'Destination-catfishing' is the colloquial term for a travel destination that is painted in an overwhelmingly positive aspect that is either seldom realized by most travelers or leaves out blaringly important details.
Raise your hand if a travel destination has ever personally victimized you. You requested time off from work, reluctantly curbed your shopping habits to save up for a few extra excursions, subjected yourself to hours of trending clips in order to find popular restaurants and things to do, only to arrive at a disaster of a vacation. The six-star hotel has peeling wallpaper. Restaurants topping the lists of the best in the world have somehow never heard of seasoning. The public restrooms at the overly crowded attractions don’t even have toilet paper. If that sounds like your experience, then you are one of the thousands of travelers who have fallen prey to destination catfishing.
“Destination-catfishing” is the colloquial term for a travel destination that is painted in an overwhelmingly positive aspect that is either seldom realized by most travelers or leaves out blaringly important details. Destination catfishing can be done deliberately by tourism boards, journalists, and influencers trying to market only the best aspects of a particular location.
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As much as we’d all love to live in a world where we can hop on a plane every weekend, the reality is that most travelers are only able to take one or two vacations a year. Destination catfishing isn’t a crime, per se, but it is disappointing to find out the hard way that your dream destination was just smoke, mirrors, and clever photoshopping. But with the constant stream of information about potential vacation ideas, how do you avoid being destination catfished? Here’s how to stay vigilant in five easy steps.
Tip #1: Follow the Deals, Not the Dream
The first step to avoiding being catfished by a destination is to avoid FOMO temptation. Also known as “the fear of missing out,” when we see so many people traveling to certain destinations all at the same time, we can feel pressured to travel to destinations in order to share in the festivities. However, hype doesn’t always translate into good experiences. Remember, social media often only shows the highlights of a destination.
The best way to avoid FOMO is to define your travel priorities. Before booking a trip, be sure to examine if the destination is actually one you would enjoy, rather than going because everyone else does. Instead, opt for a destination that is affordable from your home airport. Not all airports are created equally. For example, travelers from New York City may get great deals on flights to Europe, but travelers from California can score great prices for flights to Asia. Start your travel search based on price, then narrow it down by your interests. That way, even if the trip turns out to be a bit of a dud, at least you got a good deal on it.
Tip #2: Follow Part-Time Influencers
Social media can be a double-edged sword in travel planning, largely due to readily accessible and digestible information provided by travel content creators. On the one hand, they supply the public with never-ending travel inspiration and suggestions. On the other hand, those same suggestions are not always genuine.
Similar to traditional travel journalists and photographers, popular content creators are often paid to travel to specific locations with the intention of marketing it to their audience, often with a curated itinerary. Even those seemingly random “off-the-beaten-path” destinations can be part of sponsored press trips. It isn’t inherently bad, but because these creators are paid guests, they might receive treatment and special experiences that the average traveler might not, resulting in a destination catfish when that information isn’t disclosed.
The trick to getting over this hurdle is to follow travel bloggers who do not get paid for their content, so their experience mimics what one could reasonably expect from the destination. Anyone who regularly goes through the immense effort of writing and editing insightful blog posts and videos for free, can offer unbiased and unaffiliated travel recommendations that will steer you in the right direction.
Tip #3: Plan Smarter Not Harder
As with anything pertaining to life, take travel recommendations with a grain of salt. No matter who, what, when, where, and how you get your travel information, be sure to do a cross-check for any generous embellishment that may lead to destination catfishing.
Once you have a general list of hotels, restaurants, and attractions you want to visit, continue your research the old-fashioned way: via a search engine. There, you can find non-professional reviews by folks who barely know how to keep their thumbs out of photos, let alone photoshop unrealistic cotton candy-colored sunsets where it doesn’t exist. With a quick verification through Yelp reviews or third-party hotel booking sites, you can often get a more well-rounded view of what to expect when you get to the destination.
Tip #4: Lower Your Expectations
The underlying root of a disappointing vacation lies in unmet expectations. For example, booking a beach vacation only for it to rain every day. Or signing up for a relaxing yoga retreat, and the resort is packed with rowdy Spring Breakers. Or wanting to photograph a spectacular natural wonder, but you get a bout of traveler’s tummy and spend the weekend hunched over the toilet instead.
One of the best ways to avoid being catfished by a destination is to go into the experience with an open mind and even lower expectations. Go into your vacation with dismal expectations. In fact, go ahead and book the ugliest vacation you can image. It might seem counter-intuitive, but more likely than not, you will be pleasantly surprised and return home with a renewed sense of wonder and appreciation for broadening your horizons. Plus, you get the travel street cred of boasting about traveling to a place not many others choose to go. It’s a win-win situation.
Tip #5: Embrace Delusion
Even with all the preparation in the world, it isn’t always avoidable. You may still get destination catfished. It is one of the greatest woes in the modern era. However, when life gives you lemons, throw some champagne in that lemonade for a bottomless mimosa. If you don’t fancy the food, go shopping for ingredients at the local market and try your hand a preparing a traditional dish. When Mother Nature decides to literally rain on your parade, go clubbing in water shoes.
You might even find that being destination catfished will push you creatively as you scramble to find something to do when all else fails. The universe has sent you a test that you did not study for—so cheat. If a beach is full of seaweed, take a close-up thirst trap against the palm trees in the hotel courtyard. Heck, photoshop a whole sun in the background if you want. If anyone calls you out, just claim it’s camp. If you only leave with a good story, you successfully had a good vacation. Travel was never meant to be that serious anyway, so loosen up and grab a metal detector to find the silver lining in any destination.
While I appreciate the author of this post alerting readers on what destination catfishing is and how to deal with it… it’s clear that people don’t like being cheated by influencers and marketing agents.
So, why are you telling your readers that if they’ve been cheated and had a less than stellar vacation, to go ahead and cheat their followers, family, and friends by faking it? Takes away from the entire premise of the article. Two “wrongs” still don’t make a “right.”
This article is trying too hard to be glib and clever instead of genuine, and it misses the mark. Sorry, Fodor’s, the tone of this article disappoints… you can do better...
So true!! Have watch to watch out for those tricky influencers. My favorite line: The universe has sent you a test that you did not study for—so cheat. Hahaha
Yes to point 1 especially!! Anywhere can be a "bad" destination depending on the person or situation, but it somehow hurts less if the flight was only $150 hahah
Instagrammable vloggers are the ones to avoid. They smile a lot, have endless changes of flimsy low cut dresses or barely there bikinis, stick their chests out provocatively, throw their arms and hair about, and use words such as wow, amazing, cool, over and over again. Even if they are not staying or show that they are staying at 5star hotels, very little actual content is provided, generally regurgitated from another vlog or guide book. Look for those who are not interested in dressing up, but who are at least neat and tidy, who are prepared to walk the walk, show you the dirt that is no doubt around and provide meaningful and helpful information to help you create that great holiday.
Need to mention air BNBs. They tout that six people can stay ( assuming two people in every double bed and 1 on the couch). I learned long ago to scrutinize the photos of the pools for reference points on size. So many look big but are only the length and width of three lounge chairs)