them + me

 

Just received one of those emails you get when you're CC'd and not really sure why. It was all about a person's travels and reminded me once again why I believe that, contrary to popular myth, travel does not broaden the mind, it simply reinforces stereotypes... not that it has to...

Similar to when stereotypes operate normally in our lives, we are focusing on and seeing through the frame of that stereotype. Partly because we are a bit on edge, a bit frightened, and partly because that's the way the act of tourism frames experience, we ignore the various signs and multitudes of people and behaviours and focus on the ones we want to see or are pre-prepared to see. We seek to have our pre-judgements confirmed.

But mostly, I think this happens because the tourist has very little contact with the local. Their contact is only with those people who operate at the interface - the hotel staff, other tourists on the tourist trail, staff at tourist sites, tour operators, public transport operators, etc. (...and anybody I have ever known who works within the tourist industry or who has tourists make up the majority of their clients or their market, tends to dislike them - or at least have a deep ambivalence...
but anyway...)

Tourists rarely get to meet or have a real conversation with locals so they miss the nuance of the culture, the history or the context. It's not just about sharing an empathy or insight but a whole range of cultural subtleties that actually defy the stereotype. Personally I think the industry continues - and the behaviour of the tourist continues - to disavow local experience because they like it that way - because it maintains their belief in their (cultural or personal) superiority. They don't really want to learn, share, think, be an equal with...

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