“On an individual level, I’d love to see people travel more consciously and with purpose — travel not to tick off bucket-list attractions, create trending Tik Toks or for social cred, but to pick destinations that resonate with personal meaning and that will lead to deeper enrichment.” - Love this, well said!
I really enjoyed this - thank you ! I also think Instagram and social media has a huge part to play in bringing in those hordes. Now it’s a quest to dodge the crowds over finding the ‘hidden’ spaces!
I totally agree – Instagram and Tik Tok have turned places into a 2D aesthetic experience rather than a 360-degree experience.. I recently traveled to China and all of the quaint towns are overcrowded photoshoot destinations where locals dress up in traditional dress. Although there are glimmers of heritage there, it feels like a Disney-fied experience.. although it is 99% locals. So I guess if that's what the people want..!!
I had exactly the same in South Korea ! Visiting temples and traditional villages felt gimmicky but equally, full of locals and local tourism who were absolutely loving it!
Livia there's a bench here in Mexico City in Roma (where a lot of gringos stay) that says "F*#$ gringos!" People here are very upset with rising rent prices and gentrification, and it's gotten really bad since COVID. My wife (who's a local) tells me that the answer is 100% more regulation, and I hope that Mexico makes some laws that can combat all this.
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing. I also hope politicians step in and start to regulate the industry and housing because it's unsustainable everywhere and only getting worse..
Very interesting! Even though travel is as old as time itself, this seems to be a genuinely modern problem, one that wasn't even considered until very recently. (I just wrote about ancient and relatively modern perspectives.)
As an architecture lover, I've always wanted to visit Bath! It looks beautiful. And yes humans have been traveling for millennia.. in Italy we often talk about the Grand Tour of the 18th century. But it's crazy to see how much it has increased in the past couple of decades — from something niche to mainstream and sadly unsustainable.
More generally, as a scholar of the past I'm always interested when a truly novel issue arises -- one that has no counterpart in antiquity. Thanks for this!
“On an individual level, I’d love to see people travel more consciously and with purpose — travel not to tick off bucket-list attractions, create trending Tik Toks or for social cred, but to pick destinations that resonate with personal meaning and that will lead to deeper enrichment.” - Love this, well said!
It’s simple. The government needs to halve the number of flights arriving in the international airports. Cut the flights, cut the number of tourists.
I really enjoyed this - thank you ! I also think Instagram and social media has a huge part to play in bringing in those hordes. Now it’s a quest to dodge the crowds over finding the ‘hidden’ spaces!
I totally agree – Instagram and Tik Tok have turned places into a 2D aesthetic experience rather than a 360-degree experience.. I recently traveled to China and all of the quaint towns are overcrowded photoshoot destinations where locals dress up in traditional dress. Although there are glimmers of heritage there, it feels like a Disney-fied experience.. although it is 99% locals. So I guess if that's what the people want..!!
I had exactly the same in South Korea ! Visiting temples and traditional villages felt gimmicky but equally, full of locals and local tourism who were absolutely loving it!
Livia there's a bench here in Mexico City in Roma (where a lot of gringos stay) that says "F*#$ gringos!" People here are very upset with rising rent prices and gentrification, and it's gotten really bad since COVID. My wife (who's a local) tells me that the answer is 100% more regulation, and I hope that Mexico makes some laws that can combat all this.
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing. I also hope politicians step in and start to regulate the industry and housing because it's unsustainable everywhere and only getting worse..
Very interesting! Even though travel is as old as time itself, this seems to be a genuinely modern problem, one that wasn't even considered until very recently. (I just wrote about ancient and relatively modern perspectives.)
https://joelmhoffman.com/Human-Stories/postcards/bath-uk-two-cities-in-one/
As an architecture lover, I've always wanted to visit Bath! It looks beautiful. And yes humans have been traveling for millennia.. in Italy we often talk about the Grand Tour of the 18th century. But it's crazy to see how much it has increased in the past couple of decades — from something niche to mainstream and sadly unsustainable.
More generally, as a scholar of the past I'm always interested when a truly novel issue arises -- one that has no counterpart in antiquity. Thanks for this!
If you like architecture, consider dropping my Dubai for a few days (just not in the summer!). I was just there and wrote up some initial observations: https://joelmhoffman.com/Human-Stories/postcards/dubai-the-very-model-of-a-modern-major-desert/