How can you be a good traveler?
The answer to this question can be resolved from both ends—the place being traveled to and the traveler. It is simple to say, but it is a slow and hard process—the goal is not to stop traveling but to travel mindfully. As the traveler, it is attempting going to places that are not being showcased, and share your own experiences instead of trying to mimic others. Travel is the perfect opportunity for cultural education to bridge the gap of understanding and learning about other culture’s way of life apart from your own. As Henry Miller said, ‘The destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things’. The problem here is, we as travelers do not know, or do but ignore, what counts as crossing the line when it comes to disrespecting the place we are visiting to get the picture. For the place that is being visited, it is important to set a series of regulations that allow the city to be respected, to put the residents before the tourists, and to make the tourism sector good for the city’s economy and allow residents to benefit from it instead of undermined from it.
In Europe, protests are already taking place for ‘responsible tourism’ and forcing the sector of tourism to factor in sustainability. However, the problem is already at such a great scale that this process is, in some ways, in the cities’ hands. Some cities have encouraged the country to ‘spread out the tourists’ by promoting other sites that are less popular to decrease overcrowding. Many airlines lower their prices in the low seasons, which can encourage tourists to make their visits when it is not so packed. In 2015, Iceland’s tourism boomed with the incredible help of an Icelandic airline named Wow Airlines. This low-budget airline made many travelers, including myself, to fly to the island at an incredibly low price (my flight from Los Angeles to Reykjavik cost me around $300 USD round-trip). Unfortunately, this deal was too good to be true and the airline went bankrupt in 2018. More than 2 million people visited the country in 2018, making the tourism sector one-third of the country’s economy, according to the travel site Skift. It is clear to see that the airline is one of the main factors of the tourism economy in Iceland, as in 2018 (when the airline went bankrupt) there was only a 5.5 percent uptick in tourists compared to the previous year. In 2017 there was a 24 percent increase compared to the year before, when the airline was still up and running (Del Valle, 2019). In Iceland’s case they do depend highly on tourists, as with other places, they are actually applying a tourist tax, revenues from which can be used to manage the industry. Other cases, like in Amsterdam and Barcelona, have halted the construction of new hotels and have high restrictions on home-sharing like Airbnb.
It is proclaimed on and on about how travel is the best form of education, but are those who are traveling becoming less educated? While this research was taking place, there was one instance at a coffee shop in Venice where three American women stepped into a coffee shop. The culture of ordering coffee in Italy and the United States are at completely opposite poles and this observation proved this idea. One of the women ordered an iced coffee with a ‘pinch of hazelnut’ to-go, the barista was confused but attempted the order. In Italy, they are not accustomed to adding flavored syrups to their coffee, it is very uncommon to order iced coffee and even rarer to order it to-go. To top it off they also asked if they could pay in US dollars, when the barista kindly said ‘no’ and gave them their iced coffees in to-go mugs for hot coffee. The three women, looking a bit irritated, took their coffees and while leaving, one said ‘she didn’t even add hazelnut’. In many cultures, like the American culture, people are not educated enough when it comes to travel and most importantly when it comes to adapting to other cultures. Ordering a coffee should not be so confusing from both ends, but in truth it is the traveler who should adapt to the culture and not the other way around. The number of travelers are growing, and even if there are more travelers, this does not mean that they are more educated about travel culture and the culture of the destination itself.
As travel is becoming part of a large population (international tourism grew 6 percent in 2018, totaling 1.4 billion according to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer) it is important to educate this population. According to the UNWTO research there is a clear understanding that this population is highly influenced by digital platforms such as Instagram when it comes to traveling and picking a destination and a specific site for a great picture from the trip. The solution to this problem can be solved using the problem itself—influencers. Influencers, and more specifically, travel influencers, should be encouraged to not to showcase themselves in ways that the audience can mimic their photographs, but in ways that can actually inform them about the appropriate ethics for travelers at specific locations. It should be the influencers’ responsibility to research the city’s wishes for travelers visiting. This does not necessarily have to be a strict set of rules to be published on their accounts, but using their creativity, they can teach their audience something they didn’t know before, e.g., ‘The difference between ordering coffee in Italy compared to the States’. If they define themselves as ‘influencers’ then that is what they should be, influencing people for positive thinking and educating them, in this case, on travel. They should be a kind of a teacher who creates mindfulness and awareness of the impact of travelers on their surroundings.
What many cities are not taking into account is how is the city being portrayed by potential travelers. One great example is Barcelona and how it is marketed by fellow travelers as the place to get drunk, known by locals as ‘turismo de borrachera’ (drunk tourism). The term says it all, as tourists go to the city and behave in ways it would be strongly unacceptable at home. To resolve this, Barcelona can follow Amsterdam’s footsteps and re-market the city. Amsterdam is also notoriously known as a place to do things that are in many places around the world considered illegal. However, Amsterdam is greatly investing in rebranding the city as a destination more aimed at arts and culture. Cities themselves can use the amazing marketing new trend of influencer marketing. What better way to showcase your city exactly how you want it to be showcased on digital platforms? Not only present the city with professional photographs, but also target the right audience, meaning the exact type of traveler you want to be visited by. Influencer Marketing campaigns can be created by the city’s tourism association working closely with the influencer that has an audience that matches the type of traveler the city wants to target. Working with the influencers, they can certainly ask them exactly what type of content they want their audience to see.
For example, Venice is a city that has been bombarded by tourists even more so today with all massive crowds of people traveling on cruises. ‘Venezia Autentica’ is a website that aims to propose alternative information for travelers. Their mission of this website is to ‘make it easier for travelers to enjoy a more meaningful and authentic experience of the city while making a positive impact on the local community, environment, economy’ (Venice City Town Hall, n.d.). Venice has certain regulations that are very specific for the city since it is simply not like any other city in the world. The city town hall created a blog post that was shared on ‘Venezia Autentica’ to inform their audience about these rules and laws. Some are very obvious, like no littering, no picnics in the main plazas, and no graffitiing. Some regulations are very specific to the city, like not feeding the pigeons (which is one of the most popular things tourists do in San Marco), no loud noise after 11pm, and that it is forbidden to wear swimwear around the city, to swim in the canals, or be bare-chested. All of these carry fines of around 500 euros, and many people are unfortunately unaware of these regulations upon their visit. Information like this should be implemented in influencer marketing, instead of encouraging people to disrupt the cities by feeding the pigeons to post on Instagram. Influencers can also teach travelers how to be more present in their experience when traveling. They can suggest that the audience turn off their phones, not take pictures in overcrowded places, not spend too much time taking pictures but actually take in the sight, and offer ways to respect the local community. If traveling is not going to stop anytime soon, and as influencer marketing seems to be growing in popularity as well, why not make them both work together?
References:
Del Valle, D. (2019) Wow Air’s Collapse Has Seriously Affected Iceland’s Economy. [online] Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/24/18638595/wow-air-bankruptcy-iceland-economy-tourism [Accessed August 27, 2019].
Venice City Town Hall. (n.d.) This is What the City of Venice, Italy Wants you to Know Before Coming to Venice [online]. Venezia Autentica. Available at: https://veneziaautentica.com/to-know-before-coming-to-venice/ [Accessed August 27, 2019].
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