World Travelling

Before the pandemic, tourism had reached a critical point. I remember when the word “overtourism” was one of the Oxford Dictionary’s words of the year, I believe it was 2018. This highlighted the tourism industry’s rapid growth and the pressure placed on environments, infrastructure, and most importantly, the local people. I think it is important to ask ethical questions, like: How am I contributing to gentrification? How can travel celebrate, rather than commodify, culture? I guess I am going to recommend a TV show that goes along with each lesson that we tackle, haha, because I think you should all watch the show "White Lotus." It is a TV show on HBO Max that showcases 4 rich white families as they travel to a luxury resort in Hawaii. It showcases how tourist imperialism has hurt the Hawaiin people. For the first three episodes, the native people of Hawaii are pretty absent from the narrative. One of the resort entertainers explains that the resort is built on land that once belonged to his family that was stolen from them illegally. His family has been fighting legal battles against it, but he also works there because he has to make a living. It brings to light an important conversation, so I definitely recommend it to everyone. Tourism is a part of the economy of Hawaii, but it is also a place where people live. It is treated like paradise for guests but at the cost of exoticizing a people. I'm including the link to the trailer to pique y'all's interest: https://youtu.be/TGLq7_MonZ4

I have not traveled on vacation much; however, I was born in raised in a very evangelical Christian community.  I did not travel borders on vacation, but I crossed many borders on mission trips. I very much struggled with the "white savior" complex and took pictures and thanked god that my life was not like theirs. We started projects that we couldn't finish, we took jobs away from local people, we attempted to colonize a people and take away their culture. I have since had to do a lot of deconstructing and have left the church, but more importantly, learned from the mistakes I have made. It crushed me for a long time trying to grapple with the harm I had caused. I think this is an important conversation to bring to world traveling and feminism. Instead of raising $2,000 to travel perhaps the money could be sent directly to an organization or charity in that country or be put towards their community.