an academic standpoint, but I digress.
What I find interesting, and most unethical, is the lack of discussion of the privacy of the contents of the posts. I can optimistically assume that every blogger is triple checking for permission before publishing names, faces, and locations of the subjects they discuss, and I can even appreciate the way the digital age has changed the lives of so many people, but I can also pessimistically assume that many of these people are being exploited for views. Lola Méndez, a blogger who focuses on ethical travel writing, promoting things such as locally owned AirBnBs in Mexico and ethically sourced food in Thailand is, “even more staunchly against posting locals’ pictures or using them in content in any way” in her conversation with Anrol. As writers, the projection of how we present cultures is our responsibility. By only showcasing the aspects of culture that drive engagement, we can continue to other those people and experiences, and also generate a false narrative of what this culture is.
Collecting my stamps
Lola Méndez is an icon, I’m learning as I write this. Her blog, Miss Filatelista, has pages dedicated to responsible travel, encouraging travelers to collect “stamps” for challenges on respectfully interacting with a culture. She posts sustainable hotel links, and even something she calls eco-luxury for the travelers who really just want a good old fashioned vacation. There’s something for everyone with Lola, giving no one the excuse of irresponsibility.
I’m not here to condemn travel writing, in fact, I am an avid traveler writer. I just think that we need to be cautious on the ways travel blogs can devastate environments, influence cultures, and perhaps contribute to cultural appropriation. I was hard pressed to find good sources and commitments from travel bloggers to practice ethical influencing, yet I found plenty of bloggers whose concept of ethics is concerned only with product promotion and how to remain true to the brand. While this isn’t inherently wrong, it does beg the question if we could be doing anything more? Within my own writing, I became hyper critical. I began looking for spots where I was pushing a narrative, worried about the implications of my words. Never before had I worried about the weight of a recommendation, about the potential devastation it could bring. Were my accounts of resort-style Mexico and Jamaica clear enough that I recognized the erasure of these cultures, and does my “recognition” mean anything if I still contribute to the problem? On the flip side, travel writing can change lives. Maybe not my travel writing, but a feature from Traveler magazine could change the future of someone operating a crepe stand in Northern France, or even a foundation working to save those coral reefs I love so much.
Honestly, I think we all need to read Lola’s site, and I hope my own work can have even a quarter of the impact that hers does. And perhaps we need to be hyper critical of our own blogging and writing in order to produce authentic content. I’m striving to start to shape my work in a way that would make Lola proud, afterall, Anrol says it best when she says, “Given the skewed power dynamics tourists often have over locals, travel itself, much less influencing other travelers, can be a huge responsibility.”
