Bashing “tourists” is itself a naïve gesture

“The anti-tourist rhetoric of consumption usually goes like this: Your holidays demonstrate a lack of sophistication. You indulge in cheap pleasures and buy tacky souvenirs. You show no restraint or moderation, you overeat, overdrink, overspend. You are far too passive, just dozing in the hammock, hanging around the pool, or letting yourself be transported from sight to sight. You live beyond your means, squandering your money on the wrong things…your vacation experiences are shallow. We, on the other hand, have higher ambitions for our vacations. We want to experience new things, expand our minds, understand history or other cultures. We search for the genuine and the authentic. Even during our vacations we live a richer life than you. In this way the sophisticated tourist gourmets distance themselves from the common vacation gourmands, but today we are all tourists. Even many of those who used to be called “the locals” are tourists themselves. This general involvement also accounts for the fact that we can’t talk about tourism without bringing in our own judgments and values — even if we are going research on the topic. …Whereas many tourist writers and researchers formerly positioned themselves as anti-tourists, today they are likely to assume the role of post-tourist, bashing the naïveté of both anti-tourists and vulgar tourists.”
–Orvar Lofgren, On Holiday: A History of Vacationing (1999)

Posted by | Comments (3)  | June 18, 2012
Category: Travel Quote of the Day


3 Responses to “Bashing “tourists” is itself a naïve gesture”

  1. Roger Says:

    I have this hypnotic desire to go to south India, but I can’t figure out why.

  2. Jessica@LifeRemotely Says:

    Brilliant. “…but today we are all tourists.” Sometimes we forget, that underneath our layers of arrogance, we are all one in the same. It’s worth remembering. Thanks for posting.

  3. DEK Says:

    However much we independent travelers may look down on tourists, to those who make the laws those tourists are an economic asset, significant enough to show up on the national balance sheet, while we who roam in search of authentic experiences, thrifty in our expenditures, are not.

    So there is a meaningful difference between the two of us, and should travel come to be more regulated — as seems to be the spirit of the age — this may be to our disadvantage.