Ricerc@Sapienza

This article tries to clarify the contrast between the contemporary tourist figure and
the romantic traveler. From a conceptual and theoretical framework, it is our aim to
establish a critical apparatus to problematize the influence of new media in the experience of
travel nowadays, as a part of the Industry of Culture. From categories of analysis such as the
unexpected, the travel as a personal transformation or the authenticity, our essay deals with
a critical perspective of the hyperconnected tourist, specially through the smartphone, from
the point of view of the ideals of the romantic traveler and the Grand Tour.