TRAVELLERS ARE MEDIA: How Travel Bloggers And Travel Influencers Act As Media Companies in Tourism 4.0

1.0 Abstract 
It is remarkable how digitisation, with particular reference to the ubiquity of 
mobile devices and the spread of social media, has revolutionised the way we 
consume and produce information these days. Given that travel and storytelling 
are inherent peculiarities of human beings, it is no surprise that circulation of 
people and circulation of information have always been closely connected. 
Moving from the assumptions that people are today the new media, this paper 
investigates dynamics of value created by UGC -User Generated Contents- in 
media induced tourism. Observing the ease with which individuals can become 
creators of media products in the Information Age, we  envision that any traveller 
is potentially a medium. Recalling the stories of pioneers in travel influencing 
-such as a best selling detective novelist and two backpackers starting an unlikely 
travel guide business- this search encompasses the analysis of different 
personalities that have affected the choices of thousands travellers worldwide. 
Moving to contemporary times, we present a detailed study of travel bloggers’ 
core values, audiences and products, while we examine relevant case studies 
from global and regional scenarios, focusing on the value chain of Italian travel 
blogs through an online questionnaire to 5 interviewees. As we review the 
different stages of traveller road to decision as a customer, we individuate the 
touch-points between content creators and potential holiday-makers, finding 
travel media market’s inclination toward liquidity. In conclusion, purpose of this 
paper is to outline the trends of travel media market and to spotlight the evolving 
role of travel bloggers and travel influencers as media companies in the creative 
economy of Tourism 4.0.  
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Dedication. 
To my mother, who instilled in me the passion for reading.  
To my grandma, who gave me my first copy of “Murder on the Orient Express”. 
To S., with whom I would travel anywhere. 
2.0 Scope 
Aim of the research is to provide an in-depth analysis of content creators’ value 
chain in Tourism 4.0. It could be used as a tool by media planners, destination 
managers, hospitality professionals and travel experts in evaluating potential 
collaborations with content creators, to engage communities and to enhance 
brand awareness in the Information Age.  
Eventually, this research could provide students of Communication, Destination 
Management, Tourism and Hospitality with a better understanding of content 
creator’s vital role both in destination and information economy.   
3.0 Introduction.  
“Those who tell the stories 
rule  the world.” 
 (Hopi proverb) 
Underlying any creative work is epiphany. Concerning this essay, inspiration 
befalls the author in reading an interview to Alan Tonetti, cofounder of Italian 
creative media company Stardust. Released by digital journalist Francesco 
Oggiano in his July 2022’s newsletter (1), the interview discusses how Stardust is 
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revolutionary committed to industrialisation of influencer marketing The 
company is firmly convinced that challenging mega-influencers campaigns is 
possible. To do so, Stardust scouts the social media for micro-influencers and 
creators with a minimum of 20k followers. This process involves great numbers 
of minor creators that yet put together are able to reach highly engaged, 
fragmented audiences. Interview was conducted in occasion of Stardust’s 
acquisition by GEDI Group, leading Italian media conglomerate founded in 
Turin in 1955 and today chaired by John Elkann. In fact, in June 2022 GEDI 
Group has acquired 30% of Stardust shareholding as part of forward-looking 
development strategy whose purpose is to expand both products and audiences 
portfolio. In a passage of above mentioned interview, Tonetti expounded the 
principle that “people are media” as he explains the vision to treat influencers as 
media, rather than ambassadors. According to this assumption, each individual 
may be a medium: by using personal accounts on social networks to produce and 
share original contents, people can easily reach and influence lookalike publics. 
Similarly, applying the fundamentals to communication in tourism, we could 
presume that any single traveller is potentially recognisable as a medium thanks 
to today’s relative ease of becoming creators and distributors of contents. 
Nowadays, UGC - User Generated Contents are indisputably reshaping 
communication in Tourism 4.0, forcing traditional travel media companies and 
organisations to adjust their strategies to remain competitive in a market where 
demand for personalised information increases each day. In the next sections we 
are going to introduce the idea of an existing correlation between tourism and 
information growth. As we describe new paradigm of Tourism 4.0, we examine 
the background that has leaded to user generated contents’ success, in a context 
where people act as media and ancient Hopi proverb “those who tell the stories 
rule the world” -recalled by Agostinelli and Meazza (2) in their book “People are 
Media” - is suitable more than ever. 
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3.1. Flows of Information & flows of People. 
In this paragraph, we are going to suggest that a connection exists between the 
growth of Information and the growth of Tourism.  
Since the dawn of humankind, circulation of people and circulation of 
information have always gone hand in hand. Far before tourism was born as 
expression of modern society, people have travelled the world and talk about 
their journeys. As Mariagrazia Villa reckons in “#Brand Journalist” (3), a link 
subsists between Gutenberg’s invention of movable type printing press in 1455 
and curiosity towards new countries generated by geographical discoveries and 
commercial trades. As a matter of fact, these happenings brought journalism to 
life at the turn of 16th century and that was the time when information became a 
commodity. Afterwards, uncountable adventures have been daydreaming while 
reading chronicles of the great expeditions transmitted by eminent explorers 
(near and far, real or imagined) from Cristoforo Colombo to Jack Kerouac, from 
Ulysses to Antonio Pigafetta, from James Cook to Charles Darwin.  
Entire generations of adventurers travelled through the silk road again guided by 
the charming narrative of Marco Polo and by the tales of other merchants that 
had crossed the deserts on caravans centuries before. 
The circulations of young aristocrats’ diaries and letters full of notes, drawings 
and anecdotes about their European trips back in the 17th and 18th century, 
helped the spread of Grand Tour as rite of passage for the descendants of wealthy 
upper classes. At this time, the first “tourist guides ante litteram” were published, 
such as “Instructions for Travellers” written by Josiah Tucker in 1757, as Marco 
D’Eramo (4) retraced in his essay “Il selfie del mondo”. 
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Subsequently the end of World War II, thanks to economic welfare and 
introduction of paid holidays, some destinations became popular. Property 
owners and service suppliers operating in the sector became well organised, and 
that was the time when mass tourism was invented. Once again, tourists were 
attracted by those beach resorts where their friends have stayed before, or by 
those destinations they have become aware thanks to newspapers and television 
advertisings campaigns.  
Information has continued to play a vital role in tourism development. It is 
notable that sending postcards to relatives and friends was an undeniable 
vacation’s ritual back in the 1980s and the 1990s, just as much sharing holidays 
pictures on Instagram is a compulsive deed these days. Both these habits have 
become mass phenomenons: it looks like individual desire to travel gets 
reinforced by the act of sharing such experience with the circle of acquaintances. 
Although today almost no one writes postcards anymore and the myth of Grand 
Tour might have lost its appeal, essence of these habits lives again in those young 
Anglo-Saxons taking the so called OE-Overseas Experience, a training trip in 
between of university and professional careers. By sharing their gap year 
experiences with friends and like-minded fellows on social networks and blogs, 
these young travel become theirselves valued source of information for others. In 
a study titled “Demand of information Communication Technology in Travel and 
Tourism Industry”, Prabhasri Dumidu Wijewardana Akuranga (5) evaluates 
uniqueness of tourism sector whose customers would purchase immaterial good 
without even seeing it. For this reason - the author suggests - tourism sector is 
“mainly based on information”. Information results to be essential for tourism 
sector to reduce both discontent’s risk and geographical distance among 
stakeholders, in the present day more than ever by virtue of the ubiquity of the 
Internet. Therefore, we can assume travel industry lives on Information. Travel 
has always fascinated people and spurred them to share their memories and 
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experience by the fire, at the pub and later, on the web: the more information 
grows, the more the popularity of the destination. However, current lack of trust 
in institutional and self-referential communication, disruption of user generated 
contents online, consequent disintermediation (and reintermediation) of 
information have recently allowed new stakeholders to come on top, 
revolutionising the travel media scenario. 
In the next chapter we are going to summarise the highlights of Tourism 4.0, as 
we explain how technologies of Industry 4.0 are swiftly changing and reinforcing 
the mutualistic interaction between media players and tourism. 
3.2. Tourism 4.0. 
In this section we are going to introduce the concept of Tourism 4.0 as new 
paradigm and setting in which travel bloggers and travel content creators operate 
today.   
Being Tourism and Information both based on immaterial goods, these sectors 
have embraced digitisation way before other industries based on material 
products such as retail, manufacturing and construction.  
Since the beginning of XXI century, Fourth Industry Revolution has deeply 
changed societies and economies globally, including tourism. While the idea of 
Industry 4.0 was born in Germany in 2011, the concept of Tourism 4.0 has been 
used for the first time in 2016 in Portugal, to name a project facilitating 
innovations in tourism. In 2019, Urška Starc Peceny (6) has proposed a definition 
of Tourism 4.0 as new paradigm, explaining how technologies of Industry 4.0 
would “unlock the innovation potential in the whole tourism sector”. In 2019, yet 
less than 10 countries have adopted the term and not many academic studies have 
been published on this subject. Despite the definition of Tourism 4.0 remains not 
univocal among professionals and academics, this word commonly refers to 
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