Vampire Tourism

Even though I’ve read the Twilight series (okay, only the first two) and am aware of the whole vampire craze, I was shocked to see its effect on tourism in the actual towns featured in the books. A waitress from Port Angeles, Washington, recently told me that business has picked up at the local Italian restaurant featured in the book. In fact, some tourists are stopping by to dine with those life-size cutouts of Edward.

I found the whole thing hard to believe, so I decided to check it out for myself when we stopped in another Twilight location: Forks. Sure enough, the town was teeming with vampire fanatics buying up Twilight gear and signing on for Twilight tours. A local real estate brochure encouraged would-be entrepreneurs to buy commercial real estate in the hot new “vampire” area. And (why not?) you can buy “vampire blood” (syrup?) along with your Tully’s coffee at the local café.

The whole thing had me thinking of people who select vacation fiction that features the area where they will be traveling. I’m not that organized, but I did find myself fondly remembering a charming old memoir by Betty MacDonald called Onions in the Stew that details the author’s life with her young daughters on Vashon Island. MacDonald, who died in the late 1950s, was better known for The Egg and I. But her obscure memoir stayed with me for years and sprang to mind as I rode the ferry from Seattle toward the Olympic peninsula.

The amazing trees in Washington’s national parks also reminded me of how much I want to read Timothy Egan’s new book, The Big Burn, about the 1910 forest fire that inspired Teddy Roosevelt’s conservation efforts (in Montana and Idaho, not Washington).

So before you pack that next vacation book, why not consider choosing something related to your destination. Wherever you go, there you are, with a great book in your hand.