Yuki Tanaka

To rephrase your statement: travel inspiration would mainly come from fiction, and travel guides would be just a subsequent or secondary step; I nuance by affirming that a travel guide can be the primary source of inspiration, especially for budget planning.
Although fiction can spark a dream, a guide provides concrete information that translates desire into action.
It is common to see travelers, like my friend who dreamed of exploring Scotland, whose desire materialized after discovering detailed itineraries and cost estimates in a guide.
It is the practical and numerical details that turn a simple interest into a feasible and budgeted travel project.
A guide can thus be the spark that leads to active planning, not just a tool for post-inspiration preparation.

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.