McGee has been called the first great modern Florida adventurer, preceding characters and situations that appeared in novels by authors such as Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Paul Levine, Tim Dorsey, James W. Hall, and Les Standiford. Hiaasen specifically acknowledged his debt in an introduction he wrote for a new edition of "The Deep Blue Good-By" in 1994, commenting that even though MacDonald was now eight years gone, he believed McGee was still around, probably sipping gin on the deck of the "Busted Flush" and pondering whatever it was that Florida had become or was becoming. Singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett expressed similar sentiments in the lyrics of the song "Incommunicado". In "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King, County Sheriff Homer McCaslin berates author Ben Mears' writing. McCaslin tells him to write "Like the guy who writes those Travis McGee stories".