Monday, October 20, 2014
Tourism as Plague and Savior
Tourism is a complicated subject matter, as we discussed in class today. As it comes to carry a negative connotation, certain "tourists" choose to distance themselves from the term, and refer to themselves as "travelers," "backpackers," etc. However, despite the connotations and the attempts to avoid them, tourists are simply those who visit a place with no intention of settling there. Under this description, we're all tourists in most of the places we go. So why has the term garnered such hate? Often, the associated image is that of a heavy, middle-aged white man in khaki shorts, socks and sandals, and a fanny pack with his camera hanging around his neck. He and his family as seen as pests, ignorant of the customs and cultures of the place they're visiting and often too loud, too demanding, too in-the-way. But, many areas like the Adirondacks are incredibly reliant on tourism for the support of the local economy. So why is the tourist such a universally despised figure? Should visitors be expected to learn about a location's customs and adhere to them, or and if so, to what degree? At what point must we accept that no one will ever fit in quite like a local? Beyond that, at what point are you a "local" someplace? When you buy a house? Settle in? Make a family? Is it a matter of months, years, or generations? Obviously this depends on the community and this is a rhetorical question in this situation but it's something worth considering the next time you grumble about tourists ruining someplace you love.
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I would be interested to know what the tourists that garner the most irritation in our minds (like the people who carry two DSLR's and an umbrella along Avalanche Pass) are thinking. When I've been a tourist in Europe, I know I stand out since a. I'm usually wearing a hat, and b. I'm carrying a camera. However, I usually try to be as discrete as possible and not be the iconic loud American tourist in a Hawaiian shirt. But maybe I am just as irritating as the person with the umbrella.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I think its fascinating that many people will go through 4 years at Hamilton and will never drive up to the top of the hill to see Oneida lake shimmering golden in the sunset or go up Valley View and look out across the valley. Those people may not be tourists on campus, but they are as soon as they leave it.
I think this has to do with the way we look at tourists. Often we are annoyed by them because they are experiencing a place differently than we would like to experience a place.They also are annoying when they are seemingly ignorant to their surroundings as a result of being in a new place. So people who are veterans, tourists or locals become easily annoyed with those who have less experience than they do. For example, nothing annoys me more than tourists on Cape Cod. While Cape Cod essentially runs on tourism there is a level of annoyance felt by the locals and people such as my family who have had a home there since the sixties. There is nothing more infuriating than Cape traffic from the "visitors" as my grandmother likes to call them or an obnoxious family at the beach at sunset making the shore line their own photo op. But I think this gets us back to the paradox of Bill McKibben. We all want to enjoy a space that is to ourselves but who is to say that I have any more right to have a home somewhere than the next person?
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