From toppling an ancient rock formation in Nevada, to of imitating intercourse with a statue in Italyit seems that stories about tourists behaving inappropriately on vacation are on the rise, and an increasing number of tourist destinations record such behavior.
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Over the past few months, there have been protests around the world against overtourism and “bad” tourist behavior, and both issues seem to be gaining more and more public attention. Websites and Instagram accounts such as Tourons Of Yellowstone i Welcome to Florence they serve as an archive of various outbursts of travelers, and with each new documented case, many may wonder: “What were these people thinking?”
According to Javier Lejbert, licensed clinical psychotherapist and avid traveler, the answer is complex. “There are many factors that can influence this type of behavior. There may be individual factors, content, and perhaps the influence of the environment, if the person is traveling with a group. So I think the first question we need to ask is, ‘Okay, does this person behave like this when they’re at home?'”
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What is considered bad tourist behavior can be due to carelessness, such as blocking the boardwalk to get the perfect shot for Instagrambut also posing without clothes in public, up to risky – getting close to wild animals.
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According to Dr. Alana Delette, assistant professor of hospitality and tourism management at San Diego State University, some types of inappropriate tourist behavior, such as an attempt to help the animal rejoin its herd in Yellowstone National Park, can be down to a general lack of awareness of social norms and what is acceptable in different destinations.
“I think it’s largely a lack of knowledge and understanding of your impact on the place you’re visiting,” explains Deletova. “I think so many people travel and only think about their own enjoyment, but they don’t think about how their behavior affects the place they’re in, because they just don’t know enough.”
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Another classic form of tourist bad behavior is what the behavioral therapist and author of the book On Being UnreasonableDr Kirsty Sedgman, who teaches at the University of Bristol, calls “the energy of the main character”.
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When away from home, some people become rude and demanding in a way that assumes the locals, service professionals and everyone else are just there to serve them.
This behavior has seen a particular increase on airplanes, where we now receive regular reports of passengers becoming belligerent, disobeying basic rules of conduct and refusing to comply with crew instructions. It got so bad that in 2021, the airline industry association sent a letter to the US Department of Justice asking for help to curb the problem.
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“It’s not just about people behaving worse and worse,” Sedgmanova explains. “Mostly when someone admonishes them for bad behavior… it is to be expected that they will get angry. That impulse – ‘don’t tell me what to do’ is really strong.”
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Laburt, however, believes that there may be deeper psychological problems. “When we travel, we have to connect with the destination, with a new culture. This relationship requires us to be in a different emotional position, and not everyone is ready for that.”
Financial and psychological impact of tourism
Although much has been written about the environmental impact of excessive tourism, the impact of bad tourist behavior – especially vandalism – is something that is often overlooked in the voyeuristic retelling of bad tourism stories. It is much more difficult to calculate the financial and psychological effects of these one-off cases, such as the destruction of sacred cave art in South Australia.
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“When heritage sites associated with a marginalized group are desecrated and vandalized, it says that they, their lives and their history don’t matter,” explains Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Heritage Action Fund. “It often triggers memories of historical injustices and systemic racism, reactivating generational trauma.”
Even harm that is not specifically intended to cause harm can still take a heavy toll, both emotionally and financially. “Property owners and managers of historic properties often already struggle to adequately care for these resources. “So when a building is vandalized, it adds an unnecessary additional financial liability,” Leggs added.
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Moreover, sometimes the damage cannot be repaired. For example, in 2021 a visitor carved his name into a 4,000-year-old petroglyph in Big Bend National Park in Texas, permanently destroying a sacred site for the local indigenous community. Priceless artistic and cultural works are also affected by the behavior of tourists.
What can be done?
Deletova believes that the way tourism is advertised often contributes to the problem: “I think there is an element of anonymity that people feel when they travel, which makes them behave in a way they wouldn’t otherwise, but I think the problem is also the way corporations and governments package tourism to people,” he explains. “That’s why I’m not a big fan of mass tourism… The whole point is to simply bring people to a place where they can overindulge in drinking, overeating and overconsumption. It’s like setting yourself up for failure.”
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Deletova says that participating in more localized travel experiences can help visitors be more mindful—both about how they behave in a destination and the impact they have on the people who live there.
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Governments around the world are trying to curb bad behavior by introducing tougher laws, creating official guidelines for behavior and imposing heavy fines. From Amsterdam’s Stay-Away campaign targeting drunken British visitors to Italy’s barrage of new restrictions and fines aimed at curbing tourism and discouraging bad behaviour, destinations are coming up with new solutions to tackle the problem.
Leibert, however, believes that it is the passengers themselves who need to change. He says that while more and more people are able to travel, not everyone is emotionally ready to be impacted outside their comfort zone, which could explain the rise in anti-social behaviour.
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Both Deletova and Lejbert agree that the cure for this behavior ultimately boils down to a change in mindset – one that encourages people to understand that travel is essentially a privilege, that visiting a place means you are a guest in someone else’s house and that you should communicate with people of different origins in a thoughtful and respectful manner.
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“Tourism is really interesting because it has the power to literally change people’s lives,” says Alani Delet. “It has the power to lift people out of poverty, it has the power to connect people across cultures, religions and languages that we wouldn’t have if we weren’t able to travel. But it’s about how you do it. I don’t want it to be like, ‘Don’t go anywhere.’ But let’s do it with a more careful approach.”
Source: www.sitoireseto.com
