Travel Blogging. What is it? What is its purpose? How do travel blogs help, or hurt, the destinations and people they talk about? 

Furthermore, who is a travel blogger? Who can be a travel blogger? And what does it take to be a travel blogger? 

And another thing; how do travel bloggers make money to afford to travel?

A recent article published in our local newspaper, The Bocas Breeze, dives deep into some of these questions, with the travel bloggers in question being the couple from the travel blog called, “Our Escape Clause.” 

I felt the need to also address my concerns here, as this particular article, “Our Conflicted Feelings About Bocas del Toro, Panama,” is a dangerously unprofessional and reckless piece of writing that seeks to profit from the struggles of an entire island community. 

But first, let me tell you a story about Sam. 

Sam is an old man. He lives in a clapboard shack in the indigenous community of Bahia Roja which is situated on the border of the Red Frog Resort property, close to Red Frog Beach.

Sam is too old to work, and he’s also almost entirely blind – the result of a life on the water without modern eye protection (a common problem for the people of Bocas del Toro). 

However, regardless of Sam’s age or very limited eyesight, he still needs to eat and provide something for his family (and maybe with some luck, save up for the expensive surgery he needs to save his eyes).

So, how does Sam make money?

Sam, like the estimated 90-95% of all Bocatoreños, makes his money from tourism. 

Every morning, Sam gets in his dugout canoe and paddles to the not-so-nearby community of Old Bank to buy a bag of ice. Once he has the ice, he paddles back to his community in Bahia Roja, and begins the 20-30 minute hike to Red Frog Beach. 

When Sam arrives at the beach, he rakes the leaves from his small portion of sand and sets up his shop for the day. He puts the ice he bought into his cooler, along with several pipas (young coconuts), which he then sells as pipa fria (cold young coconuts) for $1 each to the tourists who visit the beach. 

Sam is a good man, always with a smile, albeit a fairly toothless one. I have known him for many years. 

So, in the grand scheme of travel blogging, tourism, and the promotion of destinations, who is Sam? Where does Sam fit in? 

Well, Sam is just one man, one example of how someone in a very developing tourist destination can squeeze some money out of this machine for himself. In Bocas del Toro, the population is estimated to be around 16,000 inhabitants, so how many more Sam’s are there in this archipelago? And is their well-being worth more than the advertising profits Our Escape Clause makes from their Bocas del Toro article?

(Ok, sure, travel bloggers were also hit hard by the pandemic. Right? We can’t forget about them, gotta make sure they eat too!)

Our Escape Clause

Now, let’s talk about the article, “Our Conflicted Feelings about Bocas del Toro, Panama,” by Jeremy and Kate Storm from the Our Escape Clause blog. 

I just did a google search for the term, “Bocas del Toro,” and after switching my location to the United States, I see that this article by Jeremy and Kate comes up in the number 6 position, just below Trip Advisor, Wikipedia, VisitPanama.com, and the BocasDelToro.com page. Those are some pretty authoritative sites, so surely the #6 article should be similarly authoritative, no?

Upon first inspection of Jeremy and Kate’s article, you’ll notice that the date, both on google and in the article, says, “June 4, 2021.” As The Bocas Breeze points out, this is, in fact, not the publishing date, but a recent update to the article which only makes it appear as being recently published. (The actual date of travel was sometime before June 23rd of 2017, as that is when the first comment is dated.)

Now normally, if you were to update one of your previously published articles, you would put something like, “Last Updated: June 4th, 2021.” But the date on their article has no context, no “last updated.”

Why not? When almost all other blogs/ news sites will include the context to the date?

The answer is simple: Google likes fresh content.

It likes new, current, up-to-date information and will rank that information higher in its search results. By changing the date to June 4th, 2021, not only does it seem like it was just published to the unsuspecting reader, but Google also recognizes that it was recently updated, giving this article a leg up over its competitors who have not been updated so recently. 

Is this a fair, ethical blogging practice? 

Why wouldn’t Our Escape Clause add in the context to their publishing date? How many potential visitors to Bocas del Toro will read this article, see that it is so recent, and decide not to come, when the people of Bocas del Toro need them the most?

“Didn’t Quite Get the Destination”

Read a few lines into the article and you’ll come across the quote: “we didn’t quite get the destination.” 

Just after that, you’ll read, “That’s the quandary I have with Bocas del Toro: we spent almost two weeks there, and while we didn’t despise it… we didn’t really love it.”

So here is the question: is it fair for Our Escape Clause to openly state: “Would we ever consider taking a more standard one-to-two-week vacation there, or suggest others do the same? Never.” When you previously stated that you, “didn’t quite get the destination?”

Isn’t it a travel blogger’s job to get out there and make sure that they do “get” a destination?

What did Jeremy and Kate do to even try to understand Bocas del Toro? And with what authority do they have to give out a blanket recommendation to not visit the islands when they only came for 2 weeks, only stayed in Bocas Town, and only did two activities?

Affiliate Links: How Our Escape Clause Makes Money

So scroll down a little more and you will come across this disclaimer:

What are affiliate links? Affiliate links are one of the primary forms of income for many internet-based news sources and blogs. It is as simple as referring someone to buy something and making a commission. 

How do you maximise your profit through affiliate links? You need traffic, lots of it. 

That’s lots of people reading your site and your blogs, with a small percentage of them clicking those affiliate links and actually buying something, giving you your precious commission. 

And how do you get more traffic? The best way to get traffic is to rank high up on Google searches.

And what is one way to help your site rank higher? By updating your content so it appears to be fresh in the eyes of the search engines.

So, by recently updating this article to appear like it was published in June of 2021, Jeremy and Kate are trying to improve their rankings in search engines, in order to get more traffic, to hopefully get more clicks on ads and purchases through affiliate links. 

Let’s continue our scroll down a few more paragraphs, and now there are 3 separate advertisements on my screen with just one small paragraph written by Jeremy and Kate. More ads = more opportunities for commissions, right?

Travel Bloggers or Tourist Bloggers?

Let’s examine this next paragraph:

“When travelers are referring to going to Bocas del Toro, however, they typically mean that they’re headed to Isla Colón (home of “Bocas Town”, the main tourist town and the biggest population center on the islands) or Isla Bastimentos (a smaller, more rural island a quick water taxi away from Isla Colón).”

Ok, that’s some true information. I like the phrase, “the main tourist town and biggest population center on the islands.” (Keyword: tourist).

Bocas Town is in fact the main tourist town. It’s filled end to end with shops, restaurants, hotels, tour vendors, and all the essentials like grocery stores, hardware stores, the bank, ect. There are a lot of people that love Bocas Town and it definitely serves its purpose as the restaurant and nightlife hub. Bocas Town is also known as Panama’s only wooden city, has a rich history, and some truly beautiful Colonial-Caribbean architecture. 

But, would I recommend someone spend their entire 2-week vacation in Bocas del Toro here if I wanted them to have the best impression of the islands? Never. (Spend a few nights there, sure, but bounce around a few other islands and areas as well!)

So why did Jeremy and Kate? 

Why did the professional travel bloggers with a huge international following choose to spend their entire 2 weeks in the sprawling archipelago of Bocas del Toro just in an apartment in, “the main tourist town.” 

Aren’t travel bloggers supposed to be on the cutting edge – deep in the jungle, on the deserted island, or in that hole in the wall B&B that nobody has ever heard of? Or do good travel bloggers need, “tour companies to book from, restaurants and grocery stores for food, as well as souvenir shops.” 

Souvenir shops? What legitimate traveler stays somewhere for the souvenir shops?

Bocas del Toro’s Best Beaches

The next phrase puzzles me further: “Most of Bocas del Toro’s best beaches are spread across less populated islands, and therefore, tours to access the different areas are very common.”

This is true, Bocas del Toro’s best beaches are spread throughout the islands, and yes, you can jump on a myriad of different tours to go see them. But let’s just talk about Isla Colón, where this couple based their time, and the only island in the archipelago that has public roads leading directly to several of its’ best beaches. 

Isla Colón has Starfish Beach, Bluff Beach, La Piscina, The Blue Lagoon, Las Cabañas, Boca del Drago, Mimbi Timbi Beach, Paunch Beach, and there’s a few smaller playitas scattered throughout the coastline as well. 

Surely, professional travelers Jeremy and Kate would have ventured to one of these other beaches as well, that were located on their same island, where they stayed for two weeks, and are just a bike, bus, or land-taxi ride away, right? 

Unfortunately, no, the Our Escape Clause team did not visit any of these beaches, aside from the most mass-marketed, touristy beach of them all; Starfish Beach.

Which leads into their next topic:

Fun things to do in Bocas del Toro.

And there it is: Starfish Beach. Followed by Sloth Island and Deep Boarding. Three fun things – in 2 weeks… 

It is obvious to someone who knows Bocas del Toro that Sloth Island and Deep Boarding are 2 stops on the full-day Isla Zapatilla Tour through a certain company. So that’s just one day where they did a boat tour. And they also admit to only spending one afternoon at Starfish Beach. 

So, what else did they do for almost 2 weeks aside from the day and a half of Starfish Beach and Isla Zapatilla tours? They say that they’re, “never ones to say no to a fun new water activity,” so surely they took a surf lesson, or went scuba diving, right? 

No, they didn’t.

So, honestly, what did they do? Where was the effort to get out and see Bocas? To experience the culture, people, food, activities, or see the different communities? Was this why they didn’t have a good time in Bocas del Toro? Not because there isn’t anything to do, or fun and new experiences to be had, or intense tropical beauty to be found – but simply because they didn’t actually put in the effort to do anything?

How many Bocatoreños will continue to suffer, year after year, as a result of Jeremy and Kate’s laziness and negligence?

And then we get to the, “downsides of Bocas del Toro,” part. 

The part about the rain. 

The part about the rain, in the rainforest. 

The part that it-sure-does-rain-a-whole-lot during the rainy season in the tropical rainforest of Bocas del Toro, Panama. 

But they admit, “we didn’t really research the weather in Bocas del Toro before going.” 

Isn’t it your job as a travel blogger to do research on the places you travel to? And if you didn’t, whose fault is that?

“Didn’t really research…” “Didn’t get the destination…” 

And then there is their conclusion:

No Place in Bocas del Toro is Perfect

“Other than the fact that the location wasn’t perfect (which no place in Bocas del Toro is), we were completely satisfied with our studio.”

That’s a bold statement. 

It’s like they had no choice but to stay where they stayed, because there just isn’t anywhere good to stay in Bocas del Toro.

And that’s definitely fair to say, because they know every nook and cranny of Bocas del Toro, because they stayed for two weeks in, “the main tourist town,” and saw Starfish Beach and Sloth Island… Right?

Wrong. You can’t make this statement when you haven’t seen or experienced any other areas of Bocas del Toro. So why did they? How much damage are they trying to do?

(On the more technical side, I will add that there is another affiliate link here, which links to the accommodation where they stayed through the website Booking.com. In this situation, the couple will earn a commission if a reader of their article books this accommodation through their link. Could this be why they, “definitely wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place to anyone passing through Bocas Town!”)

Conclusion 

I am biased. 

I have lived in Bocas del Toro since 2015 and came here originally to work for a non-profit organization which gave me the best years of my life. 

In my time here, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about the local people, formed strong relationships with them, and seen real hardships, things incomprehensible to the first-world, on a daily basis. 

This article doesn’t piss me off because I now work in the tourism industry. It pisses me off because I know how many people it negatively affects with the sole benefit of earning the Our Escape Clause authors a few extra dollars. 

The people that will feel its effects the most are the same ones that have been hit hardest by the Pandemic – the ones who have had it the hardest in the first place.

It makes me wonder, what is the purpose of the Our Escape Clause blog? Is it to share travel tips, insider information, or helpful guides? 

Is it to provide a deeper understanding of destinations so that future visitors can, too, discover new experiences that will help them grow and open their minds? Isn’t that the purpose of travel? 

Or is their purpose solely financial, a way to make money while getting to be international tourists, on a permanent vacation, no matter the cost to everyone else? Is there a dark side to travel blogging, and is this it?

How many more of their articles are also based on this kind of “traveling?”

As the Panama tourism authority states, “Panama is for travellers, not tourists,” and I think they really nailed it with that.