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Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

spiegel.de

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Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#141

Post by tluyben2 »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #132
tluyben2 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My parents did not even bring a camera on vacation; they considered it an annoying habit of tourists and that is 30+ years ago. It had the sideeffect that we did not get flagged as tourists but as locals/expaths which is better usually. With smartphones all of that changed ofcourse.

I don't believe your parents were the norm, and taking pictures is generally not considered rude in any culture, really. Stepping into the fountain, doing something stupid, mobbing people, stepping 'over the rope', crowding a public space to get a picture - this is 'rude'. Taking a photo of the Eiffel tower from the sidewalk is normal.

I did not mean to say it was considered rude; when people got robbed/pickpocketed it was not us as we didn't look like clueless tourists with huge cameras around our necks.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#142

Post by jacquesm »

jogjayr wrote: post #81
jacquesm wrote: post #31

When - not if - cheap oil finally runs out tourism will be a fraction of what it is today.

No hope for electric planes then? Or high-speed train travel?

It's cheap flights that make this work, electric planes are for now a pipe dream for international and intercontinental flights and high speed trains are not that high speed compared to aircraft.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#143

Post by kthejoker2 »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #84
Bucephalus355 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really appreciate you using the term “classist”. I think that term, and not “racist”, needs to be much more widely applied these days. That being said, I really enjoyed the author’s post. If anything, the people who are going to these places are the social climbing, upwardly mobile middle class, determined to burnish their brand on Instagram. Also the free flow of tourists is a problem that parallels a lot of other…

I get it. I love travelling and I'm soured at how overrun places are. But it's not a problem of the 'ugly tourist' it's a problem of just 'too many people'. I don't go to tourist destinations, I just go to places. Every French or German village is 'interesting' to those who don't know them. They are all full of history. Same for so many other places. The only 'non destinations' on planet earth are the suburbs, and pl…

I can actually see suburb tourism become a thing. At least they're pre-prepared for consumption and foot traffic.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#144

Post by kthejoker2 »

scraft wrote: post #125
mi100hael wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I go back and forth on this. On the one hand, I find it silly that literally millions of people take the exact same shot of things like the clock tower in the old town square of Prague and then post them online for a few cheap "likes." But if I didn't shoot a few photos there, I might not remember the great meal I had seated at the base with a few friends that was such an enjoyable time. Small details fade, but photo…

For me the fact there are 1 million pictures of that clock online is irrelevant. People follow others on Instagram either because they are interested in what the person does or they find the other places and pictures interesting which have been posted in the past and would like to see more. No one can see everything in the world so it is more like curating it, you follow a bunch of curators, see a bunch of stuff, for…

This tempts me to go grab a set of "Prague tourist photos" and just make up a fake trip. Just be upfront: I didn't take a trip to Prague, but here's what it would look like it I did. Just as curated, just as personal, just as compelling as any brochure. Oh look this guy who's into craft beer and chess history wrote up a hypothetical trip to St. Petersburg, check it out.

Or better, a startup idea: tell us where you're going on vacation and we'll produce your social media posts accordingly. You just enjoy your vacation and we'll get you all the likes.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#145

Post by DoreenMichele »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #144
scraft wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the fact there are 1 million pictures of that clock online is irrelevant. People follow others on Instagram either because they are interested in what the person does or they find the other places and pictures interesting which have been posted in the past and would like to see more. No one can see everything in the world so it is more like curating it, you follow a bunch of curators, see a bunch of stuff, for…

This tempts me to go grab a set of "Prague tourist photos" and just make up a fake trip. Just be upfront: I didn't take a trip to Prague, but here's what it would look like it I did. Just as curated, just as personal, just as compelling as any brochure. Oh look this guy who's into craft beer and chess history wrote up a hypothetical trip to St. Petersburg, check it out. Or better, a startup idea: tell us where you're…

tell us where you're going on vacation

Or tell us where you want to pretend you went and we provide a fake vacay with which to wow your pseudo friends.

Bonus points: You can market your service as "eco friendly" and actively encourage people to admit they used it. There can be footnotes cataloging how much smaller their carbon footprint is for having only pretended to go.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#146

Post by enraged_camel »

blondie9x wrote: post #96
enraged_camel wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You remind me of an old lady I met while living in Southern California. This lady was extremely proud of the fact that she had never set foot outside of California her entire life (by choice, as she was quite wealthy). I asked her about it and she said “Honey, why bother? It’s paradise here. If I ever wonder about life elsewhere, I can read about it or watch a documentary!” I mean, to each his own, but to me it’s the…

Please don't compare reading and writing code or a book for that matter to getting on a plane and staying in a hotel or a apartment.

Your comment lacks substance.

Care to explain why you have an issue with my analogy?

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#147

Post by dougmwne »

Agustus wrote: post #119
futureshock wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The world is a staggeringly huge place. It's filled with complexity from top to bottom. There are more wonders than could fill a library of travel books. But it's the travel books that are the main problem, along with our extremely narrow collective obsession in a few specific experiences. Our need to meet expectations. The crowds of tourists gather in just the thinnest spider web of places. Usually you can escape th…

Or killed. Guidebooks are developed as guides not only for the good, but also the bad.

Seriously? You'll be killed if you don't use a guidebook? Most of the world is quite safe. For the few places that arn't, I dont think Lonely Planet is going to going to be much help unless your keep it in your breast pocket.

Don't take bad risks. Use your wits and common sense. Stay aware of your surroundings. Fear is the mind killer.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#148

Post by germanier »

mi100hael wrote: post #57
sparkling wrote: post #24

Recently, in the german edition of the Spiegel, there was a similar column[1] saying there was "something really going wrong" when a flight from Berlin to Cologne costs 15€ while the train ticket for the same destinations costs 120€. The same article said that the flights were "absurdly cheap" and that the budget airlines are "displaying the type of capitalism that is disconnected from reality". Im not joking. The qu…

> The major german railway company, privatized in 1994, but still fully owned by the government Sounds like someone in Germany needs to crack a dictionary

It was transformed from a public office into a private company with all shares owned by the state. They planned to sell those shares but this never happened for various reasons.

Re: Paradise Lost: How Tourists Are Destroying the Places They Love

#149

Post by velik_m »

toyg wrote: post #21
sytelus wrote: post #5

I grew up with stories of people like Maco Polo and love of travel but my recent trips to Europe has almost repulsed and disillusioned me. Tiny European countries are being swamped by huge swath of tourists, everyone with Rick Steve’s guidebook, they all go look at exact same thing, take exact same pictures and even eat at exact same recommended restaurants. There is a lot to see and little to reflect when you are am…

> everyone with Rick Steve’s guidebook, they all go look at exact same thing [...] I wonder if there are any other guidebooks Is this sarcasm? The existence of guidebooks, in itself, ensures that multiple people will do what the guide says. A "better" guidebook will just ruin those "better" experiences too. In there you have the contradiction of tourism, which really extends to a lot of our modern lifestyle: everybod…

> Is this sarcasm? The existence of guidebooks, in itself, ensures that multiple people will do what the guide says. A "better" guidebook will just ruin those "better" experiences too.

That assumes the guidebook is the same for everyone. In today's world of smartphone apps it's not hard to imagine a "personalized" guidebook for each tourist. You could even take it a step forward and make it fully dynamic and "re-route" tourists based on site congestion - sort of like Waze for tourists.

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