Ovidio Guaita, photographer, journalist, influencer
167 countries visited, 30 volumes published
“The Photographer,” as he’s known abroad. A story that begins in a small town in the Pianura Padana (northern Italy) and reaches the farthest corners of the planet. Exhibitions, courses, consultations, and now a video course where he teaches how to become a travel influencer. In this interview, we discover more.
by Pamela McCourt Francescone
For this interview with Ovidio Guaita we met him at his home in Florence, between one trip and another.
Speaking of travelers, let’s immediately look at the difference between a tourist and a traveler.
Easy. The traveler sees after observing. The first few times you go abroad, you’re curious about everything, but you don’t always understand what you’re seeing, its meaning, or why it is the way it is. The traveler, thanks to experience and knowledge, can truly “see,” understand, and interpret what passes before them. Then there are substantial differences in approach. Respect, for example. Traveling means entering someone else’s home; it must be done respectfully, honoring traditions. In the Islamic world, you don’t look women in the eyes, in Malaysia and elsewhere, you remove your shoes when entering homes, and in some African countries, you don’t photograph people’s faces because they believe it steals their soul. Strange, perhaps, but it’s their home, and as long as they respect us, we must do the same.
What’s the purpose of a Club Great Voyagers?
Precisely this. To help tourists become travelers, although it’s actually much more. It’s a place to meet and interact with like-minded people. When I talk about travel outside the club, people look at me strangely; most so-called travel lovers take two trips a year, maybe three. When you take that many in two months, you become an outlier with whom it’s best to talk about something else. In the club, however, we’re all like this, true travelers, and the exchange of experiences is constant.
Why did you found the Travel Academy?
Not to be confused with the club, which is part of the Travel Academy—something else entirely. The Academy is a home for all travel lovers: people who travel virtually with books and videos, tourists, travelers, and explorers. We organize themed events with screenings, exhibitions, publish courses, books, and a magazine. Every December, we celebrate the travel year with a super elegant event, the Travel Academy Gala, with events also in Florence, Rome, Milan, and other Italian cities. There’s much more to say, but this is an interview with Ovidio Guaita, not about the Travel Academy, so I’ll stop here.
And to think some people think the Travel Academy is a tour operator…
It absolutely isn’t. Some think so because we organize trips, but they’re for members only, and it’s just one of the Academy’s activities—not even the most important. So no, we’re not a tour operator.
What’s the difference between the Travel Academy and a tour operator, then?
Simple: a tour operator is a business that organizes trips for profit; we organize trips for friends (members) and only for them, occasionally, without promoting them outside the Academy.
How do you see travel in the future?
Agencies and tour operators will become increasingly niche: themed safaris, polar explorations, space travel, but also food tours, wellness tours, movie tours (to famous filming locations), or extreme nature immersion. On flights, cabins will become more segmented: from low-cost Economy with zero services to First Class, with Economy Standard, Economy Premium, and Business in between. This segmentation will also appear in hospitality: Airbnb, hotels, and resorts will vary their offerings from nothing included to all-inclusive. Long weekends will be more frequent, even for long-haul trips, spread throughout the year. We’ll all travel more, each in our own style and budget.
There’s a lot of talk about AI; how do you think it might interact with travel? Will it help us become less like tourists?
If AI helps us learn, it’ll also help us be less like tourists. I believe that in the future someone will say, “You could already see it in that interview with Ovidio Guaita.” Because AI could certainly create a personalized travel guide with the visits we want to make and based on our interests. And it’ll do it at no cost. Already, that’s something.
Is there a place or region you’d like to see but haven’t yet managed to visit?
Afghanistan. I’ve heard about it since I was a kid after the Russian invasion. Since then, we’ve known everything about wars and the Taliban but nothing about the country, which is very interesting.
You love to travel, but you don’t seem like a digital nomad. What keeps you from being one?
A digital nomad doesn’t travel but relocates, working. They may also be a traveler, but not necessarily. They don’t go to discover a place or a region but simply move from one to the other. I work better at home and travel better when my work is minimal. I do end up working on planes, in hotels, or by the pool, but during my most creative phases, I need to be locked in my studio.
You mentioned that your first intercontinental trip was in 1981; much has changed since then.
True, how could I forget? New Year’s between New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, flying KLM via Amsterdam. I remember almost everything as if it were now, even all my mistakes, like not having a pen for the customs form and speaking poor English to ask for one. Back then, students bought tickets at CTS Centro Turistico Studentesco with hours-long queues in peak seasons. For hotels, we relied on guidebooks (obviously in paper form). Looking back, everything was more complicated, especially without a tour operator. Today, with Skyscanner, Booking.com, Google Maps, Google Translator, voice and data roaming, it’s a breeze. But the pleasure of discovering new places hasn’t changed and likely never will. Sure, we’ve already seen everything online, but it’s like the difference between seeing a cake and eating it.
Have you ever met someone who has visited all 250 countries in the world?
Once, at a conference in Cap d’Antibes. It was a Japanese woman in her fifties. I remember thinking she must be well-off and determined, because in some countries, you go only to say you’ve been there.
Ovidio, you created a video course on becoming a travel influencer. Do you think this role will still exist in future decades, and in what form?
Well, when I started promoting destinations, we called ourselves photojournalists (and videographers for those doing video). The term still exists, but as soon as one of these posts on social media, they essentially become a travel influencer. There will always be a demand for visibility and a supply. Modes and technology will change, but there will always be people who can capture the essence of a place through images, still or moving. By sharing them, they become travel influencers, though the name will likely change. Already, bloggers and influencers post on IG and TikTok, calling themselves “travel creators.”
Abroad, they call you “The Photographer,” almost like the title of a film. But in the end, who is Ovidio Guaita?
A photographer who loves to travel. Like thousands of others. The difference is that I was able to build a network of connections that allowed me to travel worldwide. That’s the exceptional part; the rest is routine. But that one detail changed my life.
At the end of this interview with Ovidio Guaita, we took a brief tour of his house, filled mostly with books. Curiously, there were no photos on the walls. “I keep memories in my heart,” he said as he walked us to the door. Nothing hints at the circles frequented by this photographer-traveler “that grabbed the world,” as the New York Times wrote in 2003, reviewing his book Italian Villas, which long adorned the bookstore display at the Metropolitan Museum. Nothing about the receptions at Villa La Pietra in honor of future King Charles III, hosted by Sir Harold Acton, or those at the court of Sultan Qaboos of Oman in the late 1990s, or meetings with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir, who inaugurated one of his exhibitions at the Islamic Art Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, or even his regular presence at the US Consulate General in Florence. And then there are many VIPs and politicians: Sean Connery, Vittorio Sgarbi (with whom he traveled to Yemen), Silvio Berlusconi, and American President Jimmy Carter (met in Dubai at the Burj Al Arab). Rumors about ties with American intelligence have occasionally circulated, never confirmed or denied. Ovidio Guaita has always preferred to keep his relationships private, letting his books and work take the spotlight. And we must say, “The Photographer” has succeeded.
You can follow Ovidio on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
