Alan Estrada, travel 'influencer': “You can travel the world and come back being just as stupid”

Alan Estrada is the

influencer

of travel

influencers

in Spanish.

He has 3.6 million followers on YouTube;

1.8 million on Instagram;

2.9 million on Facebook;

and about 646,000 on his TikTok profile.

A kind of King Midas who turns anything he publishes into gold.

However, he does not like the word

influencer,

nor the word

YouTuber

(“I feel like it is very limiting to just one platform”), and prefers to consider himself a content creator.

Better known by his social name, Alan por el mundo, this 43-year-old Mexican began as an actor in musicals, theater and soap operas.

But a backpacking trip through Southeast Asia when he was 23 changed his life.

He started a YouTube channel to show his escapades to friends and family and, since then, he hasn't stopped climbing, like a rocket.

But Alan is, above all, a normal, close guy, with a humanity that is difficult to describe.

I have had the honor of sharing several trips with him and nothing could be further from the cliché about the conceited

influencer

blinded by success.

He comes from below, from finding a place on stage from scratch, without sponsors, and it hasn't gone to his head.

Quite the opposite.

If he has to cross half the world to do a favor for a friend or to attend a conference or a conference that he thinks is interesting, he does it and that's it, without asking for a single euro in return.

That closeness, that empathy with what surrounds him, is a good part of his success as a communicator.

The camera loves him, he is funny (as they say in his native Mexico), he is agile, skilled in any situation and knows how to tell stories in an entertaining and unpretentious way.

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Now, after hundreds of hours narrating trips in front of a camera, he has decided to do so in a book as well:

Traveling will change your life.

(Planet).

More than a guide on travel and destinations, it is an essay about his way of seeing life, travel and his relationship with what surrounds him.

After its launch last summer in Mexico, it now arrives in Spanish bookstores.

Ask.

Why did you decide to write that book now?

Answer.

I think writing is part of a necessity and also, honestly, because my followers asked me for it a lot.

My videos are full of reflections, which is, in the end, what I like to do most about traveling, more than giving advice and talking about hotels or restaurants.

I like to reflect on the gifts that travel gives us and how it can modify our way of thinking, seeing the world and, obviously, seeing ourselves.

Being able to capture these anecdotes in a book and my way of thinking is important to me, that's why it took me so long.

Alan Estrada's initial idea was to title his new book "Travel could change your life."

Q.

The book is called

Traveling Will Change Your Life

, but don't you think that nothing changes for 99% of people who travel?

A.

Yes, in fact it is a complex issue because the title, to be honest, was not something I proposed.

I had proposed that the book be called

Traveling Could Change Your Life

, but I understand that this statement may be a more striking title.

But I think that within the book I explore how traveling can change your life as long as you want it to.

I mean, of course I propose that one can travel the world and come back being just as stupid.

Travel does not necessarily illustrate today;

It is your own decision that travel enlightens you and that is what I talk about in the book.

In the end the title is a marketing hook.

Q.

What proportion of the capacity for wonder is lost by traveling as much as you do?

A.

Oh, that's a great question.

Of course the capacity for wonder wears out, because the first time you see something, the first time you eat something, the first time you visit a city, the first time you visit a palace in your life, an archaeological zone... you wonder is very fresh.

But I think what I do is not compare and try to live in the present, something I talk about in the book, I dedicate a whole chapter to how to be children again to renew that capacity for wonder.

That is, for example, I am at some waterfalls, in the Veracruz waterfalls, and someone tells me: “Well, yes, but the Iguazú waterfalls are much bigger.”

Yes, but I am not in Iguazú, at that moment I am here, I enjoy it and try not to compare, and I think that living in the present is the key.

Q.

In my case, it was a country that captured me the most and decided that my life was going to change and not the other way around.

Do you think that no matter how hard you try to go to a place that you have idealized in search of that mystical experience, in the end it is the country and the circumstance of the moment that come together?

A.

Totally.

I believe that destinies are just a pretext and that they modify us depending on who we are.

There's a part of the book where I talk about how five people can take the exact same trip and have a completely different experience.

They can even eat the same thing, see the same thing, but the place impacts them differently because they are different.

I do not try, neither with my content, nor with this book, for people to try to replicate my experiences exactly, in the end the same external journey ends up being an internal journey.

The place is an excuse to see where we stand, and when you least expect it, a place that you never imagined transforms and changes you.

It's what makes travel wonderful, and that each experience is completely personal and there is no country that everyone likes.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alan por el Mundo (@alanxelmundo)

Q.

What would you say to someone who has never taken a solo trip?

A.

In the book I argue that traveling alone is not for everyone, but we should try it at least once in our lives, at least to realize that you don't like it.

Traveling alone can be scary for many things, but I think what scares us the most is being with ourselves.

And there are people who say they are bored.

I, for example, am very lonely, I never get bored being with me, but I understand that there are many people who are afraid or even lazy.

But solo trips, for me, are a lot of discovery, both external and internal.

So I would say try it at least once and you will probably discover a new way of traveling that you are passionate about or convince yourself that you are not.

Q.

What is this about telling stories, not countries...?

A.

The number of countries visited neither makes you a better traveler nor does it make you a better person nor does it make you a more educated or changed person.

The number is just a number, it doesn't matter.

It's not that I'm against people who put on their profile how many countries they've visited, but I don't think it's relevant.

And on the other hand, it can become a bit risky, even in terms of marketing, to sell that image of “so-and-so, the first person to tour all the countries in the world at such an age.”

That can generate frustration in those who have not done it at that age.

Or those of us who have not visited all the countries in the world.

It's not a competition, the important thing is how the places we visit affect us.

Maybe you want to return to the same place 20 times.

It's okay, in the end you decide what to do with your time and money.

Q.

You dedicate a chapter to traveling in times of Instagram, that is, social networks.

You started with them and you have become super popular thanks to them.

Is connectivity, or rather, the excess of it, the sin of today's traveler?

Is it dopamine's fault?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alan por el Mundo (@alanxelmundo)

A.

It is no secret that Instagram has been an invaluable tool for all tourism offices and the travel industry.

It has been one of the tools that has catapulted the passion or activity of traveling of many people, even if it is for reasons that are not necessarily the most correct, although... what is correct and what is incorrect?

I believe that the sin of today's traveler, beyond social networks, is not living in the present, that is, how much you miss by being on that device.

And I think we all sin from it.

I do think that dopamine has something to do with it, of course, brain chemistry works against us.

Every time I travel I make more personal trips, I take out my phone and camera less, I try to live in the moment and, although I have a very bad memory, I still won't remember that moment but at least I was there and that for me is important.

Q.

Can you be a traveler and sustainable?

A.

I think that living pollutes and what we try to do is reduce our impact.

For me, the solution, more than not traveling or limiting flights, is in balance;

on how to balance our consumption, the way we use resources.

It is very complex, very very complex, and although I think about balance, I cannot think of a solution that tells how we can generate a sustainable tourism industry in the future.

Honestly, I don't know.

Q.

After half a life traveling... do you still have certain stereotyped phrases such as, "travel makes us tolerant", "travel enlightens", "nationalism is cured by traveling"?

A.

I believe that traveling does not make us tolerant, and travel does not automatically enlighten us either.

Traveling could make us tolerant, traveling could enlighten us as long as we decide.

I do believe that nationalism is cured by traveling, in the sense that you will have to be very stupid to travel to other places and think or continue thinking that your country is the best in the world.

I do believe that the other phrases, today, are very questionable due to the speed at which we are traveling.

Q.

The last chapter of the book is called

All Journeys End

.

How will this madness of

influencers

born at the mercy of social networks end?

Will those communicators linked to a specific network disappear with them?

Or is there a future for them in a world that is going to dominate artificial intelligence?

A.

Well, I would love to have a crystal ball to know what the future will bring.

Of course things are going to change, but we don't know when or how or where.

I think that there are platforms that probably remain in balance, just as radio, television, cinemas continue to exist, but they transform and diversify.

I hope that happens, and if at some point YouTube or a platform like Instagram or something from Meta disappears, it will be part of an evolution.

In the end, the art of writing will always exist and the art of creating audiovisually as well.

If in the future it is accompanied by artificial intelligence, I think the possibilities are endless.

Just as travel agencies once had to adapt to this entire digital

boom

, it will be up to us to adapt.

And we will decide whether to renew or die.

You can also follow Paco Nadal on Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X. And listen to him every Friday, at 7:00 pm, with Carles Francino on

La Ventana

, on Cadena SER.

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