1/23/2024 0 Comments Fucking awesome vacation![]() But is that lowering my rent? Is that adding an elevator to my train two blocks away that I can’t go on because I’m disabled? they’re removing benches, it becomes dirtier, and houselessness goes up. “I’m from New York, it’s one of the most traveled places in the world. “It just sounds so ridiculous,” says Bani Amor, a travel writer and lecturer. Worse, that entitlement leads tourists to believe that the people who live in a place should be grateful you’re there. “When I started, there was not enough information. I’ve had times when I’ve had to wait in line, and it was like 50 people deep. “So many people get in now because of credit cards. At any major museum in Europe, you need to book your tickets in advance it’s very rare you can go up and wing it.” Even airport lounges, those once-exclusive havens for the business elite, are being ruined by tourists. “There’s really no low season, it’s just busy year-round in some destinations. “I went to Rome in March, which is typically an off-season month, and it was jam-packed,” she says. My favorite places are what I call personality-driven, not just a money-making venture of some faceless company that’s going to hire the cheapest labor.”Ĭustomers, having felt as though they’ve missed out on the last few years of international travel due to the pandemic, expect prices to be the same as they were in 2019, explains Jacqui Gifford, the editor-in-chief of Travel + Leisure, and therefore aren’t always prepared for the delays and cost increases caused by inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain issues. “But what I like to do is give people a basis for finding their own discoveries: the little mom and pops that carbonate your travels with great memories. “I’m part of the problem, because I write books and I send a lot of people to places that are quote ‘undiscovered,’” he says. He describes the kind of travel that has emerged in the last decade or so as “bucket list” tourism, where people use crowdsourced information and top 10 lists to plan their trips and end up annoyed that everyone else is there, too. “I’ve been doing this for 40 years, and when I started, there was not enough information. In the latest edition of his Barcelona guide, the legendary travel author Rick Steves writes a eulogy for the Ramblas, a thriving market for locals that’s since become a tourist trap selling souvenirs and Instagram-ready fruit skewers. In catering to Western tastes, developers and the dollars they seek aren’t only killing the existing culture, they’re also, ironically, killing what makes people want to visit a place. These are cities boasting both extraordinary natural beauty and, crucially, governments and corporations eager to profit from tourism. Is travel cringe? It certainly feels that way, particularly if you’re traveling to one of the destinations that have become symbols of internet-driven over-tourism - Tulum, Lisbon, Reykjavik, Mexico City, Santorini, Dubrovnik, to name a few from the past decade. She is fucking fed up /xuPhScoiwk- Achilles de Flandres July 12, 2023 ![]() But it all ends the same: with thousands of people doing the same things, in the same places, at the same times. It’s an almost sports-like pastime to reference every possible available recommendation and “best of” list and cobble together a bulletproof itinerary, an activity I’ve engaged in many times, sometimes with great pleasure. Some people are even letting ChatGPT plan their vacations. Publications and influencers compete to offer you the dreamiest-sounding getaways, guiding you to each trendy restaurant and café and what to order there. On TikTok, you can copy painfully intricate spreadsheets and decks promising you the “BEST SUMMER EUROPE TRIP EVER.” Startup apps like Postcard and Camber allow you to copy other people’s saved location pins and follow their itineraries like treasure maps. Cottage industries and corners of the internet have sprung up to reinforce this illusion: No matter where in the world you go, especially as an American leisure tourist, absolutely every choice can be made for you. Many Americans, in much the same way we’ve grown accustomed to cheap products that arrive within 24 hours or less, have an unsavory tendency to feel as though we are owed a fabulous, friction-free time simply because we’ve spent enough money and energy planning to have a fabulous, friction-free time. Each week we’ll send you the very best from the Vox Culture team, plus a special internet culture edition by Rebecca Jennings on Wednesdays. ![]()
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