Being called a tourist is something people have a tendency to try to avoid; they will go to great lengths to do something that sets them apart from being a tourist. I shared this mentality at the beginning of my travels; I was also quick to judge those around me for their “touristy” actions. I saw myself as an informed and conscientious traveler, but now I have a much different definition of a tourist and a traveler. One definition that we came to in the “Tourist and the Traveler” class was that a tourist was somebody who visited another place with the intention of returning home, while a traveler was someone who visited places and never really had a permanent home to return to. I think this is an accurate description, but I also saw that tourists visited a foreign place usually because they wanted to see something, whereas a traveler usually traveled because they were trying to escape something.
The purpose of this independent study was to examine the behavior of sightseers and their effect on the places they visit. During my travels I began to not only examine the sightseer, but the traveler. I was also given an interesting opportunity when my camera broke early into my time in Africa. The camera is really the most important tool to many tourists, I was no different as I went through multiple ordeals all just in an attempt to get my camera fixed. In the end I never got my camera fixed for the entire trip and it forced me to step out of the most common behavior of tourists. In the film Cannibal Tours, I had commented on how the tourists were continually snapping pictures and while sometimes they were willing to pay to take a picture, other times they would have a complete lack of respect for the people they were taking pictures of. I witnessed the same thing in Africa, there were multiple occasions of this but the most prevalent was when I went to the Serengeti. Before we made it into the actual Serengeti Park our safari guides stopped at a Maasai village, the guides had organized in advance for us to have a cultural tour of the Maasai people. One thing that we had been told before is that Maasai will be very angry if you take a picture of them without asking for their permission and usually they will ask for you to pay for the picture. We were excited when the guides told us that they had already paid the Maasai for our visit so we were welcome to take as many pictures as we liked. When commenting on the Cannibal Tours I had described the people with their cameras to be similar to flies and the natives had to put up with it because there were too many to swat them away. This was an interesting parallel because many of us on the Serengeti safari complained about the flies. Flies are persistent in Africa, you swat it away and as soon as your hand is back at your side the fly is back on the same spot, also Maasai villages are centered around their goats and cows and their droppings attract a lot of flies. So here we are being pestered by flies that the Maasai have gotten used to and the Maasai are being pestered by all the cameras, similar to the flies.
While we were in the village they Maasai began to dance for us, the Maasai have a dance were all the men bounce on their toes and jump high into their air, straight up. This dance is supposed to impress the women, the man who jumps the highest is the most impressive, but when they started dancing there seemed no reason for doing it other than because there were tourists and they were getting paid. In Dean MacCannell’s The Tourist he says, “certain groups work up a show of their group characteristics (their ceremonies, settlement patterns, costumes, etc.) especially for the benefit of sightseers.” (MacCannell 52) That is a perfect description of our visit to the Maasai village, the women put on special neck jewelry and the men did their dance, all solely for our benefit. Later I befriended a Maasai named Zac and he told me that the huts they had for their village were specifically made for tourists to see, they were made to look like the village was in more squalor that they actually were, an attempt to get the tourists to give them more money. MacCannell put it best when he said, “ what is taken to be real might, in fact, be a show that is based on the structure of reality,” (MacCannell 95) we were all convinced that we were getting a glimpse into the real life of the Maasai, but all of it was a staged performance done for monetary gain. That being said, many Massai villages do live desperate lives and the huts built in the village we visited were the traditional style of Maasai huts, it’s just that modern Maasai villages build a much more aesthetic and dependable hut.
Once we were in the Serengeti everyone would scramble at the chance to snap a photo of the animals. It got to the point that everyone was so obsessed about getting the picture that they didn’t think about much else. There was one point where our jeep stalled right next to a herd of elephants, as the driver tried to get the car going some of the elephants began to posture themselves defensively towards us. The driver told us all to be quiet so as not to anger the elephants, but one of the people in our jeep was only thinking about getting a good picture and asked the driver if he could make some noise so that the elephants will do something interesting. There are two things intriguing about this situation; first, the tourist cared so much about getting a good picture that he unknowingly risked all of our lives and second, the way he wanted them to “do something interesting” sounds very similar to a child at the zoo. “Sightseers are motivated by a desire to see life as it is really lived…and at the same time, they are deprecated for always failing to achieve these goals.” (MacCannell 94) The Maasai village is an example of seeing life as it is really lived, but perceiving the Serengeti like a big zoo is a moment where we are originally seeing life as it is really lived but we are deprecated because of our own mindset. The Serengeti is a good example of the effect tourists can have on an area; the acreage of nature reserve was determined because of the Tsetse fly. The fly has a bite that can cause serious and possibly even fatal sickness and so originally the entire area of the Serengeti was inhabited by the Tsetse fly and so the area was left untouched. Then a technique was developed where blue cloth would be put up, the color attracts the flies, and then the insecticide on the fabric would kill them. This opened up the entire area and it was made into a nature preserve because of tourism. Tanzania primarily gets its revenue from tourism, either from the Serengeti or Mount Kilimanjaro, so the country’s government has a very environmentalist stance. In an economically desperate country like Tanzania animals can be at risk of their habitat being exploited for natural resources or expanding human infrastructure, but the tourist desire for authenticity gives these countries a reason to leave areas untouched so tourists can see wild animals in their natural habitat.
But the situation is different with Mount Kilimanjaro, where tourists have a negative impact on the mountain. Because of the amount of people who climb the mountain, wildlife has been scared away from hiking trails and plants have been trampled. In addition with the campers comes their waste, camp sites are notorious for having garbage scattered around and most lavatories are just outhouses over a cliff. Tourists climb the mountain because they want to marvel in its natural beauty, but the climbing itself is destroying that beauty. But Kilimanjaro does raise awareness to climate change due to the receding glacier on the mountain, when climbers reached the mountain top, it used to be covered in snow, now there’s barely any left. Climate change is all too real in Tanzania, where not only is Kilimanjaro loosing its picturesque snowcap but also a slight change in climate can cause a drought or throw off agricultural practices. In Tanzania most people survive as subsistence farmers and so that deviation can cause starvation.
After my time in Africa I then flew to the Netherlands to start my backpacking trip across Europe. While the Netherlands does not depend on tourism as it’s main source of revenue, Amsterdam is most certainly a city for tourists and tourists have a direct effect on the country’s laws. The two big attractions for Amsterdam are marijuana and prostitutes and these are both made legal because of the amount of money that can be made from it. Tourists are not the only ones to purchase marijuana or prostitutes, but they are a majority. It’s important to point out that the red light district and nearly all of the coffee shops are walking distance from the Amsterdam Train Station, which has a stop directly under the Amsterdam Airport; thus making it very easy and accessible to any tourist. But there is more to Amsterdam and nearly all of it is walking distance, while I was there I visited the Torture Museum and the Anne Frank Museum, as well as walked through town hunting down old cathedrals. When talking with my friends back home they were so disappointed that I didn’t have my camera fixed and told me I should get a disposable camera so that I could take pictures of all of the wonderful things I saw. It struck me as odd that they were more disappointed than I was, it was like they wanted to live vicariously through my photos, as if seeing the photo was just as good as actually being there. I also found it interesting that tour guides warned us that you shouldn’t take pictures of the prostitutes because they’ll get really angry, much like the Maasai. The difference between the prostitutes and Maasai is that Maasai don’t want their pictures taken because they feel they are being exploited if they don’t gain some money from it, while the prostitutes in Amsterdam didn’t want their pictures taken because they wanted to preserve their anonymity, but it’s also interesting that guides warned tourists which probably means it was a common problem. A lot of the attractions of Amsterdam seemed to cover negative moral aspects, either indulgences in the taboo or memorials to darker days. I describe Amsterdam as being the European equivalent to Las Vegas, a place were you can taste the forbidden and then go back to your normal lives without a guilty conscience.
I was also in Amsterdam in time to witness Queen’s Day, the holiday to celebrate the birthday of the Queen of the Netherlands. It interested me that a large amount of the people who were celebrating Queen’s Day were British tourists, but this is because Queen’s Day is mostly known for just an excuse to drink all day long. Some tourists told me about Queen’s Night, which was where you would start drinking the night before Queen’s Day and then keep drinking through the whole day. I didn’t drink on Queen’s Day because I had to catch a bus for Berlin that night, so I ended up roaming around town aimlessly wasting time until I needed to go to the bus. If I had a camera or was drinking, Queen’s Day probably would have been a lot of fun, but without either of those I was less distracted by the pretty sights and started to notice the less appealing sights, like the huge amounts of broken beer bottles on the ground or the excess of trash floating in the canals. Eventually I ran into some Dutch people who had come from a nearby town to celebrate Queen’s Day and I spent some time hanging around with them. They told me how drinking on Queen’s Day was largely just something tourists did. Because I was American they wanted to take me to McDonald’s, it was almost like I had become an attraction to them. They wanted to ask me about what it was like in America and how different it was from the Netherlands. While we were in McDonalds, one person got some kind of text message telling them there had been an assassination attempt on the queen. Every Queen’s Day the queen comes to Amsterdam and lays a wreath at the National Monument, which memorializes the victims of World War II, and when her motorcade was driving back someone attempted to drive their car into the queen’s car. All of this was so surreal for me, tourists are always pursuing authenticity and this was almost too authentic for me. The assassination attempt failed, but it was something that rocked me out of the feeling of this trip being for fun. It felt like I was watching a movie that was suddenly turned off and the lights flicked on.
“Modern international sightseeing possesses its own structure, a collective sense that certain sights must be seen.”(MacCannell 42) My next stop was Berlin and there was certainly a collection of sights that must be seen. I spent the most time during my travels in Berlin and I still didn’t get see everything I wanted. I saw the Berlin Wall, Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the TV Tower, Potsdam, the San Souci Palace, and the grave of Fredrich the Great. But sometimes this sightseeing process diminishes the experience of each of the sights. Some tourists were treating these important symbols of history as a grocery list; just take the picture prove that you’ve been there and then move on to the next thing. Because I wasn’t continually trying to get a good picture of something I had more time to actually soak everything in. The San Souci Palace was the most staggering, the most to take in, and the sight that is done the least justice with pictures. The very word “picturesque” describes how when we see something beautiful it makes us want to take a picture, but why is taking a picture considered the best way to cherish something’s beauty? The “material type of commodity retains an important position in modern society only insofar as it has the capacity to deliver an experience,” (MacCannell 23) meaning that the camera is meant to simulate an experience for those who see the pictures. A picture serves much like a souvenir, something that serves no functional purpose for the owner but is a reminder of the place they visited. Pictures are displayed much in the same way that game trophies are displayed, mounted on the wall for guest to see and serve as proof of your accomplishments.
My favorite sight in Berlin was when I visited Tacheles. Tacheles was originally a shopping mall built before World War II, but during the war bombings leveled half of the building; afterwards the remaining half was left largely abandoned. Squatters began to move in, including a large amount of artists, now it is seen as an art center; there is graffiti style artwork across every inch of wall inside the building. The artists are no longer squatters, someone bought the building to prevent its demolition and charged the artists a reasonably cheap rent. The thing that was so striking for me about this place was the fact that it looks so dull from the outside, it looks much like the many other pre-World War II buildings still standing, but walking inside was almost like walking into Wonderland. By the time I had gotten to Berlin I had become accustomed to being an outsider and was used to being in unfamiliar surroundings. To a degree I was desensitized to the things around me, I still marveled at the various sights but Tacheles was not a normal sightseeing moment. I had been taken there by a tour guide, but usually a tour guide takes you to a designated sight and in some way tells you “look at this, it is interesting,” whereas when we came to Tacheles we were told about the building and then for the most part just set loose. There was so much to see in Tacheles, a usual tourist sight has a plaque or something to focus your attention upon what is important about this place, but in Tacheles there wasn’t anywhere you could look that didn’t have something to catch your attention. Earlier I had said that I had become accustomed to unfamiliar surroundings during my travels, this was something done largely because of the amount of overload I would get otherwise; but in Tacheles there was no way to block out the overload short of closing your eyes. It essentially brought you back to the feeling of wonder you had when you first arrived.
After Berlin I went to Prague and stayed with my friend Ondrej. Staying with Ondrej gave me a closer experience of authenticity, but “no one is exempt from the obligation to go sightseeing except the local person.” (MacCannell 43) Ondrej took me around town to show me things like the Prague Castle but then when his family went on their own sightseeing trips to the Czech countryside, Ondrej would send me into the city to roam around on my own. It was a weird tradeoff because I was getting a taste of authentic Czech lifestyle, except for when Ondrej wanted to be a tourist. It seemed that he didn’t want to be a tourist around a tourist, something I don’t feel MacCannell touched on. I observe the same thing in my own behavior when I’m living in Los Angeles, if friends come to visit I tend to want to take them to the more “authentic” places, help them reach the authenticity that every tourist pursues and I don’t want to be involved with things like taking pictures with the Hollywood sign in the background because it makes me seem like a foreigner in my own home.
It was also intriguing that one of Ondrej’s favorite movies was Borat. For him Borat was a depiction of how Americans, or possibly locals in any country, assume that foreigners don’t know any better and are confused by local customs and so foreigners are generally allowed to get away with a lot of stuff that locals would never be able to do. While Americans focused primarily on the crudeness of Borat, Ondrej over looked this, partly because of the Czech sense of humor. After repeated invasions and occupations the Czech Republic developed a general distrust for authority figures, especially those from other countries, and a dark sense of humor. An example of this dark sense of humor is an entire city that is supposed to be one big practical joke, the city runs as if it were in Medieval Times with a king and castle and they make their own passports, which are of no actual legal standing. George W. Bush is even an owner of one of these passports, but it was requested to be returned when he became so unpopular that the city no longer wanted to be associated with him. President Obama came to Prague just a few weeks before I had arrived and many Czech people were ecstatic to see him as he gave his speech at the Prague castle, even Ondrej had been excited over his arrival. But during the time I spent with him we had frequent debates over whether or not he would actually be as good as everyone was saying he was. Ondrej brought up some good points and it was interesting how he had never let his excitement blind him of possibly bad outcomes, after all Hitler and Stalin had been charismatic leaders but the Czech learned the hard way that they were not to be trusted.
My overall experience in Prague was always some kind of blend of two aspects. The city itself is a blend of old and new, you will see modern clubs and metropolitan shopping plazas in the same area of castles, 18th century buildings, and Cold War Russian apartment buildings. When in Berlin things felt more clear-cut, that there were certain areas with modern buildings, other areas had pre World War II buildings, and others had medieval; but in Prague everything was squeezed in next to each other. It really gave you a perspective of how all of those eras had an influence on each other and how each individually contributed to what the Czech Republic is today. I also spent a lot of time in museums while in Prague, which is generally much less popular among most tourists. I found it intriguing that tourists will visit foreign countries with the claim of wanting to experience the local culture and yet they skip museums, which have a vast collection of local culture. Germany is an exception due to a majority of their tourist sights being World War II landmarks. While the Czech Republic still has a large amount of World War II and Cold War historical landmarks, they are not what primarily attract tourists. Museums are another moments of locals taking on tourist roles, like when Ondrej visited the castles, because museums offer lessons on local culture that most locals may not even know. I also visited an exhibit in Prague that was a collection of Aztec gold, which I initially found strange because I felt that was something exclusive to the Americas. But as I thought more about it, the exhibition of Aztec gold in the US in no more outlandish than in the Czech Republic because both were completely separate from the culture on display. Tourists, with me included, come to foreign countries with the idea that the country has a culture that is untouched by outside influences or we see such influences to tarnish the authenticity of our cultural experience while in that country. But in reality, globalization has caused hardly any culture to be completely separate from foreign influences.
After Prague I went to Vienna and this is when the glamour of my trip began to fade. Vienna was a beautiful place with many amazing sights, but this when I began to run out of money. This was when it became clear to me that tourism is something exclusive to the leisure class. I won’t deny that I am a part of that leisure class just in the fact that I was able to travel to Africa and across Europe, but when one is on vacation they try to live a life without finances, at least until they return home, and this is a mindset not available to the working class. There were repeated times where I had to ask my parents to put more money into my bank account throughout my trip, but once I was in Vienna I was getting tired of always having to ask and my parents couldn’t afford much more. I tried to enjoy the sights while still being frugal, which turns out to be quite a challenge. Vienna, much like other cities popular to tourists, had many things to see and do but hardly any of them were for free.
At one point I visited a castle where you were only charged if you wanted to enter the castle, which meant I spent plenty of time admiring the gardens outside. It was striking to me to find statues of Greek gods throughout the garden, though I had seen the same thing at some of the castles in Potsdam, Germany. It was a feeling much like when I saw the Aztec gold in Prague, I was initially thrown off by there being a culture from a different country in a place where I was trying to experience the local culture. At the San Souci there was even fake Roman ruins built for the enjoyment of Fredrich the Great. Fredrich had visited Greece and was captivated by the ruins and so the construction of fake ruins on his own palace gardens was the equivalent to a post card or picture or souvenir for tourists today, it was a synthesized experience to bring back memories for the owner and display for friends and guests.
I mentioned how many tourists like to have a vacation without financial worries, this something usually only available for people who have enough money to not need to care about such things. But the middle class was given this same opportunity thanks to credit cards. Nearly everything in Europe had to option to be paid with credit card, I wouldn’t be surprised if the women in Red Light District even accepted them. I would have been another one of those tourists if it hadn’t been for my only credit card being American Express. With “American” in the name it should have been obvious that most places would not accept the card, but before my travels I was still under the tourist mindset that the world would work around my wants and needs. It turns out that American Express is only accepted at the super expensive, high-class restaurants and hotels. My need to spend money that I didn’t have and the denial of the credit card I had made me examine the general interaction between tourists and credit cards. Thinking about all the credit card ads I had seen, a good handful had something to do with tourism and being able to use your credit card no matter where you go in the world. I then noticed that credit cards have become a major role in modern tourism.
Eventually my parents and I cam to the conclusion that it was costing too much for me to continue traveling through Europe and that I would come home a month early. I took a bus back to Amsterdam where I would catch my flight home. I have an uncle who lives just outside of Amsterdam and he took me to his place to figure out how I was going to get home. Talking with my parents it turned out that the next available flight through the booking agency we had used wasn’t for another five days. My parents were under the impression that I’d be able to stay with my uncle until then, but my uncle said that wasn’t going to work and I was going to have to find a hostel in Amsterdam for the next five days. I found my uncle to be an interesting case of tourism. He had traveled a lot in the past, rarely owning a house for more than a few years before moving to a new place, and he told me how he felt like he didn’t really have a permanent place to call home. He essentially felt that he was what we defined as a traveler in the “Tourism and the Traveler” class, it was surreal how similar he and his wife were to Port and Kit from The Sheltering Sky. They felt that they were travelers with no home to return to, but when I came into the equation I was an obligation of permanence, of standing still. They began telling me that they already had plans of all of these places that they had wanted to go and they didn’t want to have to be responsible for me. It was from this that I now feel that a majority of travelers don’t avoid permanent residence because they enjoy it but because they are trying to escape something. My uncle owned an actual house in the Netherlands, but whenever I asked him if this was now where he felt like he wanted to stay he would tell me how he liked it in the Netherlands but didn’t plan to make it his permanent home and then went on telling me about various travel plans. It seems that both tourists and travelers are pursuing an experience of authenticity in another country, but tourists are afraid of being away from home for too long and travelers are afraid of staying in one spot for too long.
I’d have to say that the most authentic experience for me was those five days in Amsterdam waiting for my flight. I only had forty Euros left and I had to make it last for five days, luckily the hostel I was in had small rooms, each with their own bathroom and a television. I was the only one in my room for the first three days and so I spent most of that time doing what was free, watching TV, taking long showers, and using the free Internet at the library. There was also a fast food restaurant right next to the hostel that was like the European equivalent to McDonald’s. The food was extremely cheap and not very high quality, there was even a screen in the shop that showed the food being made on conveyor belts and assembly lines, as if that was a selling point. Europe is acclaimed by most Americans for having amazing cuisine, which they certainly do, but it was interesting in such a place to be having such bargain food. McDonald’s is known as sacrificing the quality of its food for the quantity and is generally a symbol of Americanization, but when I visited a few McDonald’s while I was in Europe the food was actually higher quality than back home. America is also commonly known for it’s fast pace and industrialism which is perfectly embodied by the American invention of fast food, so it was a surreal experience for me to be eating at place that could be called more American than McDonald’s.
So I finally get back home and after the five days of skim pickings I was happy to leave. I had braced for a feeling of reverse culture shock, but it never really came to me, I feel that my time in Europe after Africa was a kind of gradual readjustment back to American culture, Europe was more modern than Africa but still felt foreign enough to not be just like being back in America. It was a weird interacting with people at first when I got back home because there was this ebb and flow on how much I should talk about my travels. People were eager to hear about my experiences, but it seemed there were only certain times where it was appropriate for me to bring them up. I had the continuing worry that talking about my travels would make me sound elitist and stuck up, I even experienced that at time when I was talking with other people that had been traveling. If we had both been to Europe then there would always be the follow up question of, “Where did you go,” and then it almost felt like it was a competition of comparing achievements. I would tell them where I had gone and then they would tell me how I “absolutely must go the Italy next time.” Saying that I must go felt much like how MacCannell said how tourism has become almost like a religious pilgrimage, but also it made it seem that to these other tourists that visiting Europe was like a collectors set and you hadn’t accomplished anything until you had the whole set. Plus there was the wording of saying, “next time,” why is it assumed that there is going to be a next time. I’ve made more travel plans but I want to go to Japan, Australia, and South America before I go back to Europe. It could be argued that my own travel plans display a mentality similar to that of the European tourist collecting the set of European countries to visit, only that my mindset is to collect the set of visiting all of the continents. This may be true, but personally I’m more compelled by wanting to experience cultures that are extremely different from each other and have experiences I’ve never had before, whereas I feel a majority of the countries you can visit in Europe won’t offer much of a culture shock.
I felt like there was a major change in the tourism industry in recent years. I always heard people raving about how they had a relatively cheap trip through Europe and met some amazing people while traveling all on their own. From my personal experience I say that traveling through Europe is no longer cheap, most tourists generally keep to themselves, and traveling is generally more enjoyable when there is someone else experiencing it all with you. Hostels are generally considered to be the cheap alternative to staying at a hotel, sacrifice some of the comforts and you get a lower price. While hostels are still much cheaper than hotels the prices have certainly increased. I had met people who had backpacked through Europe only a year or two before and said that the average price for a decent hostel was around ten Euros but when I arrived the average price was closer to sixteen Euros. Factoring in that this was a necessary expense on a daily basis and the exchange rate with the dollar steadily decreasing in value at the time, it really began to cost me a lot just to have a bed to sleep in. There are also many affiliate groups that you can register to become a member for and you will get price reductions on various travel expenses. I registered for Hostellers International at the first hostel I stay at in Amsterdam, but then didn’t find any restaurants or hostels associated with Hostellers International for the entire rest of my trip. But then there is also the cost of transport, I had originally planned to take the train from one country to another, but the cheapest ride I could find was still over a hundred dollars. Later some people had just told me that I wasn’t looking in the right place for a cheap train right, but regardless it resulted in me taking the bus instead. There are passes that are offered for sale where you are able to get on any of their buses between certain dates, but my uncle had told me that unless I was going to be traveling to a lot of different countries in a short time that the pass wouldn’t be worth it. In the end it turned out that the pass would have been worth it and even a train pass would have resulted in saving me some money.
Then there is the need for travel companions. I witnessed that nearly every tourist I saw in all the hostels I stayed at had at least one person traveling with them. The obvious reason is safety, when you’re in a foreign land it’s always good to have someone who can watch after you when you don’t know anyone in the area. But traveling with someone else is also just more enjoyable. This was the most apparent to me during Queen’s Day, there was fun going on all around me but there was no one to enjoy it with, I hadn’t befriended any of the other people at the hostel, I didn’t know a lick of Dutch, and it was a long time before I eventually met the locals who took me to McDonald’s and even then, they were the ones who initiated the conversation. When you travel in a group you have some who you can recount your experiences with, someone who will be able to reminisce about all the fun times you had. For me, I can only tell others about my experiences with the feeling of, “you should have been there.”
For as much as tourists expect all of the leisure of home to be available to them, regardless of where in the world they decide to visit, there is also a lot expected from tourists by the various establishments that profit from them. Some hostels don’t provide their own linens and while some will let you rent some for an extra price, there are others that don’t help you out at all. So if you show up at one of these hostels and don’t have any sheets then you can’t sleep at the hostel because sheets are required for sanitation reasons. Then there is the expectation that you have a laptop, which I did not. All hostels offer Internet access now and generally they charge for it, but at some places the Internet was free if you had a laptop of your own. But the most irritating thing that caused me the most grief is that none of the computers offered to the public had any form of a word processing program. This might have been my own expectation as a tourist for the places I visit to provide everything that is available to me at home, but I thought that something like Microsoft Word was standard with most computers. While I was in Tanzania, where I was surprised to even have Internet access, the computers had Microsoft Word. I could possibly see it as people using word processing programs would take up more time on the computer, but wouldn’t that generate more money?
So what did I take away from my travels? The most important observation I had from my travels is what truly motivates us to travel the world. We travel because we want to learn more about the world around us, there are many selfish and manipulative elements to tourism but the root motivation behind it all is a pursuit for knowledge. Additionally, we don’t travel only to learn about other countries, but to also learn about ourselves. I can definitely say that I am a different man now than I was before my trip; some of these changes can easily be linked to things like witnessing the poverty in Africa or the less wasteful lifestyles of Europeans, but sometimes the changes are more subtle, like becoming more financially responsible when you are faced with the problem of trying to manage a limited amount of money that you need to make last for the rest of your trip. I’ve also witnessed a lot of people who come back from Europe and continue to go on about how life is so much better there and how people are better in every way than here in America. Europe may be more progressive on various issues than America, but they still have plenty of their own vices and the people who praise Europe for being so much more socially advanced than America never really went bellow the surface. Tourism is highly materialistic and selfish, but at the same time it is significantly about self-discovery. Even when you have the parents who drag their whining kids in front of the Eiffel Tower so they can quickly snap a picture and then go back to their hotel room, on a deeper level those kids have somehow been affected by the fact that they have gone out of their comfort zone and seen a foreign country. In the film Cannibal Tours the tourist didn’t really immerse themselves in the local culture, it was more of just a photo opportunity for them, but when they return home they will still have important memories tied to the pictures they had taken. The tourism industry is a trade off, it’s a great way for a country to generate revenue and raise global awareness of their history and culture, but in an effort to cater to tourists some of the original culture is lost as they become more modernized.
Works Cited
Bowles, Paul. The Sheltering Sky. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
MacCannell, Dean. The Tourist. Berkley: University of California Press, 1999.
Cannibal Tours. Dir. Dennis O’Rourke. Institute of Papua New Guinea Studios, 1988.
