Comments on: Why Travel is Bad for the World

By: soph

soph — Wed, 18 May 2011 20:45:39 +0000

Thankyou so much!!! You have opened my eyes to traveling and you have really helped me with some english travel writing!!!
thanks for posting this

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 21:45:43 +0000

Very great points! It’s true, many people only stay at big hotels and are afraid to venture out into more unknown territory (rightfully so to an extent when it comes to safety). Also, because traveling brings people out of their comfort zone, many of them are going to be defensive and stick to what they know whether or not it helps or doesn’t help the local territory they are exploring. Traveling vs. not traveling, obviously I pick traveling. It just has to be done right. Great post.

By: Yogesh Kauntia

Yogesh Kauntia — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:02:13 +0000

Nice post. I have been thinking about this lately and it is a certainly a very serious issue.
As more people realize that the tourist destinations are being commercialized or Disneyfied, they will head towards the ‘offbeat’ destinations.
It is scary to think that we may actually run out of offbeat destinations.
One way to prevent is to do what the Bhutanese government does. Only their airlines (Druk Air) can fly into the country, they have limited flights and the Government charges a fee for the tourist’s stay.
Such measures can really help.

By: Backpacker

Backpacker — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:47:12 +0000

Hmm, it made me think deeply how traveling can be really bad to the world. But yeah, I have to admit you got some points – it can be bad and good at the same time. The bottom line here is be responsible enough of your life. Be mature and be kind to nature and all living things. That’s all. And by the way, I like this post

By: Péter

Péter — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:05:46 +0000

Tourism is indeed a huge and rapidly growing industry. The problem is not travel itself, but when the experience of travel is turned into a profit making industry. See:

food vs. food industry
sex vs. sex industry
health vs. health industry
and travel vs. travel industry

However you seem to overestimate the impact of tourism on the world. Vast areas of the world are hardly affected by tourism at all(How many tourists travel to Siberia or Nigeria or Bangladesh?) and even in countries that are popular tourist destinations tourism is concentrated in relatively few points(points not areas!). Despite the lack of tourism these places have to deal with the same problems you mention: the local culture and environment is endangered. It is not so much the impact of travel, but modernisation and globalisation in general that is responsible for this.

“All that travel in big hotels and global restaurants doesn’t help the local economy.”

That’s sure, but why do you assume that there are only big hotels and global restaurants in the world? Almost every Alpine village in Austria lives very well from tourism and there is hardly any big hotel or global restauarant in sight. Instead there are locally owned pubs, restaurants, small pensions, bed and breakfast accomodation, farm stays, etc.

By: Will

Will — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:32:08 +0000

allow me to retort; RE: Travel makes the world Disneyland:

I agree with your opinion on this, however, I believe that it might not necessarily be a bad thing. Let’s take Hula for example. I wonder if Hula dancing would have even survived as an art form if it weren’t for the “disneyization” of it? And another example, in my native Wyoming, there are several “chuck wagon dinners” that cater to tourists. Cheesy? Yes! But the chuck wagon dinner isn’t practical for anything other than being a tourist attraction these days, but at least the history of it is being preserved. History is important and anything that can be done to preserve history (and culture for that matter) is a worthwhile effort.

By: Saben

Saben — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:05:48 +0000

Me and Lin were just talking about this. It puts a burden on a traveler to see what your quest for exploration does to the local economy and culture. Being in India it is always in your face how much cultural destruction is brought on by tourism. I think responsible travel is the obvious best way to reduce our cultural impact. Kills me to see people giving money to beggers, giving children pens or cookies, and only eating at the guidebook restaurants. Which in my opinion are in the top tier of what is destroying cultures and cultural pride.

By: flipnomad

flipnomad — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:53:31 +0000

so true…

though a lot of countries are gearing up towards sustainable tourism, i’m sure that action could help protect the environment, but i’m not sure if it could protect the local culture from disappearing…

By: james

james — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:00:54 +0000

Just read this blog after finishing a related story:
http://twentytwelves.blogspot.com/2009/11/magic-mystery-and-few-mosquitos.html#links

I wish I had some solutions to offer, but I too find myself merely thinking out loud.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:14:29 +0000

great points, we can´t just keep on traveling and not think about (at least a bit) on the negative sides – so we can try to be more conscienscious – but keep on traveling!