Several times over the years since I opened my vegan/vegetarian restaurant Secret Garden Mompiche, influencers from all over the world have flung themselves uninvited into my space and demanded free meals or a bed simply because they have a gazillion followers from every corner of the globe on every social media platform available to them. Apparently, that alone is enough of a qualification to sponge free food or accommodation from a local restaurant or hotel while you are traveling around the world.
Most of the time, I don’t bother to engage with them. The most recent one—an Argentinian family traveling around South America in a large camper van—vehemently insisted it would be “good advertising value for my money” and suggested I make them a buffet meal. Really? Advertising for whom?
During this bizarre exchange, I had questions. How many of their so-called gazillion followers would be making reservations to eat at my restaurant in the next week? How many of their followers would be booking accommodation for three nights or more over the next month? How many of them lived in Ecuador or would be traveling to Ecuador in the next year? These “influencers” expected me to pay for all the ingredients for six different dishes, plus drinks and dessert, and then spend hours preparing this meal for them so that they could take photos and videos of themselves eating all the free food and then share this feast virtually with their followers who might view the pictures and videos but would probably never turn up in person to spend money, thereby offsetting the cost of the “free” meal.
They have balls, that’s for sure. Calculating the outlay for the ingredients, and how much of my time it would take to create this supposed buffet, they were asking me to “donate” around $250 to support their #vanlife travel lifestyle. Dudes, it’s been an especially crappy tourist season and I don’t have $400 to buy the freezer I desperately need and, besides that, the fences need fixing and the kitchen floor isn’t finished yet. On top of all that, why would I be giving away money, time, and goods to people I’ve never met? If I was in a position to be a benefactress, I’d give my money to family, friends, and the needy. This “proposal” as these influencers called it was utterly ridiculous. Seriously, they have some nerve.
This year, the entire village of Mompiche is suffering an economic crisis caused by the lack of tourism over a terrible surf season (the waves were fine, but the surfers stayed away in droves this year because of the news about cartels and gang violence) and despite the fact that we are all working hard anyway, we are still living hand-to-mouth, yet these people think they have the right to come and demand free products from us. They’re quite literally asking us to bleed for them. They wanted me to pay for their food and leave myself with no food. The entitlement is astounding. It’s economic abuse. I told them that if their plan is to come to Mompiche to stay, they’d better bring money to spend.
Back in the day, I worked my way around the world. I got whatever jobs I could find and worked until I had enough money to move on to the next destination. Some jobs paid better than others. Some jobs were the absolute pits. I wasn’t getting rich in any of those kitchens, but I worked hard for decades and paid for my own travel. These days, it seems all you need to travel the world is a gazillion followers and however many gullible businesses are willing to pay for your extravagant life. Unfortunately for them, Secret Garden will not be one of them. Their loss, really.