Anti-tourism tours

The needed corrections listed below the article give an indication of the journalistic quality of this article.

I think that the selection of guides is more important than most tourists think. And this starts with easy things to tell people what they can read in every tourist guide. If a tourist guide feels the need to inform about the backgrounds of a refugee crisis I would start becoming skeptical if a tourist guide is the best source of information.

Does the headline (also used in the article) fit to the content of the article? Anti-tourism is for me something different: photo example from 2018 in Berlin Kreuzberg.

Lane,

Interesting article-- thanks for the free-access link.

I've been to Athens a couple times-- both pretty standardly scripted visits until later in the day when we were walking through-- gosh I can't remember the neighborhood's name that was going through a gentrification, close to acropolis though-- some narrow, hilly passage ways when this guy started screaming about pickpockets following and reputedly targeting a couple of other nearby tourists who were asian and young. The guy who screamed the alert said he was a retired cop. And the accused pick-pockets denied everything and left. The tour guide with us didn't/wouldn't comment one way or the other about what happened (or didn't happen.)

What did I learn from it? Well, I kinda wished the tour guide was a little less guarded about describing what transpired I suppose. Decent guide but wouldn't deviate from a rehearsed script.

Ages ago my wife and I took a trip that included a backroads visit to Tikal in Guatemala. Crossing the border, driving incredibly slowly on a rutted road, staying in a place with electricity which powered a weak ceiling fan only for a few hours, loud howler monkeys and then hooking up with a local guide who was truly outstanding-- yet had odors that were challenging for us to handle. He shared a lot of social commentary along with an excellent historical and cultural history of Tikal and the mayans. That was a great guide!

Anyway, thanks for link. Happy travels.

Lane,

In Oaxaca, Alvin Starkman (Alvin Starkman Mezcal Education) provides what I call an "eyes wide open" tour. He talks a lot about the problems caused by tourism in the city as well as the lack of tourism outside the Centro/Reforma districts. I learned a lot from him, especially about the water crisis. He's the only tour guide I've encountered who actually leaves the city and takes clients to the smaller palenques instead of just the big industrial ones who pay tour guides to bring them customers.

I took a free walking tour in Oaxaca and the guide -- a really nice guy -- was reticent to talk about why a woman was sitting behind a couple dozen pairs of dirty shoes. It took a little time, but eventually he told us the shoes were all that was left of people who vanished and their bodies were never found. The pictures of the missing tacked up behind the woman were like the fliers put up at Ground Zero after 9/11. He told my wife and I that he wasn't supposed to talk about the gangs or the anti-tourist graffiti covering the steps of the Zocalo. I didn't press him any more, but I felt like there was a big story that's not being told because the tourism industry doesn't want to upset the tourists and wants make like everything is ok. I understand. Oaxaca's a "poor" state, and the money is desperately needed; who am I to say which version of the story is being told?

All things equal, I'd rather know the good and bad than just the good.

-- Mike Beebe

I’m not sick of being a tourist. I would love to be a tourist in more places. If I ever get to Athens (a long-held dream), number one on my list will be the Acropolis.

That said, I am not looking for a white washed view of the places I go. I like a guide to give the full picture of the country I am visiting. But I don’t see myself taking one of the tours referenced in this article. I travel primarily to see historical sights and beautiful scenery.

That said, I am not looking for a white washed view of the places I go. I like a guide to give the full picture of the country I am visiting. But I don’t see myself taking one of the tours referenced in this article. I travel primarily to see historical sights and beautiful scenery.

I certainly agree. To each his own as they travel. If I wanted to see poverty, abandoned buildings and homeless people I wouldn't have to leave the US. If the point is to blame tourism for these situations, it seems ironic someone is offering tourists guided tours on a subject as to what tourism is causing.

I actually like the idea of these kinds of tours, as long as they’re done respectfully. Sometimes seeing the “real” side of a city teaches you way more than the main tourist spots ever could.

Lane, that was an interesting article and something I would be very interested in. Thanks so much for posting this. I felt this way about Bucharest and would have liked some insight into why some of the areas were a little "grittier" than others, who lives there and what the city can do (or does) to "gentrify" these places (I'm using that term loosely, as it can have a negative connotation). I got some answers from a city walking tour, but it didn't answer a lot of my questions.

Does the headline (also used in the article) fit to the content of the article? Anti-tourism is for me something different: photo example from 2018 in Berlin Kreuzberg.

Mark, I think it's relevant that you are not a native English speaker so while it may not mean the same to you, I think the headline fits well with the article's contents. And if you read the article, the term "anti-tourism" is used several times throughout.

"If I wanted to see poverty, abandoned buildings and homeless people I wouldn't have to leave the US. If the point is to blame tourism for these situations, it seems ironic someone is offering tourists guided tours on a subject as to what tourism is causing." - Agree.

There's a market for almost everything. I'm thinking of starting an anti-foodie tour, for those of us who appreciate bad food. If the words mouldy, overcooked, stale, and rancid make your mouth water, then watch this space.

I get that some people just want to see the beautiful things when they travel, but I also think of Mark Twain's words below:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

Ah, take art! You go to a museum to see some truly beautiful pieces. And then some go to see some truly horrifying pieces. And they you go to the Guggenheim to ponder “I wonder if there is a good anti-foodie tour around here? I could really enjoy a donut from Tim Hortons!” Tis the spice of life!

Happy (or horrifying) travels!

And if you read the article, the term "anti-tourism" is used several times throughout.

Thanks, Mardee. I read the article incl. corrections info below it. To me it seems that "anti-tourism" is used just for better click-rates. "Alternative tours and views for tourists" would be a better content match to me but maybe too boring for the scandal-oriented readership?

And I like to add Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832):

Jeder muß wissen, worauf er bei einer Reise zu sehen hat und was seine Sache ist.

(Everyone must know what to look out for on a journey and what is their own concern.)

On a two-week Road Scholar tour of Cuba from Guantanamo to Havana we were purposely dazzled by the talented musicians and hospitality in a country with few resources. But what has really stayed with me is a Cuban economics professor explaining the complicated lives of people living in the assigned apartments in the crumbling buildings.

The "anti-tourism" sentiment in the photo linked by Mark indicates only that you're likely to see all kinds of silly stuff scribbled onto refuse with a flat surface.

Why is it catching on? Because its an oppotunity to pin a label on ourselves that sets us apart for our wisdom? Or maybe the Acropolis isnt interesting to anyone that never read a book or understands the importance of Classical and Hellenistic Greece in shaping the world. So the anti-tourism tours being based more on triggering base emotional responces than expanding knowledge appeal to a lof of people. Or Not?

I am not an anti-anti-tourist tour taker. What defines the hub of a wheel? The spokes or the space between the spokes?

What defines a tour? The sites? Or the space between the sites?

(Maybe I better stop visiting those Amsterdam coffee shops...)

Happy travels!

II posted this article not as an advocate, but because I thought it might be of interest to folks on this forum.

If you don't want to participate in this kind of tour, by all means, don't. As is frequently mentioned on this forum, we all have different styles of travel, different interests, different ways of packing, etc. There is no need to diss an activity you aren't interested in.

That said, I agree with some who took issue with the title of the article. It's not really about anti-tourism. It's about tours that offer alternatives to popular tourist sights. Whether you take a tour to the Parthenon or to the back roads and quiet neighborhoods of Athens, you're still a tourist.

I recall that some years ago there was a fashion for "misery tourism". Where you'd be picked up from your posh resort and driven through the slums of the nearby city in Brazil, USA, Mexico, etc.

It seemed a bit icky and I don't know if it ever took off as a big thing. This new anti-tourist tourism just seems to be another version. Though perhaps not quite so icky, most of us don't have the time or money to see the "backstreets". If I'm going to Athens, then I want to see the Acropolis. If I want see a slum, then I can stay at home and look at Las 3000 Viviendas.

Nick, while we are the subject of misery tourism, would it be improper to wear a black tail coat, starched white bib, pique waistcoat, white bow tie and a wing collar to a flamenco performance or would the locals find that offensive? If not, would sweatpants be out of the question?

Change channels, while I was in Rio for a conference eons ago, the posh hotel offered safe favela tours. I didn't partake but spoke to some who did and they found it illuminating.

Happy travels.

P.S. Lane-- great topic! Thanks.

David, since I think flamenco is about as desirable as finger nails being dragged down a blackboard, I'd say wear what you want. But earmuffs would be a good idea.