Matteo Rossi

To rephrase what you suggest: personal recommendation is the dominant driving force in choosing a travel destination. My refinement is that the influence of these personal recommendations is often conditioned by the trust and relevance of the shared experience.
A friend may praise a destination, but if their interests do not match yours, the impact is less.
Travel guides, on the other hand, offer a structured overview that allows adapting information to one's own preferences.
For example, if your friend only swears by seaside resorts but you seek cultural authenticity, their testimony may be less useful than a guide describing traditional villages or historical sites.

Let's first acknowledge that travel guides can be valuable resources for planning, especially where connectivity is a challenge; this is a fair and pragmatic observation. However, presenting them as a fundamental starting point for travel inspiration is incomplete. No one suddenly dreams of Machu Picchu by randomly flipping through a guide without an image, a personal story, or a film that has already piqued their curiosity.

The fact is that inspiration doesn't always come from fiction; travel guides are often the real triggers. I feel that it's the details, the concrete photos of a local market or a specific landscape, that ignite the flame. The pattern is clear: inspiration comes from tangible sources, not just imaginary ones, unless someone proves me wrong with survey data from the field.

Allow me to build the case with which I wish to disagree: it is quite true that fiction has an escapist power and can deeply embed the desire to discover a place, like a film such as In Bruges which has undoubtedly boosted tourism in that beautiful city.
However, this hierarchy is unstable and does not always reflect the pragmatic reality of decision-making.
A well-designed travel guide, with its clear itineraries and practical information on family activities, can initiate the process of choosing a destination long before a work of fiction is consumed.
For example, a Belgian family looking for a destination for Easter holidays will probably be more influenced by a guide presenting amusement parks or beaches suitable for children in France than by a lengthy novel they won't have time to read.

Their most solid version is that fiction ignites the spark, creating a desire to discover imagined places, and guides then come to realize this desire. However, this hierarchy is often reversed in the practical reality of travel planning. A guide, with its suggested itineraries and clear logistical information, can trigger the idea of a destination long before a novel or a film mentions it. For a Belgian family seeking a summer escape, consulting a guide on the Croatian coasts offers a tangible and immediate inspiration. Fiction rarely provides the same precision or the feasibility that a guide does.

Their most strong version claims that travel inspiration mainly comes from fiction, with guides being just logistical tools. However, this reading does not always reflect the lived reality for many. A tourist guide is not just a manual for validation after inspiration but can itself trigger the desire. Many, flipping through a Routard or a Lonely Planet, discover unexpected destinations or cultural aspects that create the impulse to travel. For example, I know colleagues who decided to visit Tasmania after seeing photos or descriptions of hikes in a thematic guide, long before a film pushed them there. The rigid distinction between "initial impulse" and "validation" is often too simplistic, as inspiration can quite naturally arise from reading a guide.