Fatima Sato

"Concrete realization" is the key word here! Imagine a young couple, still shining eyes after seeing an awe-inspiring film set in Patagonia. They dream of going there, but once on site, it is the paper guide that becomes their best friend, especially when cell signal disappears in the mountains, allowing them to find the way to the refuge or the best viewpoint without worry.

Let's first reconstruct the argument: it is quite true that tourist guides are valuable tools, especially where internet access is lacking, providing concrete information for planning.
However, it is difficult to consider them as a simple sub-part of travel inspiration through fiction because they operate on different levels.
Fiction ignites a spark, creating a desire to feel an distant ambiance, a longing for exploration.
Guides, on the other hand, are a roadmap to realize this desire, offering practical details to make the trip.
It's like the desire to eat a tagine after a Moroccan film versus the exact recipe to prepare it: one is the impulse, the other the method.

The idea that travel guides are only a component of fictional inspiration seems to me a too restrictive classification with a low relevance (score of 2/10). In reality, the decision-making influence of guides is much higher; they have a weight of 8/10 on choosing a destination, while fiction is at 3/10. In Canada, our planning habits are rooted in practicality: a guide provides budgets (weighting 9/10) and itineraries (8/10), essential to turn a desire into a concrete plan. A guide gives a roadmap for a getaway like in Quebec, when fiction only offers a distant dream. For example, for a trip to Gaspésie, the guide details campsites and driving times, which is indispensable for a high conversion rate towards booking.

Let's forget what we invested in the idea of fiction as the sole source of inspiration; would we see a guide as an extension of a film if we had to start over?
No, because inspiration is an emotional spark, while a guide, like Michelin, is pure logistics, facts, and maps for the concrete realization of a trip.
The role of tourist guides is not a sub-part of inspiration from fiction, but rather a distinct planning and validation tool, just as the manual of a camera is not a sub-part of the photos it takes.
You do not dispose of your travel plans just because a film inspired the destination; you develop them with tools like guides.