National Geographic published an article days ago that compared the baroque façade of the Gumiel de Izán church (Burgos) with the Jordanian treasure of Petra. So far so normal, another travel report. Everything was precipitated when that news went viral on social networks. From that moment on, the avalanche of visitors to that small town in Burgos has not stopped increasing.
“We can’t cope,” they say from the City Council. There are no hands to serve so many tourists, and in order not to die of success, it is being studied to charge an entrance fee to visit that cathedral.
It is the latest example of the power of networks – TikTok is very strong there – when it comes to making a destination fashionable. A single photo, as is the case, is enough to flood the most hidden corner of the world with visitors and overwhelm it.
With this church, the photo does not deceive; The facade is just as you see. But this is not always the case. Xiapu, a small Chinese town, was a pioneering destination in the deceptive recruitment of tourists with the bait of postcard images posted on networks.
In that town they have made an effort to create photo corners. And those images spread by tourists on their channels attract other tourists. Everything is a lie. Xiapu is still a setting, but the visitor will not discover that until he steps foot in that town and comes face to face with reality. Not everything is as bucolic or beautiful as depicted in those images, which in addition to being misleading have overcrowded the destination.
Everything responds to a tourism strategy, which is now in full swing, which takes advantage of the posturing on the networks and that perfect photo to attract visitors.
As Pablo Díaz, professor of Economics and Business Studies at the UOC and expert in tourism, says after mentioning the example of Xiapu, thematic spaces are being created to suit the visitor; all “oriented so that those postcard photos are posted on the networks.” These channels already accumulate so much power that they can ruin a destination and kill it from success due to sudden and unexpected crowds on specific dates.
These avalanches of tourists in corners incapable of absorbing so much visit are beginning to have a response among the local inhabitants. Díaz remembers the signs hung at the entrances to paradisiacal coves in the Balearic Islands warning that the sea is contaminated by sewage or warning that bathing there is very dangerous. It’s all a lie. With these signs, the natives try to protect those spaces.
Pablo Díaz corroborates, as different studies agree, that networks have more influence among travelers every day and, therefore, are to blame for the saturation of destinations. And not always, as is the case with the Xiapu example, the experience “sold” through these channels will be positive.
There are many visitors who, upon arriving at the destination, complain on those same networks that acted as a claim, that what was published there – sometimes by influencers – does not correspond to reality. Ironies of the new tourism.
Facebook has held this new power of massification for years. Instagram took over, which is now about to lose that first place to TikTok. This platform “is going very strong,” different studies agree, with a growing influence among those who turn to that universe when looking for a place for their getaways or information about what to do in a destination.
TikTok, with more than 1 billion users, is not the one with the most followers, but it is the perfect channel, with its short videos, to recount experiences and immortalize idyllic corners, agrees Pablo Díaz.
This content also goes viral much more quickly than that published on other platforms. It is clear that the rules of the game have changed and the risk of successfully killing a destination is much higher today, due to the heightened influence of these networks.
The Changing Traveler Report carried out by SiteMinder concludes that six out of every ten trips in Spain are scheduled based on recommendations posted on these channels.
