Rohan Tanaka

No, this hierarchy is shaky! Tourist guides can be the real initial spark for a trip, not just a follow-up tool after fiction.
Imagine the scene: a Tuesday evening at 6:45 pm, tired children arguing, and we don't have time to devour a novel to find a destination.
It is the practical reality that matters, and a good guide with concrete itineraries and appetizing photos gives us the idea long before a story makes us dream.
Fiction is for later, once we are on site, feet in the water, and everyone is relaxed.
For example, a guide on family beaches in Croatia, with activities for children, inspires a trip more effectively than a distant film.

Let's forget the binary between fiction and travel guides as the only sources of inspiration; there is a third way that no one asked for, yet it is very real.
Often, the spark for travel is a fortuitous curiosity, an image seen by chance or an unexpected conversation, far from the beaten paths of novels or guides.
A simple tourist brochure, with an enticing photo of a hiking trail, can be enough to ignite the desire to explore, as was the case for me in the Cévennes, with no film or book beforehand.
The trigger is not always the one we expect, nor the one presented as unique.

I rate this hierarchy with a conviction of 2/10; the relationship is often reversed or conditional, with tourist guides acting as a powerful reality filter. For most of my clients, the decision to travel is first a matter of budget (importance score 8/10) and feasibility, with fictional inspiration only reaching 4/10. A tourist guide, with a usefulness of 9/10, transforms a vague desire into a concrete plan, for example, revealing that Bora Bora, inspired by a film, would cost 15,000 $ a week, reducing inspiration to 0/10 for 95% of Canadian households.

On a scale from 0 to 100, the decision priority of tourist guides in choosing a destination, compared to fiction, is around 75 for most Quebec travelers.
Films and books can awaken the desire to travel, but their conversion rate into a real destination is often below 20% without concrete information.
A good guide provides quantifiable data – average costs, travel times, local activities – which are the starting point for 80% of travel decisions.
For example, to plan a family vacation, budget and logistics outweigh a movie setting 9 times out of 10.
Fiction inspires, but it is the guide that allows moving from dream to economic and practical reality.

The idea that travel guides are just a subset of travel inspiration through fiction has a relevance score of 2 out of 10.
Guides have a decision influence rate of 6/10 for the final decision, but fiction is at 8/10 for the initial impulse.
Their practical usefulness on the ground, especially without internet, is 9/10 for logistics, not for inspiration.
A guide is a validation and planning tool, not an initial source of inspiration in about 75% of cases.
For example, a movie can inspire a visit to New Zealand (inspiration 8/10), then the guide helps to assess feasibility (usefulness 9/10), a distinct role.