Journal 5: Cha-ching!

Business, in the sense I will use it, is an establishment that can make a profit.  The most powerful example of the profit-making aspect of travel writing is part of Friend’s “The Parachute Artist.”  The World Trade Center attacks proved that travel writing is a serious business.  Lonely Planet laid off 100 people after this event, which was almost one-fifth of the workforce.  The attacks, combined with SARS, the terrorist bombing in Bali, the Iraq war, and the avian flu, caused a massive relaunch of Lonely Planet, because it hadn’t made money for two and a half years.  In times when people are wary of traveling due to “danger” issues, Lonely Planet adopted the strategy of “the information model.”  Providing travelers with the most factual data to reassure them was the best-selling strategy of the time.  Lonely Planet’s experience after 9/11 highlights the business aspect of travel.  Both traveling and travel writing have elements of business in Rome.      

My specifically religious journey has a business aspect.  Consider the carefully-placed stores of religious objects in popular areas such as the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Santa Scala, and the Pantheon (which, even though it had pagan intentions, has now been converted into a good Christian shrine).  There is plaqued art of Christian stories or the Madonna and baby Jesus everywhere.  The number of religious jewelry and icons sold per year has got to be an astounding number.  I cringe when I buy something because I know that the true spirit of the Gospel is one of sharing with the needy, not storing up wealth for ourselves on earth.  I hate to join the multitude offenders to this commandment: oftentimes, Catholics and other religious people.  The Vatican itself is a business, with some individual tours costing up to 31 euro (about 45 American dollars) per person!  We must keep in mind that the Vatican has several admission tickets, all of which must be bought separately: for the museum, for the Gardens, for the view from the top of the Dome, and for the excavation tour of St. Peter’s bones.  Of course, in secular Rome, the same rules apply.  The beauty of Rome must be bought, whether it’s transportation, food, historical sites, or information, such as travel writing.      

The last of those offenses against the wallet is travel writing, which is another very profitable business in Rome.  I rarely see a tourist without a guidebook poking out of her backpack.  But I distinguish creative travel writing versus guidebook writing of facts and locations.  Sure, this information is necessary, but it makes for dull history.  As readers, we are constantly on the search for the story.  I don’t want to know the facts about the sculpture of Laocoon and his sons, I want to know the back story.  The brave Trojan of Virgil’s Aeneid was the only one to warn that the Trojan horse left by the Greeks as a “gift” was not to be trusted.  Everyone ignored him, and one of the gods sent snakes from the sea to kill Laocoon and his sons. 

The business of travel can be assessed at every historical landmark.  The ticket revenues and souvenirs alone comprise the business aspect of Rome.  In travel writing, of which guidebooks are only a small part, I consider the story as much more important that the historical facts.  That is the connection that we need in our travel writing.  The stories that we’ve been reading about, from Dalrymple to Gilbert to Russell, are focused on the human connection to places through story and experience.  That connection is what I will explore in my travelogue, with a spiritual addition.  Though facts help to bolster a story, they are simply that: supporters and nothing else.  When it comes to true travel writing, the story takes precedence.