Draft page. Notes on ideas to develop.
The Journey and Tourism
I was born in a city of fifty thousand inhabitants that, during the tourist season, two months a year, received a million visitors (numbers from 30 years ago).
A young city built by immigrants with an entrepreneurial vision.
Tourism is the main economic activity, driving all the others.
In my childhood, not being able to walk down the main street of the town because tourists would crush you was normal. The density of people at that time was like that of a rock concert in front of the stage. To get through the crowd you had to separate people.
Obviously, traffic jams were incredible. Water supply was at its limit and pollution at its maximum. Noise, lights, excesses in nightclubs, “exposed” theater, beaches where not even a pin could fit… the normal.
The Normal
When I hear the complaints of the Mallorquins about mass tourism, my first reaction is always: the normal… what are we talking about? You put an ad for tourists to come and since where you live is beautiful and you sold it well, they come… and they keep coming… and your place, well it blows up… the normal.
Statistically speaking, the normal usually refers to what is most likely to happen. In colloquial language it also tends to be associated with what is regulated. Being highly probable or following a norm does not mean it is good.
I believe in travel, I believe in tourism… but obviously there is “room for improvement” in how tourism is managed.
There is Room for Improvement
We cannot ignore that we live with the consequences of our actions and that many family economies depend on the tourism industry.
Proposing “tourists go home”, for me, is immature. It denies the past (we call tourists that), denies the good part (almost all current infrastructure in Mallorca exists only because it was built for tourism) and, above all, prevents seeing an intermediate solution. It is a childish tantrum, immature and unconscious.
Many activists, especially in art, get fired up “against the damned capitalist who takes millions at the expense of … (whatever)!”, but they often forget the workers and their families who earn a salary for a job that gives value to someone, in this case to the tourists… tourists who are also workers who in many cases save with the illusion of traveling and resting… tourists who will soon also be cursed by those who have already traveled around the world.
Supply and Demand
Supply: increase options.
Demand: travel as escape and denial… stop escaping, if you cannot with your day-to-day, change that, don’t throw yourself on the beach to forget and bask in the sun, go see a psychologist! Get divorced! Quit your job!
If those who come do so for the wrong reasons, destinations lose their identity. Because these visitors are interested in the place, its people, its culture or its history. That is why it seems normal that every destination has a McDonald’s or a Zara.
Think globally, act locally.
How we sell trips, how we travel and where has a part that can be addressed globally, but how it affects a territory and what that place needs to stay in balance is something local.
Travel, Tourism, Technology, AI, and the Pandemic
Mass tourism is closely linked to the Internet. The generation of the destination myth, of the journey itself, the ability to obtain information about destinations, the expansion of digital payment methods, booking systems, both for mobility, accommodation and services facilitate and empower the tourism industry in a way that was very difficult to imagine 25 years ago.
Between influencer feeds and search results filtered and sorted by algorithms…
Slow Travel
Would it be possible to combine a free trip, without crowds, accessible to everyone, that does not destroy destinations and helps hearts grow?