I recently read an article “Why it’s time to rethink what it means to be a tourist,” on BBC.com, link below, following a new book by author Paige McClanhan: “New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Peril of Travel.”
Why it’s time to rethink what it means to be a tourist
Aruba is struggling with the Power and Perils of travel. We know how great it is to have visitors, but we also know how damaging it can get.
Did you notice that I said visitors?
I stay away from the word TOURIST and prefer to call our guests VISITORS, because it implies a deeper connection.
Twenty years ago Anthony Bourdain, a famous travelling American chef and writer taught us the distinction between Tourist and Traveler and asked us to form more profound relationships with destinations and become travelers, explorers, instead of momentary, superficial tourists.
In Aruba, we usually see visitors as THEY, and consider locals WE. It’s often US against THEM. The article suggests seeing ourselves as tourists too and considering ourselves part of the challenge to our environment. THEY are not the only culprits; we are also responsible to whatever is happening on our island.
If we seek change, it must begin with us.
The article then goes on to say that: The way to maximize the chance that you’re going to have an impact on visitors’ perspective and ultimately their behavior is if there’s two things happening: education, and an emotional connection of feeling implicated.
That’s it, two things to fix our visitors, make them more conscientious, inspire them to drive carefully, and be gentle with the turtles, etc.
We must educate them because they don’t know.
Don’t stand on coral, don’t stack rocks, don’t leave trash behind. (Tour operators, take notice.)
Then we must continue to foster emotional ties with our visitors, if we make them our friends, they will care more about what is happening to us, and our island.
Aruba was always good about making visitors feel at home, but we have gotten big, and visitors are no longer invited to local homes and made to feel like family. When we personally interact with our visitors, we can motivate them to be more environmentally friendly, in their everyday actions and choices, while here.
But it starts with us. We must be more environmentally friendly, in our everyday actions and choices, first.
