Travel Trends Reveal Priorities

Hobbit Holes, Austenland, or the Real God of History?

Our goals in traveling reveal what’s important to us.

Vacation trends tell a tale of priorities, and over the last several decades, the decision of millions of tourists to choose two distinct destinations located on opposite sides of the globe — both of which have surged into revenue-rich hot-spots — shows a vacationing public bent toward escapism.

Down the “Kiwi” Hobbit Hole

The first is to the far-away island nation of New Zealand.

There’s no doubt that this country settled long ago by Māori tribesmen is filled with magnificent views and picturesque landscapes, as well as a unique history among Great Britain’s many dominions. It should be cause for concern, however, that, over the last thirteen years, droves of tourists have been driven to trek half-way around the world to this land to see where fantasies-that-never-happened were filmed — Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. Visit, New Zealand, yes, but it ought to be for some greater purpose than tunneling through a faux hobbit hole or meandering through one man’s vision of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. ¹

Yet touring New Zealand for Tolkien’s sake has become all the rage this century, with the first Jackson trilogy — released on consecutive Decembers from 2001-2003 — boosting tourism to this remote Pacific island by an estimated $700 million NZ dollars. ²

The tourism uptick from The Hobbit trilogy now rolling out in theaters has Kiwi merchants again licking their chops and local tourism execs rejoicing. Kevin Bowler, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), revealed that American tourism alone to New Zealand for the year ending in February 2014 was up 20% compared to the previous fiscal year. ³

According to Bowler, the deciding factor for this spike “was the impact of New Zealand’s association with Middle-earth and the new Hobbit films.” ⁴

Thank you Bilbo, Frodo, and Gandalf — along with the rest of your imaginary friends — for bolstering New Zealand tourism! Your one ring has lured them all to the “Kiwi” shire.

To Austenland We Go!

Then there’s the Atlantic version of this malady. Though Jane Austen was a real person in history (even as J. R. R. Tolkien was), those compelled to visit jolly old England with the primary goal to “follow in the footsteps of Mr. Darcy and the Bennet sisters,” among other Austen-created personages, should give us pause. ⁵

Yet the locations where Austen’s fictional characters are pictured in her works have become like a moth to a flame for admirers. In 2007, the UK Guardian noted this startling trend:

After Colin Firth emerged from the water at Cheshire’s Lyme Park in the 1995 TV series of Pride and Prejudice, with his damp white shirt clinging to his chest, the numbers heading for the National Trust property almost tripled. Ten years later the figures remained buoyant, at 88,884 in 2004-05 compared to 32,852 in 1994. ⁶

And this is just one of a host of locations portrayed in Miss Austen’s fictional works that have seen a marked spike in tourism over the last twenty years. ⁷ As with Jackson’s film adaptations of Tolkien’s fantasy world, various incarnations of Austen’s novels to the silver screen have prompted scads of giddy tourists to make one or more sacred pilgrimages to sundry locales to celebrate fictional storylines that — in real life — did not occur there.

Thank you, Mr. Darcy, Miss Lizzie Bennet, and Miss Fannie Price — and the other chaps and dames that make up your hoity-toity, make-believe social circle — for spawning such good fortune for your mother country. Well done!

The Problem: Seeking Identity and Fulfillment in Fantasy, Not God’s Created Order

So what should we make of these staggering trends in world travel? What conclusions might we reach in considering them?

First of all, I am well aware that there has already been much ink spilled in satire as well as thoughtful inquiry regarding the “Mr. Darcy Syndrome” and its attendant web of concerns. ⁸ So I don’t plan to rehearse those points here. Nor do I desire to question the literary prowess of J.R.R. Tolkien or Jane Austen. Both were imminently gifted writers who demonstrated able command of the stories they put to pen.

Yet the global phenomenon of book-readers of Mr. Tolkien and Miss Austen’s novels — and movie-watchers of various adaptations of their work — going on elaborate vacation jaunts to regale “on-location” in stories that didn’t happen in the real world, suggests a profound problem. It points to a longing on the part of many to find identity and fulfillment apart from the historical world God sovereignly created and governs.

Make no mistake: It’s not that fictional symbolism can’t be useful to Christians; it can be when it’s rooted on godly principles and lawfully pursued. Jesus Himself spoke extensively in parables, the Prophet Nathan used an allegory to point David to the depths of his egregious sin (2 Samuel 12:1-12), and the Prophet Ezekiel used a riddle of two eagles and a vineyard to indict King Zedekiah of Judah for breaking his word to the King of Babylon (Ezekiel 17:1-21).

But when one becomes gripped by a fantasy world, regularly imagining they are some made-up character (be they in costume or not), and routinely prioritizes their travel plans around something that never occurred in real life — rather than on the awe-inspiring events of history, found in every land, that God has guided to bring about His eternal purpose (Isaiah 46:9-11; Romans 8:28; I Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:2-12; Hebrews 1:1-12; Revelation 11:15) — they are resorting to an escapism that is unhealthy, at best, or disastrous, at worst.

When tempted to follow this path, well might we heed the Apostle Paul’s words by “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:5).

An Observation from the First Trilogy Wave: How Redirected Priorities Could Build an Army of Well-Equipped Warriors

In Peter Jackson’s first installment of his new Hobbit trilogy, Lady Galadriel pointedly says to Gandalf: “The dragon has long been on your mind.” ⁹

What is it that long stays on our minds as Christ’s ambassadors?

When Jackson’s first trilogy hit theaters more than a decade ago, I was amazed how much time some people I knew spent immersing themselves in Tolkien’s fictional cosmos, making elaborate costumes of various Lord of the Rings characters and poring over every known line the Oxford scholar ever wrote about his fantasy kingdom. The craze was like nothing I’d ever seen before.

It occurred to me then that if folks spent as much time studying the life and work of David — which spans 69 chapters of biography from I Samuel to I Chronicles and no fewer than 75 psalms — rather than mining Tolkien’s Appendices for new Middle Earth insights and seeking to learn archaic Dwarven and Elvish languages from a world that never was, we would have serious biblical scholars on our hands.

To be blunt: If this same level of heartfelt passion and focus were brought to the careful study of God’s Word and His work in history, we’d have well-equipped warriors all around us who were ready to refute “the gainsayers” (Titus 1:9) and “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3).

Are we willing to pay the price and actively redirect our time and resources toward this purpose? In considering the short lot of time we’ve been granted, I hope that many will answer “yes.”

Conclusion

One’s choices — including travel preferences — reveal their priorities. So what drives our passions at their root?

Jesus stated that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21). If we’re honest with ourselves, in what pursuit do we truly find delight? Is it in God’s Word or something else? Do we cry with the Psalmist, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97)? If not, we have a serious problem which must be addressed.

In truth, most of us can’t afford to make a trip to Jane Austen’s England or Tolkien’s world as brought to the screen in New Zealand by Peter Jackson. Yet we can all easily fall prey to the blight of escapism that grips so many of those who are zealously making these pilgrimages. None of us are immune from what R.J. Rushdoony called “the will to fiction.” ¹⁰

If we find our identity more in Austen’s Lizzie Bennet or Tolkien’s Gandalf the Grey than we do in God’s revealed Word and the great “cloud of witnesses” we’re commanded to search out and study (Deuteronomy 32:7; Job 8:8-15; Hebrew 11:1-12:3), then we must humbly turn our thoughts toward the True God of history who grants His people fulfilling hope through His Son and life everlasting.

May God give us hearts to make this our focus, rather than some silly hobbit hole in Middle Earth or jaunt in Austen’s England.