If I understand your point correctly, fictional inspiration is paramount, and guides are just a practical tool, especially without internet, but I must add an important nuance.
A tourist guide can be a source of inspiration in its own right, without needing a fictional story to precede it.
For many, flipping through a guide with beautiful photos and concrete descriptions, like a Lonely Planet, is enough to trigger the desire to discover a place.
It is the practicality and concrete details that often ignite the spark, long before a novel or a film does.