Earlier this week while going through my normal morning routine of combing through news to see if there was anything impactful for our readers, I came across this opinion piece discussing the various pitfalls of international tourism.
While the headline itself is a bit more definitive and clickbait-y than the accompanying text, it does lay out various reasons why some countries, markets or regions are doing their own citizens a disservice by prioritizing the wants of international travelers.
It’s easy to understand how that happens, as hoteliers understand more than most how much of an economic driver tourism really is, and governments, just like businesses, are motivated to chase dollars (or pounds or euros or whatever else) wherever they can find them.
But the idea that the growing global middle class, often pointed to as a long-term positive indicator for the hotel industry, is dragging down the world in their quest for travel experience seems a bit unfair to me.
There are clearly parts of the world that need to be deliberate and thoughtful about how they approach tourism, as evidenced by the various European markets where locals are bristling at the very idea of tourists. But when I think about the world we live in today and how different things would be if the now-traveling public followed the author’s suggestion of staying within your own country’s borders, I think things would really only get worse.
People have never been more able to travel and interact with other cultures than they are today, and yet we still contend with significant nationalist or outright racist factions across the globe that would only grow more influential if we lived in a world of closed off communities of similar looking and thinking people who never looked beyond their own borders.
The responsibility of dealing with the problems connected to tourism fall on all of us, from the governments who enable these issues, to the investors and hoteliers who might be making misguided developments in some situations to the travelers themselves who are voting with their dollars to support forms of tourism that aren’t healthy or sustainable. But just shutting off the flow of international travel solves no one’s problems while creating entirely new ones.
There are compelling examples of situations where international travel is doing harm, like Bali and its ongoing water crisis. But what bearing does that have if I wanted to take a trip from the U.S. to London or Paris?
Admittedly, author Allison Jane Smith makes a similar point eventually, suggesting that there are places that you shouldn’t travel (Bali, Venice, the Galapagos and Aruba) and places you should (places with familial connections, those that are less visited or within your own country), but that doesn’t necessarily excuse painting the idea of international travel as negative with such a broad brush.
In my mind, the takeaway for all, from governments to consumers to developers, is that we should all regard our decisions as meaningful and impactful and make sure you do the research on what the long-term consequences may be. We all want to live in a world with free movement and plenty of unique interesting places to visit and experience. So don’t ruin that.
What do you think? Let me know via email or on Twitter.
The opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or its parent company, STR and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact and editor with any questions or concerns.