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Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

bbc.com

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Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#171

Post by magduf »

chronial wrote: post #110
lm28469 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between individual pollution and state level pollution though. Germany may pollute the air/rivers less than China but come to Berlin; in some neighbourhoods you might think you teleported to a third world country where trash are simply threw in the streets to rot for weeks if not months before the public services finally do something.

Come to Munich and you will find no such thing. I don't think single examples can prove a point here.

I was about to write that I visited Munich and other places in Bavaria last year and it was very clean, though there were a fair number of cigarette butts around, but nothing like what the OP was saying about Berlin.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#172

Post by darkpuma »

gwbas1c wrote: post #84
CptFribble wrote: post #67

After the volcano erupted in 2010, the government launched a PR campaign in winter 2011 to counter the projected tourism drop. It specifically targeted "inspired" and "enlightened" travelers to come see the "unique" landscape. Also in 2011, WOWair debuted with it's $99 flights to Iceland. Instagram launched in 2010. Maybe it's less "people are garbage" and more "we should make it more expensive to come here."

It seems that social media is the scapegoat of the day for whatever social problem the media discusses.

When somebody calls you an asshole, there are two general reasons why that might be. Maybe there is something wrong with the person calling you an asshole; maybe they're having a bad day or have some sort of irrational grudge against you. The alternative reason is maybe you are an asshole.

When you're called an asshole once, it's easy to assume the other person is having a bad day. But if numerous people are calling you an asshole every day of the week, chances are you are an asshole.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#173

Post by whatevertrevor »

magduf wrote: post #165
maxxxxx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our whole society is based on trying to make things easy and convenient. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people have the same attitude towards traveling and nature. Iceland could fix this easily by making places less accessible but then the tourist money would stop flowing. In the end they have to make a choice. Limit accessibility or number of tourists and lose some money or accept the negative consequences…

Maybe they should just forbid or discourage tourists from countries that cause the most problems, such as Britain and the US. I'm sure Japanese tourists never litter there.

I don't think blanket bans are a good idea, there are good and bad people everywhere. Hefty fines enforced during peak season would be a nice start.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#174

Post by Godel_unicode »

Juliate wrote: post #35
marapuru wrote: post #27

This quote from the article baffles me: > The good instagrammers try to show different ways of enjoying nature. We don't tag places that are off the beaten path that we want to protect as long as possible. Some places have become "insta-famous" without ever mentioning where they are but eventually they become known to everyone. Wait, what? So you take a picture. Put it on instagram (because you are an 'instagrammer')…

When an instagrammer dies, where go all the likes and the pictures? At least, with paper-printed photos, you have|had material stuff to inherit with some context and history.

You are aware that posting a picture on Instagram doesn't preclude you also archiving it, yes?

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#175

Post by maxxxxx »

magduf wrote: post #165
maxxxxx wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our whole society is based on trying to make things easy and convenient. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people have the same attitude towards traveling and nature. Iceland could fix this easily by making places less accessible but then the tourist money would stop flowing. In the end they have to make a choice. Limit accessibility or number of tourists and lose some money or accept the negative consequences…

Maybe they should just forbid or discourage tourists from countries that cause the most problems, such as Britain and the US. I'm sure Japanese tourists never litter there.

Don’t do that. People in high enough quantities are a problem no matter where they are coming from.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#176

Post by Godel_unicode »

marapuru wrote: post #61
qwsxyh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Let's hope the future learns people that most of these instagram shots are basically digital waste. That's very condescending of you. Lots of people like having real visual memories of places they've been.

I like having visual memories too. But are my memories triggered by a self-made almost identical photo of a specific glacier or tree at a touristic attraction? In the last couple of years I've not taken photographs of things from which I was sure already tens of thousands of photos exist. In my opinion people forget the importance of the experience itself. It seems as if there must always be some form of evidence to…

What if I told you that taking a picture is itself an experience? Especially if you're a little bit careful about composition; you have to move around and determine how best to position the camera, what time of day to get the light you want, which glass configured in what way, etc.

Some of my clearest memories of places I've been are of places I took photos, for exactly this reason.

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#177

Post by balabaster »

xwdv wrote: post #149
balabaster wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worse than this - their entire life needs to be Instagram worthy. Everything they do is in the name of getting the next perfect shot, so they can influence others in the name of social advertising to make a quick buck. They either become proficient photographers, videographers and writers or they team up with those who are, capitalizing on the latest trends in photography to consolidate their brand. The problem…

Has nothing to do with making a quick buck. Has everything to do with getting social validation from their peers.

Having that behaviour reinforced by rewarding it with payment doesn't exactly discourage it though, does it?

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#178

Post by darkpuma »

esoterica wrote: post #168
derefr wrote: post #164

Iceland should make up its mind. Flights to Iceland (from pretty much anywhere) are extremely cheap, presumably due to some sort of Icelandic tourism-board subsidy. This attracts people who choose vacation destination based on price... who might not be the most motivated to nurture (or even pay attention to) the local character of the place they visit.

That’s a pretty classist thing to say. Rich people aren’t more respectful of nature than people on a budget.

They certainly litter less. And yes, there are socioeconomic factors in play of course.

Or, another take on it: https://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/01/david-sedaris-was-right-...

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#179

Post by derefr »

esoterica wrote: post #168
derefr wrote: post #164

Iceland should make up its mind. Flights to Iceland (from pretty much anywhere) are extremely cheap, presumably due to some sort of Icelandic tourism-board subsidy. This attracts people who choose vacation destination based on price... who might not be the most motivated to nurture (or even pay attention to) the local character of the place they visit.

That’s a pretty classist thing to say. Rich people aren’t more respectful of nature than people on a budget.

There are two algorithms for choosing a vacation destination:

1. sort vacation destinations based on actually wanting to go there, and then filter based on ability-to-go;

2. sort vacation destinations based on ability-to-go, and then pick the top one.

AFAIK, there’s no correlation between wealth/class and which algorithm people use. Rich people are sometimes rich because they’re thrifty, and so are no less likely to employ algorithm #2; poor people are sometimes poor because they tend to splurge on the things they want whenever they come into money, and so are no less likely to employ algorithm #1.

My point is rather that people who employ algorithm #2—regardless of who they are—tend to not actually care about the place they’re going to (since they never had it in mind to go there at all, never did any research or looked forward to visiting, etc.); and that, by making tourism as cheap as possible, Iceland is encouraging people who employ algorithm #2 to visit, without really increasing the number of people who visit due to employing algorithm #1 (who, presumably, are the ones they’d actually like to have as tourists.)

Re: Iceland tire of tourists trashing their nature

#180

Post by morsmodr »

Iceland is trying to reduce its dependence on oil exports, which is a good thing, by directing efforts towards Tourism. But looks like this is also affecting nature in its own way. It is like we can't really interact with nature without destroying it in some way or the other.

Instagram does affect people a lot and the same people deny it. I am not on Instagram, never got onto it as I realized the impact FB was having in my life when it was the most popular medium. Uninstalled the FB app as well, I do access it through the browser occasionally, necessary evil and all that. But of course, instagramers (don't know if this is even a word) think they are inspiring people. What do I know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I hope Instagram goes through their new change of not showing the number of likes to viewers. Would be interesting to see whether that has any modification of societal behavior of people hooked onto it.

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