Why are so many tourists doing absurd things? – 08/26/2023 – Tourism

From vandalizing ancient sites to disrespecting local culture, we’re increasingly aware of tourist misbehavior — and that can be a good thing.

This summer, every day seems to bring another headline of tourists from around the world behaving badly.

Last week, two drunken Americans snuck into an enclosed section of the Eiffel Tower and slept high above Paris. The week before, a French woman was arrested for carving a heart and her initials on the iconic Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy.

A Canadian teenager recently defaced a 1,200-year-old Japanese temple, shortly after a Bristol man carved two names on Rome’s Colosseum and told authorities he did not know the arena’s age.

And who could forget the German tourist who interrupted a performance inside a holy temple in Bali and stripped naked — after having left without paying his bill at several local hotels?

It seems the whole world has forgotten how to behave in other people’s homes.

But while this might seem like an isolated episode from a summer with a lot of ill-mannered tourists, the phenomenon could actually just represent a very uncomfortable truth: Ever since people started traveling, we’ve been acting inappropriately.

From Pompeii to the Egyptian pyramids, some of the world’s most famous built wonders are marked with millennia-old graffiti carved by tourists onto their walls.

It’s no secret that many of the world’s “greatest” travelers — like Christopher Columbus and Hernan Cortes — were among the worst.

And according to Lauren A Siegel, professor of tourism and events at the University of Greenwich in London, even in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was common for British nobles who took the Grand Tour from Europe belittled and treated inconsiderately the people and places they were visiting.

What’s different now is that we’re hearing more and more about bad travelers — and ultimately, that can be a good thing.

With each new report of absurd or downright disrespectful behavior, our collective outrage seems to be mounting, leading to what could just be a moment of reckoning for tourists who practice vandalism.

In an age of heightened awareness of privilege and how we treat others from different cultures, this increased focus on boorish travelers might seem like a natural progression from other recent social movements.

But experts suggest that a combination of factors is driving the bad behavior abroad and the recent attention we are giving it.

According to Siegel, unlike in previous years, many travelers today are competing for likes and views on social media.

“People are commenting on the most extreme actions for their Instagram or TikTok feeds,” she noted.

Ironically, popular social media accounts such as Passenger Shaming are also being used to report insensitive and disrespectful behavior.

David Beirman, an associate research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, noted that nearly 1.5 billion people took international trips in 2019.

With travel hitting pre-pandemic highs, he said it was inevitable that some tourists would think “it’s cool to pose naked in front of a temple in Bali, get drunk at an Islamic holy site or dance in front of a field.” of Nazi concentration”.

Gail Saltz, host of the “How Can I Help?”

“People have the feeling that it’s only fair that I now do things I couldn’t do [durante as restrições]and I can do them at will,” she said.

“They come with the mindset that [os países estrangeiros são] a big party where they can do whatever they want.”

In particular, Saltz is not surprised by the number of people caught carving their names on ancient monuments. “They think this is a chance to immortalize themselves.”

However, this summer’s embarrassing headlines may offer an opportunity for change. With each new offense, we are reminded that international travel is a privilege.

Never before has this reality been so clear as in Hawaii.

As the most devastating wildfires in recent US history wreaked havoc on parts of Maui (one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations), many people continued to travel in search of the beaches.

A local resident shared with the BBC that tourists were swimming in “the same waters where our people died three days ago”.

Having privileges brings with them responsibilities, and we hope that, just as we react to seeing an image of an impolite passenger with their feet on someone else’s head, we can also feel a kind of collective discomfort at the thought of travelers complaining that they can no longer practice ziplining in Lahaina amidst a natural disaster.

One of the wonders of traveling is that the beauties of the world become even more extraordinary after being visited.

We care deeply about what we know and tend to protect it – or at least not to harm it.

This is strikingly illustrated in Oppenheimer’s recent film. In a memorable scene, US Secretary of War Henry Stimson purposely excluded Kyoto from the list of cities to be bombed with nuclear weapons.

The ancient Japanese capital, known for its temples and monasteries, was considered too precious to be destroyed. Stimson made this decision because he himself had spent his honeymoon there.

Although in the film this is presented as a joke, the underlying message is genuine: we tend to preserve what we deeply value.

Several destinations have taken a proactive approach to this idea. Landmarks like Bali and Iceland now formally ask tourists to promise to respect their culture and environment after visiting. Palau, a country in Oceania, requires visitors to sign an ecological pledge upon arrival.

Typical places on people’s wish lists are also increasingly regulating tourists. Visitors to Australia, for example, are no longer allowed to climb the Uluru sandstone monolith (Ayres Rock), because the country recognizes it as a sacred Aboriginal site.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam recently launched an advertising campaign that focuses, in literal translation, on the words “stay away”. The idea is aimed at drunk Brits.

Siegel applauds these stricter guidelines and what she sees as a growing recognition of the problem from fellow travelers.

She points to a new “Instagram vs reality” trend on social media, where people purposefully point out the backstage crowds and common chaos at tourist spots often omitted from images and videos seamlessly shared by influencers.

And each time that happens, our global treasures will be a little safer.

Larry Bleiberg is past president of the Society of American Travel Writers.