Italy is being sold to the masses
novels and memoirs are out, short-form videos are in
In this piece, I interchange the terms female solo traveler, content creator and travel influencer. It’s mostly for satire, but also to prove that those titles are becoming as jumbled as the ‘industry’ itself.
Also, I only write about Italy because that’s what I know, but I am curious to hear thoughts from women who live in other Western European countries that have experienced the rise and chaos of travel influencer culture.
Countries like Italy are being sold to the masses
Whether it’s pasta being twirled, or Prosecco being poured over Aperol, with the right slice of life content, the right background bop, ANYONE can go viral. What’s worse? In the influencer travel media industry, ANYONE can market themselves as an “expert.” I have to remind myself, that virality is not synonymous with expert or even qualified.
Over the last few years, I’ve watched Italy be packaged and sold to the masses in the form of videos made by solo female travelers who moonlight as content creators. Videos with sponsored advertisements, and links to products and services from which they gain commisions. Is it just me, or is all the content you see online eerily homogeneous? As if there is a master Excel sheet of places to eat, drink and photograph somewhere that all content creators have access to. Surely, there are only so many accounts that can regurgitate the same lists of Best Carbonara, Best Places to Eat Gelato, Best Panino and Best Day Trips from Rome. Right? How can a solo female traveler possibly know all the local haunts, the cultural do’s and don’ts, best restaurants, with less than 10 days in Italy under their belt. Sounds suss.
There’s a quote from Jurassic Park that perfectly encapsulates this phenomenon.
I'll tell you the problem with the scientific power that you're using here: it didn't require any discipline to attain it. You read what others had done and you took the next step. You didn't earn the knowledge for yourselves, so you don't take any responsibility for it. You stood on the shoulders of geniuses to accomplish something as fast as you could and before you even knew what you had you patented it and packaged it and slapped it on a plastic lunchbox, and now you're selling it, you want to sell it! - Dr. Ian Malcom
All the women that solo traveled before
Solo female travel looked a whole lot different before the accessibilty of working from your phone. Wasn’t this only a few years ago? Hot take: solo travel is suppossed to be a time of personal growth, new experiences, self-reflection, and much needed quiet time. When did it turn into a business? Maybe I need to accept the new times. Novels and memoirs are out, short-form videos are in. Why have literary imagrey, when you could watch literal images.
Since the pandemic, there has been an obvious shift in Instagram content, was it in response to TikTok’s short form videos? I don’t know, I’ve never had a TikTok account. Was it a certain American living in Italy chronicling her experienced cultural differences for an audience thirsty for a ‘Mediterranean lifestyle’? I don’t know. During the pandemic, when these trends started rolling, I was in Colorado, working two jobs and shoveling snow off my car every morning. I don’t know the origins of it all, but I do know I am fearful for the future of solo female travel.
When everyone is travel influencer, who will be left to influence?
There’s another great quote that better exemplifies the dilemma of solo female travel content creation, it’s from Disney Pixar’s The Incredibles. The antagonist, Syndrome (aka, Buddy) is explaining to Mr. Incredible his plan to eradicate the novelty being a Super, by artifically creating his own powers. Syndrome plans to mass produce and distribute these powers in the form of technological gadgets to the public. So, in his words, everyone can be super.
“Oh, I'm real. Real enough to defeat *you*! And I did it without your precious gifts, your oh-so-special powers. I'll give them heroics. I'll give them the most spectacular heroics anyone's ever seen! And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super...[laughs maniacally] no one* will be.” - Syndrome
I can see it now, walking into a corner bar in Rome, and seeing multiple women filming the same scene of them walking into the bar, ordering a cappuccino, stirring it, taking that first frothy sip, and then later seeing their video online about the cultural do’s and don’ts regarding Italian coffee culture. This isn’t the content the world needs right now. Or actually, is this fluff exactly what the world wants because reality is too heavy?
I know I should be championing women’s entrepreneurial spirit
I shouldn’t be worried. These solo female travelers will be in an out, in no time, on to the next country, the next vlog. But, what if I told you I’ve seen a large amount of solo female travelers starting to offer Relocation Services? So you, too can live the European lifestyle without paying your dues (metophorically) learning the language or gaining local employment! Remember when I said this piece was suppossed to be satire?
The problem is, it doesn’t take much effort to travel solo anymore. Pre-pandemic, solo female travel was reserved for those who had little to no career traction, or service industry people who were fully willing to take on odd jobs to make some quick cash in whatever country they were in. At least that’s how it was for me. I moved to Italy as an au pair because it was the cheapest way for me to live there. Now, you can make start monetizing your travel experiences from the plane! That’s probably a hyperbole. But it’s kind of not.
I know, it’s 2025. I should be championing women at every turn, not turning their entrepreneurial endeavours into a caricature. I understand. If you are a travel influencer, and you believe your content is giving back to the places you are visiting in a sustainable way, I would love to hear about it.
Postscript
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I have worked with travel infuencers in Italy and Georgia. I think you make some good points but also miss a few things. The ones that are successful (meaning actually earn a living) are very smart and work hard on their content, they're out there at 5am so they can get the best lighting, they've invested in good equipment and they can write decently. But they are also super engaged with their audience. People who are just posting random gelato shots, aren't it. A lot of them have communication degrees, so they may not have as much knowledge about the food or wine but they know how to communicate it and build an audience.
But another thing to keep in mind is old boomers in wine complain about women who post wine content. Well, women have learned that the wine industry is controlled by mostly white anglophone males. It's hard to break into traditional media in travel or wine or food. It's a lot of networking mostly.
So women have found other ways to build careers in something they are interested in.
I have worked with them for my company in Georgia and also as the person taking them around Rome. There is a lot of food waste to get that perfect shot, so that bothers me.
I have found that influencers help locations rather than companies. Like if I hired someone and comped them in Georgia, it was good for Georgia, but not for my company. So I learned to work with tourism boards.
I think Instagram is done as a place to build an organic audience now. You have to pay to play there, and followers don't see their favorite accounts anymore. I personally chose to delete all IG accounts even for my business because it was a waste of time.
The bigger issue is that I think they set people up for disappointment if they come to Italy and see the reality of trash everywhere and crowds from hell. They need to be more transparent regarding being here off season and also timing. Also they need to be more transparent about all the affiliate links they post to Viator, get your guide, walks of Italy, etc because they get 10% profit from those. That's how they make their money.
Thank you for sharing.
I live in Rome and after covid (let's say, starting from September 2022)life here is becoming a nightmare, as you probably know. Many places I used to go to are now so packed with tourists that I can't go there anymore. Someone posts something on IG and I'm kicked out of my favorite restaurant / café / anything.
Take a photo, pack, send and the disaster is ready.
I really feel as if my city is being packed and served to hyenas to devour it and leave garbage behind.
Everybody comes here with their head full of movies and IG pictures, just to find out that reality is different. They want to "live like romans do", but they kick romans out of the city.
I moved here years ago because I fell in love with city, but overtourism makes the city impossible to live and some kind of travel influences just help making things worse.