Travel Through Paradise

The dangers of social media for travel and tourism

This blogpost might be a turning point for me as a travel vlogger and blogger. In many cases I was drawn to some of the obvious and popular destinations within the Philippines and you can see all over internet and social media. Destinations like Palawan, with major attractions like the Puerto Princesa Underground River, come to mind. I got annoyed a lot for sure when there were too many tourist coming through one place; but in some occasions, I can imagine even nature and certain ecosystems 'get annoyed' with an increased influx of paradise travelers.

I have been curious about Siargao for some time now. A bunch of the people I've been following on Instagram have been posting their pictures of their time on there, and thus have been heavily promoting their favorite island through the use of their social media accounts. Off course this is a very natural phenomenon and trend, that people post pictures of their travel, but it has its drawbacks I believe.

I was on Siargao Island recently and I decided to make a minimum amount of vlogs, and not only just because I forgot the charger for my camera. I read an article on the plane going to Siargao about some issues the island currently faces due to its big increase in popularity as a touristic destination. Beaches are getting littered, food undersupply for the locals (resorts have first preference in getting fresh fish), and General Luna is getting very touristic.

A lot of social media influencers purposely go to places that are already very popular, so their posts will get seen by more people than if they were to go to places that are not as popular. This trend is definitely not supporting ecosystems in a healthy way at all, and we as travelers should probably be more conscious about these things.

As a travel blogger and vlogger, I will change direction and actually go to places that are not popular from now on. For me it's nice to be among locals, and not among tourists; and for the Philippine tourism this will have positive effects as well. It would be more than healthy for the Philippine travel industry if tourism would get spread out more, and not get clustered so much as a sort of hub in places like Boracay, El Nido, or Siargao.

I want to have a healthy impact as a travel entrepreneur, and I think TravelThroughParadise.com should be a travel site that focuses on providing a healthy balance in tourism and travel. As a travel blogger I will start out with that and so on this site, I will only post vlogs and blogs that are about my experiences in new and undiscovered places that are just not popular yet (but are well worth going to). That should be the theme of this site, I hope you like this approach.

If you do believe in the content of this article, you can help me as well as the Philippines by sharing this article on one or more of your social media channels. Thank you very much in advance! And Travel Through Paradise!!

Back to top Previous Blog Post Next Blog Post