I have always taken tourism for granted. Although I never travelled much as a kid and I grew up wishing I could be like “everyone else” (or at least a few of my privileged elementary school friends) and take a family trip to Florida to visit Disney World, it always seemed normal to me that someone should be able to just hop on a plane and go somewhere where they can find an elaborate theme park, or somewhere where they can swim with dolphins or something like that. For some reason, I always thought I was missing out on some sort of fundamental human right when I saw the nonchalant nature with which my classmates treated traveling by plane to various locations south of my hometown in NH during Winter Break each year. I do realize that as you (whoever “you” is) read this, you are probably thinking about how incredibly spoiled I must have been because I felt deprived just because I never went to Disney World. As I have grown older and thought about this more and more, I realize that I did grow up spoiled. I grew up in a world where it was normal to leisurely fly somewhere for a week and make a vacation out of it, and where nearly anywhere you went there was some sort of hotel/restaurant/attraction built for and geared toward visitors. At this point in my life, I definitely know that I grew up privileged to even entertain the thought that I was missing out on traveling, which seemed to me like a fundamental human right.

It is clear that traveling is no longer simply for the rich elite, as it has become much more accessible over the years. After watching Gringo Trails, I was intrigued to see the changes made to rural communities once tourists finally discovered all they had to offer, something I never even considered when I was younger. It was almost as if as soon as someone discovered a beautiful, unique place and they let other tourists know, and the local peoples’ desire to make money coupled with the tourist’s desire to be surrounded by some comforts of home (nice restaurants and hotels) lead to the destruction of what was interesting about the place to begin with. It seems to me that development of tourist attractions plays on a desire for “comfortable authenticity,” which basically means experiences that are marketed as authentic, but are still geared toward groups of tourists who may not be ready to fully commit to the ideals of the place that they are visiting. In the article “Why We Travel” by Pico Iyer, Iyer argues that people travel in search of hardship that is not already present in their lives. He also argues there is a difference between people who are willing to leave their assumptions at home (travelers) and those who are not (tourists). It is trendy to be a “traveller” who seeks out authentic experiences, but this search for authenticity seems to only truly be fulfilled when you are one of the first to discover a place, since the more tourists visit a certain location, the more it evolves to fit a certain set of assumptions that are not necessarily authentic. With the development of “expected” tourist attractions at many popular travel destinations, the experience of travel is becoming much more homogenous than ever.

After reading Pico Iyer’s article and watching Gringo Trails, I have a lot more to say about tourism than simply saying its something that I missed out on because I’ve never been to Disney World. Should I be glad that I didn’t go to Disney World? Does a travel destination like Disney take away from the value of true tourism? Is Disney just a hyper-comfortable manifestation of home? There is a responsibility inherent in true tourists to not enter new places with assumptions from home. As tourists, we have the responsibility to seek out new experiences, but to respect the lands that we visit. We have no right to expect that there will be a new theme park or luxury hotel in every “exotic” location that we care to visit just so we can say we’ve been somewhere “off the beaten path.” It is incredibly easy to be attracted to the guaranteed good-time at a place like Disney World or to take advantage of opportunities provided by companies advertising “authentic” experiences, but we must be ready to ditch any assumptions or notions of home in every place that we visit, and to seek out truly authentic and sustainable activities when traveling in order to benefit ourselves and the local people most. Tourists must put their own interests aside, and be completely ready to live as if they were someone from the place they are visiting. Based on these criteria, I guess going to Disney World isn’t exactly the grand tourist experience that I had thought it was…I’m hopeful that our trip to Nicaragua will be more authentic, provided I can truly ditch my assumptions and embrace my discomfort in the new culture.

Watch the trailer for “Gringo Trails” here: