Three critics walk into a bar …

Three crit­ics — a set­tler colo­ni­al­ism crit­ic, an illeg­al immig­ra­tion crit­ic, and a mass tour­ism crit­ic — walk into a bar … 

Is this the set-up for a joke or a real pos­sib­il­ity? What shared con­cerns might they dis­cuss, and where might their per­spect­ives diverge?

It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites question.

Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to the travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers in the “GT” net­work, invit­ing responses of no more than 300 words. (You too can join the “GT” net­work. Register.)

Thanks to the three respond­ents — an aca­dem­ic, a writer, and a pub­lish­er — who took the time to share their thoughts on the ques­tion. Their answers appear in the order received.

And thanks to the stu­dent and tour­ism offi­cial, coin­cid­ent­ally both from Kenya, for their “GT” Insight BiteX contributions.

(Click/touch an item on the Bites menu to go straight to it.)

‘If only these blowhards would …’

K Michael Haywood, publisher, ‘Destinations-in-Action’, Canada

Geor­gia Aven­ue Tav­ern, a peace­ful even­ing, but the rants are get­ting on my nerves.

A tire­some three­some of vis­it­ors are voicing dis­pleas­ure at my island nation’s colo­ni­al men­tal­ity, a dis­placed Haitian dia­spora, and the crowds steam­ing off the cruise liners. 

I can’t help but over­hear troub­ling com­ment­ary toward what we at the min­istry are striv­ing to achieve: ‘good tourism’. 

Of course, I won­der: Do they know what Trouble really is?  Have they truly lived it? Felt our des­pair, a sense of hope­less­ness, revealed also in Jamaica Kin­caid’s A Small Place.

Sure, it may be inter­est­ing to know what these crit­ics might have in com­mon or where their per­spect­ives might diverge. I am more con­cerned, how­ever, at the capa­cious nature of their cri­ti­cism that includes all man­ner of com­ment­ary. An eval­u­at­ive dimen­sion that‘s less than determ­in­ing, per­haps non-existent. 

I sense an inab­il­ity to appre­ci­ate his­tor­ic or ori­gin­al con­texts (place, cul­ture, polit­ics, insti­tu­tions, people). Cri­ti­cisms, or appeals based on exper­i­ence, are lim­ited to par­ti­cip­at­ory roles as guests or observ­ers, but not based on being hosts or part of our workforce.

If only these blow­hards would express dis­sent as a means toward seek­ing ascent. How?

• Being truly evaluative. 
• Com­mu­nic­at­ing com­plete under­stand­ing and inter­pret­a­tion of concerns. 
• Awaken­ing our per­cep­tions as to what is miss­ing or is being dismissed.
• Defin­ing inter­pret­a­tions and explain­ing inner work­ings and realities.
• Appre­ci­at­ing and admir­ing the efforts of oth­ers, their cir­cum­stances, and realities.
• Point­ing out the dis­tin­guish­ing qual­it­ies, efforts, and attrib­utes of all.
• Reveal­ing what is dif­fer­ent, atyp­ic­al, and excep­tion­al, not just consequential.
• Cla­ri­fy­ing achieve­ments and for­feit­ures of pur­pose in accord­ance with principles.
• Recog­nising that cri­ti­cism is con­di­tion­al, con­tin­gent, prac­tic­al, and pragmatic.

As Meshell at Geor­gia Aven­ue advises: “Wake up, return, bal­ance, align”.

After all, “Nobody knows for sure, what is real or true.”

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‘Tourists go home, immigrants welcome’

Melanie Smith, Associate Professor and Researcher, Budapest Business University, Hungary

The set­tler colo­ni­al­ism crit­ic is com­plain­ing that over­tour­ism is like a new form of col­on­isa­tion: Entitled, wealthy tour­ists invad­ing neigh­bour­hoods and private spaces, buy­ing up ‘cheap’ loc­al prop­er­ties, or stay­ing in com­mer­cial­ised Airb­nb accom­mod­a­tion, res­ult­ing in dis­place­ment and unaf­ford­able prices for locals. 

It’s an out­rage and some­thing needs to be done! 

We can blame neo­lib­er­al­ism, gov­ern­ments, even the loc­al Mayor. 

The mass tour­ism crit­ic agrees but tries to explain that over­tour­ism is just a new word for an old phenomenon. 

The­or­ists like But­ler with his life­cycle mod­el, Doxey with his irrit­a­tion index, or Plog who envi­sioned the inev­it­able decline of des­tin­a­tions over time, com­men­ted on this in the 1970s. 

The only dif­fer­ence is that now the phe­nomen­on is not simply con­tained with­in ‘selec­ted’ beach or island des­tin­a­tions like Kavos, Aya Napa, or Magaluf, but has spread to cul­tur­al cit­ies and small towns that simply were not pur­pose-built like resorts to with­stand overcrowding. 

In addi­tion, res­id­ents have to inter­act with tour­ists in their own build­ings and neigh­bour­hoods, rather than con­fin­ing them to tour­ist enclaves. 

The illeg­al immig­rant crit­ic chips in with his opin­ion stat­ing that the issue of illeg­al immig­ra­tion has made the situ­ation even worse in des­tin­a­tions that have been forced to accom­mod­ate immig­rants in addi­tion to hordes of tourists. 

The only bless­ing is that tour­ists might be ‘put off’ cer­tain des­tin­a­tions like Lampedusa, which have been over­whelmed by illeg­al immigrants. 

On the oth­er hand, he is puzzled by some of the recent slo­gans that have appeared on walls in Spain say­ing “Tour­ists go home, immig­rants welcome”. 

Surely leg­al tour­ists spend­ing money in a des­tin­a­tion are prefer­able to illeg­al immig­rants ‘leech­ing’ off the wel­fare system.

He can­not com­pre­hend why the res­id­ents of Bar­celona would choose to squirt tour­ists with water pis­tols while dis­play­ing gen­er­ous atti­tudes to immigrants!

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‘Water on a grease fire’

David Gillbanks, Publisher, The “Good Tourism” Blog, Australia

After a few rounds — of liquids and increas­ingly non­sensic­al hot air — the mass tour­ism crit­ic and the set­tler colo­ni­al­ism crit­ic determ­ined that to cri­ti­cise immig­ra­tion — illeg­al or oth­er­wise — was … illegal! 

They explained that it was ‘racist’ to cri­ti­cise immig­ra­tion, and that racism was in a new cat­egory of crimin­al­ity: the ‘hate crime’.

This came as a shock to the illeg­al immig­ra­tion crit­ic who thought the three­some had earli­er estab­lished much com­mon ground: 

• That their pet hates involve out­siders arriv­ing in unsus­tain­able num­bers and — with the excep­tion of tour­ists — stay­ing. 
• That col­on­ists and illeg­al migrants are — as tour­ists and leg­al migrants can be — imposed upon com­munit­ies.
• That as loc­al people feel that their legit­im­ate con­cerns are ignored, com­munity-based oppos­i­tion — in bal­lots, bombs, and the devol­u­tion of one to the oth­er — is inevitable.

Oppos­i­tion to impos­i­tion is only natural.

Intel­li­gent people don’t throw water on a grease fire, so why would thought­ful lead­ers employ cen­sor­ship to douse dis­sent? Only tyr­ants cen­sor suc­cess­fully, and they start by demon­ising those they wish to silence.

Great uni­fy­ing leaders: 

• Let people speak and sin­cerely try to under­stand their perspectives.
• Under­stand that many good people don’t have the words to express the nuance in what they feel and believe, and are often obli­vi­ous to the latest jar­gon and redefinitions.
• Pre-empt mis­un­der­stand­ings and lies through trans­par­ency.
• Counter mis­un­der­stand­ings and lies with more trans­par­ency, not resort to the dan­ger­ous instinct of throw­ing water on a grease fire.
• Hon­our the pre­sump­tion of inno­cence, and that inten­tion, espe­cially in speech, is mit­ig­at­ory. (Warn­ing of fire is appro­pri­ate if one sin­cerely thinks it’s pos­sible. Cen­sor­ing one­self might lead to great­er disaster.)
• Know that free­dom of speech is a pres­sure valve; that the cul­tures that have integ­rated it best have cre­ated the sort of places where most people want to be …

Oh, the irony.

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“GT” Insight Bite_X (‘_X’ is up to you)

The “Good Tour­ism” Blog offers a great oppor­tun­ity to any travel & tour­ism stake­hold­er who wishes to express them­self in writ­ing for the bene­fit of “GT’s” open-minded readers. 

To fea­ture in the next “GT” Insight Bites com­pil­a­tion, send no more than 300 words (300 words or few­er (</=300 words)) on any tour­ism-related idea or con­cern you may have. 

Don’t use AI. if you lack con­fid­ence in writ­ing in plain Eng­lish, “GT’s” pub­lish­er will per­son­ally help with copy edit­ing. “GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” publishes.

Send your “GT” Insight Bite and pic­ture to GoodTourism@gmail.com.

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Eight ways technology is transforming tourism

Lizday Gatwiri, student of hospitality and tourism management, Murang’a University of Technology, Kenya

Estab­lished tech­no­lo­gies, such as avi­ation and its ‘low-cost’ vari­ant, have exten­ded the range of afford­able travel to hun­dreds of mil­lions, if not bil­lions of people. 

More recent and emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies are sig­ni­fic­antly trans­form­ing the travel and tour­ism industry in sev­er­al ways too:

1. Mobile apps and ser­vices are increas­ingly cent­ral to travel exper­i­ences, from book­ing and itin­er­ary man­age­ment to in-des­tin­a­tion nav­ig­a­tion and time updates. 
2. Map apps, such as Google Maps, have enabled tour­ists to travel more inde­pend­ently and make real-time decisions to avoid crowded routes, times, and places.
3. Drones are being used for aer­i­al pho­to­graphy and video­graphy, thus provid­ing unique per­spect­ives for des­tin­a­tion mar­ket­ing and management.
4. Sus­tain­able tech­no­lo­gies in energy effi­ciency, waste reduc­tion, and eco-friendly trans­port­a­tion have helped save the envir­on­ment and pro­moted respons­ible tourism. 
5. The inter­net of things (IOT) facil­it­ates smart hotel rooms and more con­nec­ted trans­port options, provid­ing great­er con­veni­ence and customisation.
6. Big data and ana­lyt­ics help travel com­pan­ies under­stand cus­tom­er pref­er­ences, optim­ise pri­cing, improve oper­a­tion­al effi­ciency, and identi­fy trends, allow­ing for more stra­tegic planning.
7. Block­chain tech­no­logy can improve trans­par­ency and secur­ity in trans­ac­tions, stream­line book­ing pro­cesses, reduce fraud, and facil­it­ate secure digit­al iden­tity verification. 
8. Vari­ous tech­no­lo­gies can also help improve and pre­serve attrac­tions as well as help stake­hold­ers adapt to cli­mat­ic change. 

To sum up, emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies are reshap­ing the travel and tour­ism industry through enhan­cing per­son­al­isa­tion, improv­ing the travel exper­i­ence, increas­ing effi­ciency, and pro­mot­ing sustainability.

Read “GT” Insight Bites on tech­no­logy in tourism

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Is tourism ready for another pandemic?

Doreen Nyamweya, Tourism Officer, Nyamira County, Kenya

The con­sequences of COVID-19 in tour­ism are not for­got­ten, and yet we are faced with an immin­ent threat of anoth­er pan­dem­ic: Mpox. 

If any­thing is evid­ent it is the sus­cept­ib­il­ity of the travel & tour­ism industry to extern­al stress. COVID exposed vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies with­in the sec­tor, for­cing the industry to adapt rapidly. 

With travel & tour­ism hav­ing largely recovered from COVID-19, one ques­tion lingers: Is tour­ism ready for anoth­er pandemic? 

WHO just declared Mpox a glob­al pub­lic health emer­gency, prompt­ing tour­ism play­ers espe­cially in tour­ism-depend­ent eco­nom­ies to become wor­ried about its impacts. 

With loom­ing travel bans, hard-hit des­tin­a­tions in Africa have quickly become less desir­able for tour­ists to vis­it. That’s not tour­ists’ fault: Africa is not well cush­ioned and pre­pared for anoth­er pan­dem­ic. There is lim­ited fin­an­cial and resource capa­city to roll out adapt­ive measures. 

My con­cern is that Afric­an nations, and oth­er third world coun­tries, are yet again to be sub­jec­ted to dis­crim­in­a­tion and unfair treat­ment by the inter­na­tion­al com­munity. Inequit­able dis­tri­bu­tion of vac­cines and fund­ing to boost gov­ern­ments’ response hurts tourism’s chances to pre­pare for anoth­er pandemic.

WHO leadership’s fail­ure to instil con­fid­ence casts doubt on the body’s abil­ity to con­trol the disease’s spread. Without timely action by WHO and appro­pri­ate loc­al author­it­ies to take pre­vent­ive meas­ures to curb sur­ging cases, the tour­ism industry may have to take up the costly bur­den of out­break con­trol meas­ures itself.

Yet anoth­er pan­dem­ic, and WHO’s response to it, threatens to expose tourism’s inad­equate plan­ning. Gov­ern­ments must step up to col­lab­or­ate with the private sec­tor to edu­cate trav­el­lers and tour­ism stake­hold­ers on crisis response guidelines.

And let’s not for­get that it is on each of us to build our own resi­li­ence and preparedness. 

Read “GT” Insight Bites on what tour­ism learned from COVID-19

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What do you think? 

In a com­ment below share your own thoughts about how con­cerns about mass tour­ism com­pare to those about set­tler colo­ni­al­ism and illeg­al immig­ra­tion. SIGN IN or REGISTER first. (After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.) 

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

This is an open invit­a­tion to travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers from any back­ground to share their thoughts in plain Eng­lish with a glob­al industry audience.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please … 

Featured image (top of post)

Did they walk into this bar? Sign photo by Steve Allis­on via Unsplash.

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Previous “GT” Insight Bites

• How are emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies trans­form­ing the travel & tour­ism industry?
• What does it mean to be crit­ic­al of tourism?
• What con­sti­tutes ‘pro­gress’ for travel & tour­ism in 2024?
• Con­sid­er­ing a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know in 2024
• What did tour­ism learn from the COVID-19 pandemic?
• In 2024, what are the best oppor­tun­it­ies for tour­ism over the next five years?
• Tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years to 2028
• On empower­ment, pro­mo­tion, and the power of expression
• On enrich­ment, repat­ri­ation, the double-edged blade, and war
• On tour­ism tech­no­logy, pro­gress, and loc­al benefit-sharing
• Hey, travel & tour­ism, are you ‘neo­co­lo­ni­al­ist’?
• Who’s the new boss? Asia Pacific tour­ism industry asso­ci­ation seeks leader
• ‘The hos­pit­al­ity industry offers a great career.’ Really?
• Cruise ships: Bless­ing or blight?
• Tour­ist vs trav­el­ler: What’s the difference?
• The heads of fin­ance, oper­a­tions, and PR walk into their boss’s office … 
• Yes, Tour­ism Minister
• What are tourism’s biggest chal­lenges & threats over the next five years?
• ‘Tour­ism is built on the back­bone of white suprem­acy’. What do you think?
• Really, what’s the dif­fer­ence? ‘Sus­tain­able tour­ism’ vs ‘regen­er­at­ive tourism’
• Want a career in tour­ism? Import­ant things you should know
• Diverse per­spect­ives on travel & tour­ism and a fairer world
• Diverse per­spect­ives on eco­nom­ic degrowth and tourism
• Diverse per­spect­ives on vis­it­or dispersion

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