Introductions aside, I want to start with an informal poll. Because I run what is essentially a blog for English-speaking queer and/or women travelers (and the occasional ex-pat) in Mexico, I want to ask people what they think about the politics of travel and tourism, specifically travel from the “first world” to non-”first world” countries.
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What do you perceive are the ramifications of that type of tourism? (Broad question, I know.)
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If you have participated in that kind of tourism, how did those potential ramifications affect the choices that you made as a tourist? What choices have you made to be a more “responsible” tourist?
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Do believe there is such a thing as feminist tourism, and, if so, what does that look like?
- And, finally, how do the politics of a country affect your desire/willingness to participate in that country’s tourism? What about their human rights record?
I’m interested in hearing about specific suggestions (like those Jill was receiving about not taking “hill tribe village tours” during her current trip to southeast Asia in this post), as well as more general strategies/analyses. Needless to say, comments are not limited to those who have had the economic privilege to travel, but to anyone with constructive comments and thoughts on the subject of ethical tourism.
I suppose it’s only fair if I try to answer my own questions, so here goes…
With regard to the ramifications that “first world” tourism can have on “second” and “third world” countries, I’ll admit that I am learning more about this with every trip I take, every conversation I have on the subject. A friend of mine first brought the issue to me when we were in college, when she questioned the ethics of the “junior year abroad” program in northern Indian that she had participated in, wondering what would happen to the local economy (that had grown considerably around the program site) when the program no longer existed?
I don’t know enough about that specific situation to know if her particular concerns were warranted, but at the root of her point was the fact that these types of study abroad programs, as well as other organized tours, guide books, and other tourist infrastructure, contribute to bringing a large influx of money and spending power into local economies. Needless to say, this has positive and negative effects. Positive in the sense that the money someone makes in an afternoon selling something to a tourist might put food on the table. Negative in the sense that tourist-driven economies are often unstable (depending on the setting of whatever Leonard DiCaprio movie has just been released, what exotic locale has just been featured in the New York Times travel section, the fluctuating strength of various currencies, where a natural disaster has just killed dozens of tourists) and have the potential to seriously disrupt local traditions, economies, land-use.
So then, what choices do I make as a tourist, taking all of this into account? I try to avoid staying at big hotel chains, owned by multinational corporations, and instead try to stay at locally owned hotels, bed and breakfasts, or casas particulares, so that at the very least, my money is going into the local economy. When shopping, I try not to haggle excessively over prices, especially when buying something that was made by the seller. The five dollars I am saving is the cost of a subway ride and slice of pizza in New York, but could feed an entire family in some parts of Mexico. I think alot of times we get over-invested in the “romantic” process of haggling over prices, especially when traveling on a budget, without really considering the other “budgets” involved. I always tip the housekeeping staff. Really, everyone should do this, no matter what country you are traveling in. And if you haven’t signed (or don’t abide by) the ethical travel pledge, please do.
But seriously, it’s a drop in the bucket to say, “I gave that woman an extra five dollars. I made a difference.” I’m not saying don’t give the five dollars; I’m just saying don’t stop there. In my own travels, I’ve tried to research ways in which my own country/government/lifestyle routinely fucks over whatever country I’m traveling to. Planning a trip to Cuba? Take the time to get involved (on whatever level you can) in opposing the Helms-Burton Act. The Latin American Working Group has a lot of information about the United States’ policies in Latin America and is a good place to start before, during, or after a trip to a Latin American country.
I’ll admit that I’m not 100% sure what feminist tourism looks like. I think when a lot of feminists and other progressives travel, we often don’t stay in large hotels, go on organized bus tours, and other mainstream modes of tourism. Instead, we seek out more “authentic” experiences. We want to talk to locals, we want to eat local cuisine. We have good intentions; we want to learn as much as we can about whatever culture we are visiting.
But the problem is, our good intentions usually stop there. We have these amazing experiences traveling that “change” us so much, but unfortunately, that’s all we change. What was the result of that last trip I took? I had these experiences, I have good and interesting stories to tell, I might even be a more interesting person. But if the only person benefiting from the tourism is the tourist, then I don’t think we can call that “feminist” tourism (outside of the idea that women traveling by themselves, un-chaperoned, is still a radical act).
I think what would constitute a more substantial feminist tourism is using the experience of tourism, of being in someone else’s country, as an opportunity to network with feminist organizations that already exist there, to ask them what kind of support a foreign tourist can offer. That support might be a donation of time, money, or expertise. It might mean setting up lines of communication between feminist organizations in different countries. It might mean publicizing their causes along the lines they deem most appropriate. Whatever form of support or networking the local organizations would find most beneficial.
In terms of the last question of my “poll”, I don’t yet have an answer. In fact, in terms of all these questions, I’m still forming opinions and strategies. I figured that since I participate in “first world”/non-”first world” tourism, and run a website that is (in its small way), part of that tourism industry, I would use this forum as a place to discuss some of the issues that have been on my mind recently. For that reason, I’m incredibly interested in hearing from readers about their thoughts on all these issues, and for people to help brainstorm different strategies around ethical tourism.
This reminds me of an article we ran on Campus Progress that discussed the ethical implications of international volunteerism. Often week-long volunteer opportunities reek of tourism. It might be an interesting perspective on this discussion.
Since my parents are in charge of travel arrangements and they tend to enlist help outside Western Europe (not speaking the language, lack of sufficient knowledge, etc) I’ve been in situations many times where I felt shepherded and herded, where arrangements were made and I definitely felt like a postcolonial tourist. And it made me incredibly uncomfortable.
I still remember a visit to a village in Laos where an ethnic minority (I’m ashamed to say I can’t remember the name of their people) had been resettled from the mountains–”for their own good” and because the government needed the land for slash-and-burn or maybe just agriculture. There were a lot of people with disabilities, and they were clearly very poor. We had obviously been brought in to look at them–not speaking the same language made the dynamic worse–so I handled it by ignoring the rest of my group as best I could and playing with the village children. It was really very selfish: I couldn’t handle what was actually going on and so I sought interaction to try and remove myself from the “bad guy” camp. It was also a strange dynamic because we all knew it was weird (this visit was the guide’s idea–that word bothers me, too), but we didn’t want to offend the guide or make waves once we were in the situation.
I’ve had many experiences like this, and I will never forget Cambodia for the sheer waves of children begging. It was heartbreaking and paralyzing and deeply educational. For me, at least, one of the benefits of this kind of travel is that I am made aware. I have taken greater interest in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Bangladesh ever since having gone there (I really want to go back to Bangladesh and travel better, and I would happily consider a career in some kind of nonprofit work there), and I have a much better sense of what life might be like in those places (less so in Thailand, but that’s another matter). I think that in itself is a good thing–a greater sense of connection to and concern with people and places around the world.
That particular phenomenon is in no way guaranteed–many people, I think, just take pictures and move on. And I am certainly not convinced that it outweighs the bad. But as I’ve never been in a position to organize my own trip, it’s all I really have to offer.
Wow, sorry for the tl;dr.
I hate haggling over prices–I was at a market one time and had to leave because I felt so overwhelmed by the whole process (ie, the aggressive sales pitches and constant haggling). I had no idea what the cultural norms were nor what was a fair price. I didn’t want to get ripped off, but I also didn’t want to try and force someone down to a price where they couldn’t earn a living. So, I quit. Not an ideal solution, but I wasn’t sure what else to do.
I had no idea what the cultural norms were
Sure you did. Haggling.
I also didn’t want to try and force someone down to a price where they couldn’t earn a living.
Did you have a gun? Trust me, the market vendor knows what her bottom price is, and you’re not going to get her anywhere near it.
You don’t have to worry about a “fair price”. You just have to argue as best you can for the price you want to pay. If they can’t make any money selling it to you for that, then they won’t.
Though I was admittedly on a tight budget when I was studying abroad in China in the late ’90s, I also bargained because both my Chinese-born parents and my Chinese-born Profs told me it was not only culturally expected, but would also allow me to blend in better as a Chinese local and thus, see far more of Chinese society than I would otherwise have had if I was clearly marked out as a Western/American tourist.
That along with “looking Chinese” and having a near fluent Mandarin speaking capability where the slight American accent disappeared within a couple of days has allowed me to not only be included with his friends as a “fellow Chinese”, but also allowed them to feel relaxed and comfortable enough to be more open about themselves such as telling me many cringe-inducing stories of how spoiled and badly behaved many of my fellow American-born Chinese and American tourists and students studying abroad could be……stories they would usually never tell out of politeness and the need to maintain goodwill with the foreign tourists/students.
My Chinese-born parents and Profs also warned me that as someone who “looks Chinese”, that there was a greater expectation among many Chinese that we intrinsically knew the social norms and thus, would be given far less slack for messing them up than someone who is non-Chinese-looking…..especially White tourists who still tended to be privileged in their treatment over other non-Asian groups. This was clear from many incidents I’ve witnessed in the extreme patience nearly every Chinese tourism operators, businesspeople, and even security personnel were being in the face of angry White Western European/American tourists who were throwing temper tantrums like 2 year olds because their whims were not being satisfied quickly enough.
Contrast that with the use of imprisonment on African college students who were drawn into a brawl instigated by racist Chinese students and a security guard due to inter-racial dating issues.* Ironic considering I noticed plenty of White European/American men dating Chinese women in China without the same level of vitriol from other Chinese.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Anti-African_protests
Having just lost my comment on “haggling”, I’m glad to see Dan making similar points to my own.
To be fair to FashionablyEvil, though, cultural norms on negotiation vary widely from one country to the next. In Nicaragua, you won’t get a discount of more than 10% most times, while in Guatemala sometimes you will pay up to 50% less after negotiating. I do think it’s helpful to know this kind of information before entering the marketplace–I imagine it’s been collected somewhere (though I’m too lazy to find out where).
In general, I think it’s more respectful of the seller’s personhood and agency to assume that she knows her product, her market and her limits and will act in her own best interest.
One of my concerns about the tourist economy is the way it distorts local pricing, putting many goods and services beyond the reach of local residents. If there are enough tourists around to provide a reliably steady market, merchants adjust their price scales to the foreign-based income.
Just a few thoughts… I’m interested in hearing others’ perspectives and experiences.
Just having the ability to travel is a foreign privilege that often we take for granted. it calls to mind the movie life and debt wherein the tourist experience is constantly placed against the native experience in Jamaica. Tourist marveled at how laid back life was there without realizing that it was like that because people needed jobs.
I believe when we travel we need to do more than just consume another culture or recognize poverty. You do not need to leave home to know that the world is full of starving people. I am a big believer in every day acts and this means avoiding acts and corporations that are none to be exploitative. When we travel we should take the time to learn what it is they need to improve their lives and do our best upon returning home to implement that into our everyday acts.
I see my comment on haggling is still in moderation.
ksteiger,
Such behaviors were all too common among my socio-economically privileged self-proclaimed progressive undergrad classmates who tended to adopt a holier than thou attitude towards those of us who didn’t have the time or socio-economic privilege such as a wealthy parent and/or trust fund to volunteer abroad as often as they did.
What was more ironic was their motivations in doing so to obtain “activist cred” on my undergrad campus was, in many ways, no different in attitude from high school classmates who attempted to monopolize leadership positions in extracurricular activities to increase their admission into an Ivy-level college or some acquaintances at more mainstream colleges who jockeyed for prestigious corporate internships in order to build a resume suitable as a launchpad towards becoming a senior law partner/corporate executive/CEO. Resume padding indeed.
My first international trip was a summer working at a home for children of the street near Buenos Aires, Argentina, through a program that does mostly exchange student-type trips. I was only 17 at the time, and therefore hadn’t particularly thought out the implications of being a “first-world” to “third-world” volunteer and tourist. Some of the issues brought up in this post and the comments weren’t necessarily important — the 20 of us highschool kids weren’t going to change the local economy of 8 million to any degree, and the Buenos Aires province is extremely cosmopolitan and international anyway.
I think one thing that can be done is to try, if possible, to contact a person or organization that works in and knows the community before going there; ask someone within what the community needs done. In a volunteering mode, this is a no-brainer. Even in tourist mode, if more than a day or two will be spent in a particular area, it’s always an awesome experience to spend a few hours or a day doing local service work.
I know this one is hard for those who go many places each year, but for those who maybe make one long international trip every year or two (as I do), it’s a great idea to make sure to learn the basics of the language before you go, if at all possible. It’s really hard to get to know the people if you can only communicate with the tour guide or travel partner.
Anyway, I guess my ramblings just point to my philosophy of travel, which is to defer to the local culture and the local people, what they need, and what makes them comfortable with sharing their home with me for a while.
I travel a lot, for work and fun, to more developed places and less. I also have consistently lived places in the US that get a lot of tourists, from around the country and the world, which I mention because, even leaving aside economic disparities, being an object of tourism can serve as a useful reminder to be courteous when in someone else’s home country/state/city.
So, what I usually do to try to approach some level of sensitivity when I travel is ask locals whom I know, or, second best, expats who live there, about what they do/think I should do so that my visit doesn’t make anyone else’s life or day worse than it would otherwise be. I also tip like an American, for good or ill, even if the locals don’t, because it feels so weird not to. I try to buy art directly from artists, or at least local galleries and rugs and such from markets and local merchants (rather than the folks in the hotel lobby). I try to do due diligence on tours and the like. Mostly, I try to get a sense of what it’s like to live in the place, because that’s why I travel, so I wander in to shops and markets and walk through residential neighborhoods. Hopefully that makes me a reasonably responsible tourist.
If you’re traveling to Bosnia and Herzegovina and want to experience the wild natural beauty of the country in a safe and ethical way, go with Green Visions (http://www.greenvision.ba), an ethical eco-tourism company that not only runs amazing hiking tours, but also promotes conservation and ethical development, and provides vital income for returnees in rural areas (http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/apr/25/adventure.bosniaherzegovina?page=2). The company was founded by an ex aid worker named Tim Clancy, who has lived in BiH for something like thirteen years now.
Ummm, does anyone know why we can’t use links?
Miss Sarajevo, try this.
On one hand the herding-of-foreigners by a guide from site to site with no contact with any one else besides sellers in the tourist market isn’t a good model (and doesn’t sound like that much fun). I would see this all the time in Egypt, where Westerners would load onto buses from pyramid to museum and were lucky if they visited any part of Cairo younger than Christ, it’s no surprise they would complain loudly about how “pushy” Egyptians were – the only Egyptians they ever saw were sellers at the tourist sites. It’s like the people were an annoying hurdle to enjoying the ancient wonders and sites.
At the same time, what does it mean to try to “interact” with people? Are we turning these people into an attraction? I’m skeptical about these new “slum tours” that are going on in India, where you can pay to be lead through some of the slums of India’s cities. Yes, a more “realistic” picture than just visiting the “Wonders of Majestic India” as one tour group puts it, but to what extent are these people in their daily lives being reduced to exhibits?
It reminds me of visiting the northern hill villages in Thailand, where by buying some candy and school supplies (before going to the villages there were helpful little stores) to hand out to children as you walked through the town supposedly gave us the right to take pictures and gawk at their poverty. At the time I was 14, but I remember being really uncomfortable with the whole situation.
I know some people mentioned this above, but living in an area that depends on tourism (Hawai’i), I can tell you that doing your best to spend your money locally helps a lot. Not that the people working at the large chain hotels don’t need your dollars to support their jobs, but money spend at local and farmers’ markets help an incredible amount.
I know that w/ food and gas prices climbing tourism here is down over fourteen percent. Some economies depend on tourism. Do a little research and find out what places are run locally.
Also, be mindful and respectful of other cultures and nation’s tourist attractions. I can tell you first hand that the Arizona Memorial is a somber place meant to be respected. It is not the place to bring your screaming children, to be loud and take “touristy” pictures, or to laugh and carry on, and yet I see it every time I go. It breaks my heart to see people behave this way at a place that is quite literally a grave to over a thousand people. The same if you visit the Royal Palace here, which has many rules to be respected b/c of what it means to the Hawai’ian people. Hawai’i is a little different that traveling to another country, in that it is a state, but it is not all that different, being as culturally diverse as it is.
Lastly, I would say be mindful that tourist attractions are exploitative to locals and natives to begin w/ (in my example I think of Lu’au and other things people flock to in order to get the “full polynesian experience”), so be as respectful and polite to them as possible. I see too many people treat the workers at tourist attractions as if they were less human somehow b/c they were in service industries. I will admit that I openly judge people based on how they treat service workers.
Kind of “well, duh” stuff, I know. But there it is.
In some ways, what you do after returning home is more important than what you do while overseas. It is nice to help out an aid organization on site for a limited amount if time. But unless you have a particular skill, it isn’t that useful, as most third world areas have an excess of unskilled labor.
On the other hand, if you can raise awareness back home through talks, slide shows, fund raising drives, etc., that can help raise scarce capital or visibility that is hard to come by in the poorer corners of the globe.
actually, this came at an interesting point in my life.
When I was younger I travelled extensively – Europe, British Isles etc – but did it “on the cheap” as a backpacker. By definition, therefore, I stayed at local places; one of the things we used to do (my cousin and I) was figure out what and where local people ate, shopped etc and took our cue from them. So while we didn’t input a whole lot of $$ into the economy, we sorta paid our way and saw behind the normal glitz; in factual fact, in many places (this was way back int he dark ages)- we were fortunate in MANY places to MEET local people who we stayed with.
Our mantra, other than taht, was again to take our cues from the local spirit of the place we were in; which meant in certain countries, we never pulled out our short-shorts, in others, we wore our one dress also constantly, etc.
Now, just this summer, after 26 years (and 4 kids) of NOT travelling, my partner and I went to a resort in the dominican republic. I researched before I left (had only a little time as it was a spur of the moment thing) – ended up filling my suitcase with school supplies as I found the name of a program for school kids there; also topped up on other things that were not readily avialable to local people but were desired.
I was, frankly, not happy with the entire experience.
Despite trying to do my research, including brushing up on Spanish, etc, I felt exploitive – the Western fat cat white exploiter … it made me extremely uncomfortable. When I asked our tour rep, for instance, what was appropriate to tip the chambermaid who did our room ALL week – he said $5!! THAT is just plain WRONG – I don’t care if $5 is a “good tip” in the Dominican – I KNOW that here in Canada you’re lucky if it buys you a Starbucks!
I left CONSDIERABLY more at the end of the week as well as the aforementioned things but in the end, I don’t think I would do that again.
Re: haggling: I’ll leave it at, It’s so far outside my comfort zone that I’d rather not do it at all. I’ll own up to privilege on this, but I still hate doing it, especially in tourist areas.
Re: haggling
My experience, living in Malawi, is that *most* of the time you can’t get people to sell for lower than their bottom line. That, however, definitely doesn’t hold true at the end of the month when there’s no food on the table. Then any money in hand is better than none, and people will go far below what makes sense to them in order to not be hungry.
On the other hand, not haggling at all artificially raises prices for the people who live in the community you’re visiting, which isn’t helpful at all, either. Sometimes I find walking that tightrope to be very frustrating; sometimes it’s easy. It all depends.
I hate haggling. My wife, who speaks fluent Spanish, enjoys doing it when we travel in Latin America.
We’re fortunate to be able to travel frequently (we’re in Dubrovnik at the moment). Recognizing that tourism is tied up inextricably with privilege, we do our best to make decisions that match our values.
1. We buy carbon offsets for all our flights.
2. Where we can, we deal in advance with local travel agencies and experts rather than with, say, American Express.
3. We try and avoid the big chain hotels, where possible — Hiltons, Holiday Inns, Le Meridiens, etcetera — in favor of what at least some of the time are locally owned properties.
4. We’re often fortunate enough to be able to afford private tour guides. We tip generously, and ask them about the impact of tourism on the community. Obviously, we’re not always gonna get complete candor in that setting, but we usually do.
5. We use the web to find vegan/vegetarian restaurants, natural food stores, and so forth — not of any use when we’re in rural Colombia, but very helpful on our current visit to Croatia.
None of these decisions entirely mitigate our “privilege footprint.” But they’re tangible choices, and I’m always eager to here about more.
Thank you so much for posting on this because it’s been a huge quandary for me. I’m heading to Jamaica in December and have been wrestling with all the points you made, (harming vs helping local economies). Those are great ideas about avoiding chains and contacting local organizations. Also, even though we already booked the resort, I really do want to visit local areas. I can’t tell you how many people say to me to stay on the resort, I hate that mentality! Thanks to others too who are throwing out great ideas!
hmmm.
this is an interesting conversation, and one that i often find difficult to have, especially with other white middle-class students…many of whom have ‘traveling’ as a general future plan.
as an environmental science major, one of the first things that i learned was that flying uses huge amounts of fuel and has a major impact on one’s individual carbon footprint – so one of the things i do as a ‘conscious’ traveler is not travel by plane, or do it as little as possible. it’s really upsetting to me that this downside to traveling doesn’t seem to be on a lot of people’s radars.
second, i guess i just feel weird about traveling in general. it’s a huge privilege, and one that ultimately reinforces a lot of colonial/colonizing bs, and it’s also supposed to be an ‘escape’, meaning that it’s hard to make people challenge themselves on it.
My own two cents on haggling: I’m an Indian who tends not to haggle over prices from street vendors. While it is true that they do artificially inflate prices for foreign tourists and well-off Indians, the prices are actually a fairer reflection of the actual labor that went into making the items than the “real” prices. It’s a really small amount of money to you and me, but it could make a real difference to their lives. I don’t think that just because labor is so undervalued in such countries that we need to pay prices that reflect that. I tend to pay whatever is asked, and if they have they have a little laugh at my naivete afterwards, so be it.
Regarding other ways to be a responsible tourist: My biggest gripe with foreign tourists who come to India is their tendency to move in enclaves of other foreign tourists. Language barriers are there of course, but Indian tourists have that problem as well, since we have so many languages and dialects. The other issue I have is with foreign tourists treating waitstaff and other service personnel badly, in a way that they would never dare to try in their home countries. Treat people with respect and try to move out of your comfort zone and you’ll be doing much better than most.
“At the same time, what does it mean to try to “interact” with people? Are we turning these people into an attraction?”
It sounds like the example you give of the “Slum Tours” in India does, indeed, turn the people into an attraction. Of course, in most places — and I’m sure in India as well — interaction with people who live there doesn’t have to be like that. I mean we’re not talking about rare toads in the rain forest whose delicate world view might be shattered by mere contact with people outside their normal day-to-day experience. At least I’ve found that most people are just people, and those who are outgoing will have some interest in talking with people from out of town. I’m not talking “ooh! ahh! look at how they live in shacks!” and snapping pictures. Go up to people, say “hi”, start a conversation, like with any other person.
The problem with not haggling, or with accepting enormous tourist premiums on prices, is that it distorts behavior. So all the taxis will hang around the tourist hotels, sitting idle 90% of the time in the hopes of one big fare, instead of serving the whole city. Or people will quit low-paid jobs as teachers and engineers to become tour guides.
I know it sucks to quibble over pennies with people who are far poorer, but why should the beneficiary of your generosity be the same person who is selling you something in the market? If you instead give your money to a clinic for the poor then you give people incentives to work as nurses and doctors, which is probably more socially beneficial than paying them to learn how to chat up tourists.
The problem is that you can’t help the person right in front of you, who w/o your business isn’t going to immediately retrain to do something outside the tourist sector. But you should feel just as much obligation to the poor people that you don’t see, especially if you can help them in a way which is overall better for their society.
Anti gay nations and states (as in the US) won’t be a place I’m looking to go to anytime soon.
This is such a complicated issue, and I think you’ve got a really good start on it here. I did some anthro fieldwork with Aboriginal people in Central Australia (primarily Warlpiri and Arrernte), looking at their interaction with the cultural tourism industry. What I found was that, put simply, cultural tourism in this case was always exploitative, but overall beneficial when the money reached the people being exploited, which it often didn’t. I would advise tourists to check out who owns the tours you’re taking, and try to go on tours owned and operated by local/indigenous people rather than by foreign or colonialist operators. And it seems almost too obvious to mention, but experience has taught me that it isn’t: always treat people as people, and not just as objects of otherness.
I just spent 2 weeks on a luxury trip to Peru. It was surreal as I have done research in Peru for over 10 years, living in low end hostels or camping, eating simple local foods and interacting heavily with locals. On this trip we did none of that (and it showed in the price of everything). I felt that this type of a trip, while interesting, didn’t give a very accurate picture of the variety of what Peru as a country is. The guides we had couldn’t really answer questions well and weren’t very informed on the actual history/archaeology of what they were describing. However, the one bright spot was that we visited local businesses that were helping to save the textile arts in local indigenous communities. I am of a very split mind about this trip.
We spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam last year. Where possible we stayed at family owned guesthouses, ate at locally run restaurants and stayed off the “coach tour” track as much as possible.
I think really the bottom line is just respect. You’re there to see a person’s country, the way they live, eat their food etc, you should just be respectful of the people who feed you, give you directions sell you their wares. Walking around someone just living their life and taking photographs is not respectful. I think the best experiences we had while away were the conversations we had with locals who were just keen to chat. Grab our guidebook and ask if their restaurant was in there? Help us order off menus and share local political intrigues.
One of the worst experiences we had was in Saigon when we went to a Vietnamese run French restaurant. The table next to us was a group of middle aged tourists talking loudly about how they’d been in the country for a week and hadn’t eaten any Vietnamese food yet. My partner and I just gawked at each other, stunned that we were in a French restaurant in Saigon, eating Australian steak and drinking Australian wine, listening to people who hadn’t so much as tried the fantastic local food.
Strange the way some people will travel without an ounce of concern for or even interest in the culture they’re visiting.
I know it sucks to quibble over pennies with people who are far poorer, but why should the beneficiary of your generosity be the same person who is selling you something in the market? If you instead give your money to a clinic for the poor then you give people incentives to work as nurses and doctors, which is probably more socially beneficial than paying them to learn how to chat up tourists.
…you should feel just as much obligation to the poor people that you don’t see, especially if you can help them in a way which is overall better for their society.
Aram, this was so smart. Thank you for posting this. You make excellent points.
As a result of what you posted, I’m going to compile a list of local feminist, activist, and social service organizations here in Mexico City that would be worthwhile to donate to as a tourist (or concerned “global citizen”).
My vacations have been:
1) trips to Pismo Beach as a very young kid (the closest beach to my cen-Cal home, what I fondly refer to as “the kitty litter box of California beaches”), where we would just camp out in a tent on the shore
2) day trips to San Diego during college — three total, just bumming around museums and such
3) day trips to Pittsburgh for Pirates and Penguins games, museums, zoo, etc.
4) our recent weekend trip to DC, the first proper “vacation” I’ve had since I could count my age on one hand
I think people have a bit of a restrictive view on “vacation.” Maybe it’s because I grew up on welfare and living in my grown siblings’ houses. We didn’t get a full week of time, much less paid, much less more time than that. Those Pismo trips stopped around the time my mother became newly single.
But really, when we take the T up into the city for a playoff game, well, what is that but a break from the stresses of home and work? Exploring new locales: check; a city as big and vibrant as the ‘burgh is going to take years upon years to really learn.
And I think a lot of people miss that. We — US Americans — have an amazing range of experiences that can be had *right here.* Hawaii included. Chicago, Portland, Manhattan, St. Louis. And hundreds, thousands more. There seems to be an expectation that a “vacation” be: 1) at least a week (give or take), 2) taken from a white-collar job, 3) out of country, and traveling to a dissimilar locale (so no Canada).
Like I said, I think that’s restrictive. We could drive a few hours to Cleveland for two days to visit mattw’s college roommate. We could fly back out to California and stay in the gorgeous and comfortable cottages we stayed in when we got married up in Three Rivers, and then go hiking up in Sequoia Nat’l Park the next day. We could check out Alaska, Colorado, Virginia Beach. There is so much out there that we just pass over, and it comes without the problems inherent in “invading” another group’s space.
That’s not to say it’s wrong to travel internationally. There are some great places to go. But I think part of what fuels this problem is that in the upper classes (and for most cases, if you are traveling overseas, you are at least bordering upper class) when you go away, you have to go far away. Just like addressing the problem of meat eating in US culture doesn’t mean doing away with meat altogether, but reducing consumption to limited, reasonable levels. You don’t have to go to “exotic” places every time. There are a whole bunch of cool experiences to be had here. And maybe then that trip to India will be a bit more special. And then maybe the volume of tourists won’t crush the local culture.
It wouldn’t solve it, but it would be something.
It reminds me of visiting the northern hill villages in Thailand, where by buying some candy and school supplies (before going to the villages there were helpful little stores) to hand out to children as you walked through the town supposedly gave us the right to take pictures and gawk at their poverty. At the time I was 14, but I remember being really uncomfortable with the whole situation.
I suppose the situation is a little different for me as I live in Cambodia and am not a tourist. But I take issue with buying candy or giving money to kids. The truth is that the more tourists that give money, candy, even food to kids to more the kids are sent out to beg. It’s not charming to buy flowers from kids because they are up late and are vulnerable to trafficking, sexual abuse and drug addiction.
NGOs like ChildSafe and Friends, work very hard to get kids off the streets and into drug rehab or provide the means to get education especially for girls. There are signs up and all the local publications ask that tourists refrain from giving to kids. Tourists leave and the damage is done. All they remember is the wonderful fulfilling experience they had but they have only contributed to the problem.
Instead support local NGOs or projects like Stay another day which promotes sustainable tourism. There are tons of projects to choose from.
I wrote on this topic a while back, in case anyone is interested
[...] reading the feedback to this post I wrote on Feministe about responsible traveling, I found one comment particularly astute and helpful. In [...]