Stop trying to have the perfect vacation. You’re ruining everyone else’s.

Outstanding article. This quote from the article is something I need to consider when I get annoyed by someone or something.

Worse, that entitlement leads tourists to believe that the people who live in a place should be grateful you’re there. “It just sounds so ridiculous,” says Bani Amor, a travel writer and lecturer. “I’m from New York, it’s one of the most traveled places in the world. It gives billions to our economy. But is that lowering my rent? Is that adding an elevator to my train two blocks away that I can’t go on because I’m disabled? [Instead] they’re removing benches, it becomes dirtier, and houselessness goes up. The money is not circulating. It’s going to police, to jails. It’s not making my life better. That’s a basic lack of understanding of capitalism.” No better example exists of this phenomenon than Hawaii, where most people work more than one job to barely get by, and where new tourist accommodations and attractions are advertised as job bringers and then fail to pay a living wage. Amor, while acknowledging that social media and the internet speed up the process of certain destinations going viral, says that none of this is new. “At the heart of it is displacement: the constant erosion of place, of culture. Tourism always begets more tourism.”

Save yourself the infuriation and don't click 'play' on that Amalfi tik tok like I did. My god.

As someone who has lived overseas (Germany 4 years, Saudi Arabia 5 years) and traveled to 81 foreign countries, I was a bit put off by the negativity of this article.

First of all, I don't find that American travelers are shallow, arrogant or ignorant when they travel. Having visited 81 foreign countries on all the continents except Antartica, I generally find fellow American travelers to be good natured, flexible and friendly. Yes, there are rare cases of an " Ugly American."

Second, I moved overseas in 1981 when I was 33 years of age, having never been out of North America. Bach then, crowds were way smaller and the Americans you ran into overseas were of two general categories: 1) well to do people or 2) military or families of military stationed overseas. This is not the case today. Air fares are relative cheaper than they were over 45 years ago, but now more people have the money to travel. Also, more people travel quite a lot. This makes travel more of a hassle these days, since now if you want to see the Sistine Chapel or see the Coliseum/Forum in Rome, you must book in advance. Getting into the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam now requires booking the minute after such bookings are open. In 1982 when I first visited the AF House, no prior booking was required.

Third, the ariticle does make some good points. Yes, many people want to see the IMPORTANT places, like the Sistine Chapel and Colliesium/Forum. Can you blame them? Why go to Rome without seeing those sites, or Paris without going up the Eiffel Tower? Yes, having a bucket list is normal. I have accomplished about 90% of mine, as I am 75 years old. Still, there is a lot more to see.

Fourth, the method of travel is important. When younger with less money to spend and more energy, I usually planned trips where we did stuff on our own. We didn't do a lot of tours where you did Italy for 14 days on tour. We saved by staying in pensions, taking subways or walking and using guidebooks. Now, most of our travels are done on tours. Planning is not hard, most of it is done by the tour company.

Fifth, the place you visit makes a huge difference. When visiting third world countries or countries like Russia, China, India or the Middle East, it is wise to take a tour. It is easier to get a visa to visit Russian and China if you are on a tour. Also, safety is a huge factor, especially visiting places like Egypt, Jordan or a safari in Africa. I very much enjoyed going to Russia and China on a tour.

Sixth, we have enjoyed taking cruises, all over the World and usually try to combine a cruse with a land trip for a week or so. On cruises you meet a lot of people that are well traveled.

Travel is still loads of fun, not an unfun bloodsport as the article propounded. Get out there and see the wonderful World. I have enjoyed everywhere that I have been and still can't wait for my next trip.

I am going to follow this because I just posted a discussion and got some very "interesting" responses. I hope the persons who responded to my discussion will also respond to your discussion.

Here is a link to my discussion if you have any interest

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/netherlands/amsterdam-takes-drastic-measures-to-control-tourism

UPDATE. The webmaster locked it because it was becoming too controversial

I have low opinions of Vox, and give them no credence whatsoever. And long ago I stopped worrying about how other people choose to enjoy themselves or how another chooses to plan and spend their vacation -- it's no skin off my back. Hike your hike.

Worse, that entitlement leads tourists to believe that the people who
live in a place should be grateful you’re there.

And I am very disapointed that so many Americans get angry at European staff that dont speak perfect American English.

Wait, the odds of either of those is like 1 in 100,000 but it sells "clicks" on the internet. This one of those works of art devoid of intelect.

And RS trying to sell his tours as something different is stretching reality a bit. They might be better, but the differences, with maybe a few tours that are the exception to the norm, are becoming hard to find once you get past the salesmanship.

World travel started to go downhill with the invention of social media and the selfie stick.

No, Frank II, the travel I enjoyed went down hill when airlines became so cheap that the demographics of the tourist changed. Of course, I am in that demographic and wouldn't be traveling if it hadn't become so cheap. Hmmmmm Catch 22.

The perfect vacation, eh? Well, trying to achieve that is the meat and bones of the RS forum, where people are constantly posting requests for itinerary reviews of their prospective trip, sometimes so sparse of an itinerary that they state they are going simply, to Italy, and what can they do, stay, eat. No thought whatsoever. These are the people heading out to the destinations.
Overall, the article seems to be what we all feel, a proprietary interest in our own experiences at anywhere because we have been there and now it is ruined due to others, me, you, them, us, showing up there and wrecking the good times we remember.
The front lines of all this is Venice and Barcelona and despite all that is said even by locals, nothing can be done. The money of tourism rules the day and they are stuck with it.
Also the fact that there were 2.7 billion people in the world in 1970 and there are 9 billion today surely means that tourism has seen growth, but, the size of Venice has not changed. So, numbers have accelerated the problems.

Geovagrifith response is exactly how I feel about traveling. Tours in more exotic countries, cruises for the ease of seeing distant places and independent inexpensive travel for Europe and other western locations. I don’t like spending big money on flights. Frequent flier miles are best and then we look for price. It is one bad night rest. Places that are limiting or stopping cruise ship have enough tourist dollars without the cruise passengers. We are lucky to travel off season and usually enjoy the bucket list sites only one time then move onto smaller sites and places. I would not deny first time travelers from seeing the biggest attractions.

Geovagriffith, I think some of the criticism is that too many folks now are not wanting to do much research ahead to find out what might interest them at a destination and instead ask for the ‘top 5’ sights (and then wonder why they are packed). I see this occur on a couple of Facebook travel groups for popular European cities. The same question about top 5 places gets asked several times per day, Before social media, most of us did have to do some destination research with books like Rick Steves. I don’t believe everyone necessarily wants to see all the high profile places; I say this as someone who has been to Paris 8 times and never gone up the ET and to Rome 4 times and I’ve never gone in the Colosseum. But I have most definitely found wonderful sights to see that were of great interest to me.

Before social media, most of us did have to do some destination research with books like Rick Steves

Yup, Claire, and some of us still do use books although they may be on an iPad or Kindle these days. There is no substitution for a good guidebook as proven by many of these shallow travelers that do not know what they do not know. IMO, you cannot plan a trip to with Chat GPT, TikTok, Top XX lists or articles in magazines, or Facebook. Better to take a guided all inclusive tour than not research.

Laurel I agree. I will soon borrow my sister’s Rick Steves 2023 Netherlands book and I’ll be buying his updated England one for trips next year. But I still travel with small paper map books, paper notes, printed out tickets and confirmations for everything booked and I use a paper daytimer so I’m a bit of a dinosaur who likes paper….

One place that I can tell you very much appreciates all the tourists that come to visit.
That is Egypt. Tourism is the second largest industry in that country (so we were told).

Egypt is a relatively poor country and tourism helps to employ many people.

I was just going to post this article, but Mary beat me to the punch. And I love the "jail-time" Amalfi Tik-Tok post.

I’m a bit of a dinosaur who likes paper….

Me too. Was thinking about this with relation to the map thread the other day.

Oh I absolutely make use of electronic maps and CityMapper etc when traveling, but I really need paper maps (both big picture and detailed) to help me understand while planning .

I like the Amalfi video because she'll influence like minded people who may also find the rewards not worth the effort. She's being truthful saying it was a difficult slog, unlike the influencer videos she had watched.

We returned from a visit to the Amalfi coast around the time of US spring break. I was stunned by the huge quantity of Americans, that is until my 35 year old son told me that right now it's on every US influencer's page, so people are flocking there. So good for this one for giving her opinion. Great nails💅.

any influencer who posted pretty photos of the Amalfi Coast “deserves jail time” because they neglected to mention the logistics of actually getting there. “This is literal manual labor not vacation,”

In 1880 Richard Wagner, at the time aged 67, reached Ravello riding a mule; he visited the villa and had drawings made (no selfie sticks) as drafts for the scenery of his opera "Parsifal". The persons who talks about manual labor, does not really know what working really is.

World travel started to go downhill with the invention of social media and the selfie stick.

Very true. I first saw selfie sticks in Paris +10 years ago. I pondered how long before certain people stoled with the Iphone that was attached to it. As for social media it is one thing to take a picture, it is another thing to take several, stand there and edit them and then retake them because you didn't like them. Take your picture and move on!

Ed from Houston

The following happened recently

One group of family members got into a terrible fight with another group of family member. at Disney World in Orlando. it got physical and the police had to be called in.

The reason was that one group was taking too long taking their pictures in front of the Disney sign and the other family became irate.

We are talking families at Disney World Like adults with kiddos.

The persons who talks about manual labor, does not really know what working really is.

Lachera, I love this! So very apt in many parts of our privileged lives.

The Amalfi Coast poster needs to join the RS forums and learn to pack light :)

Sign me on with the non-haters in this discussion. I think travel is still just fine, and that American travellers by and large are okay.

I also think that social media and the internet as an information sources are being convoluted. Two totally different things. The first is what it is, and not something I participate in. The second we all participate in regularly. I like the internet as a source of information. Information is democratized, not handed down through imprimatur. And I like that there's more information. I'm good at parsing information and evaluating it, so I get better and more narrowly targeted information from the internet than I do from guidebooks.

It's a bit of an online sport, holding up some anecdotal outrageous social media person and collectively heaping on contempt. Emile Durkheim would have called this a necessary function of community cohesion. Claude Levi-Strauss thought that it was unnecessary step in human social evolution that establishes the boundaries of the sacred by showing what is outside of them. Travel is pretty sacred to most of the members of this forum, and we can define it as such to ourselves by holding up the outrageous scapegoat to ridicule.

I try to be a bit more stoic. There's a sort of liberation in Marcus Aurelius' dictum that you're not required to have an opinion on any given popular topic, and in fact you ought not if you don't feel like it, and that you will feel better for it.

So tick tock travelers in too much information destroying travel? Nah. Like someone said above, I will just hike my own hike ...

Quick edit to add that I don't at all excuse ishty ugly Americans. I do feel defensive for European service employees went, for instance a couple of loud Texas accents opens over a rural Bavarian bakery counter with "give me two of those, a couple of those other ones heated, and can you wrap those up?" I try not to, but do tend to inject myself into those situations as they happen in the moment ....

If i understand this correctly, the complaint is its too crowded where one wants to go because everyone else figured out it was the place to go .... just like you? Interesting complaint.

If you beat it into your head that this is a problem or that is a problem, or these people do this and those people do that and as a result you are ready to react each time you encounter it then I promise you a much less enjoyable trip.

I have thousands of recollections of my trips and not one of those recollections involves a selfie stick or someone standing too long or talking too loud or complaining about language or any of the other stressful vacation busting moments I keep seeing discussed. I am sure on every trip I am surrounded by all of it. I just impulsively look for what I enjoy and ignore the rest.

Out of a hundred trips, only one was bad and that was in a cattle pasture outside Corpus Christi, Texas in 1972

The Amalfi Coast poster needs to join the RS forums and learn to pack
light :)

Her nail file is likely too big for safe carry-on.

I read the article this morning. i think the average American traveler is a pretty decent person. As in all of life, there is some fringe 5% of people who are difficult, but the vast majority are great.

I'm pretty cool with taking the vacation I want and letting others take the vacation they want.

Here is some valuable research. You guys are going to love this:
https://smiler.co/en/city/rome?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_O2lBhCFARIsAB0E8B-ehkKFlLq16gPeLwZhHK6rnwd0pwvTfdtG25l_5BSOBJ0j_OSRtoAaAhabEALw_wcB

and

https://www.marcieinmommyland.com/11-most-instagrammable-spots-in-paris-worth-a-selfie/

People need to realize that many locals are not happy about so much tourism and this also applies to tourist destinations in the US. When I hear about other coastal cities being designated "best", I am glad and hope they go there instead of here. A lot of the rental properties, and certainly the hotels, are owned by outsiders and have a limited positive value on the locals who pay the taxes that support police and fire departments and who have to clean up the mess left by tourists on the beaches, yet those same tourists make ugly comments about the locals. In Europe, our presence causes crowding on local transportation and difficulty for locals in utilizing grocery stores and restaurants. They have good reasons to be less than thrilled about our presence.

Well, I am happy to have and appreciate the the tourists that come to town and enjoy what we have to offer.

Just heard on ABC News that beginning in early 2024, Americans will have to apply for an online Visa to travel to and within 30 European Countries. This Visa will cost about. $8 and only take minutes to be approved (according to the report on ABC News)

I wonder if this is a way to curb over tourism as well as to curb the behaviors of Americans acting badly.

UPDATE. VAP has clarified my information in the following post

Goodness... you know I heard from someone in the motor pool...

Not a visa but a ETIAS -- https://travel-europe.europa.eu/etias_en

It's the EU version of the US ESTA that those from visa waver countries have to get for authorization to travel to the US

And ETIAS has been delayed multiple times. Sort of like Real ID here in the US. Let’s see if it’s actually implemented by next year.

On the original topic. I use these things to determine the hot or in destinations. Then I decide to deprioritize any I was thinking of going to. Until it cools off that is.

Agree with geovagriffith. Egypt is the only place I have traveled where strangers said “welcome to Egypt “!

From the linked article

“At the heart of it is displacement: the constant erosion of place, of culture. Tourism always begets more tourism.”

I think there are more than just a few destinations where tourism is viewed by the locals as more of a plague than a saviour. And maybe it was all inevitable for destinations like Venice where the perverseness of Airbnb's and their ilk totally out-priced the rental market thereby stealing away any sense of community from the locals.

It would be interesting to know what percentage of the displacing Airbnb rentals are locally owned and what percentage are foreign investors who couldn't care less about the loss of the communities at the macro or disruption of daily lives of the locals, in their buildings, at the micro.

.

A recent headline on similar fears for Rome:

Overloaded by Airbnbs and mass tourism, Rome fears its historic centre will be emptied out of locals

As more neighbourhoods are transformed to cater to travellers, many residents are leaving because of pressures on the housing market, retailers and their way of life

VAP

I posted on this discussion before creating my own discussion about what I heard on ABC news. You have clarified my post both times and I thank you

UPDATE. I researched the ABC news story and posted a link on the discussion the I began. ABC does refer to ETIAS as Visas.

I don't agree that Americans are particularly bad tourists compared to others. I worked at a major tourist attraction in New York City for years and witnessed people of all nationalities being bad tourists, including French, German, and Italian tourists who had obviously done zero research before showing up to where I worked. I still think under planning is far worse than over planning. Also, Americans, the internet, and social media aren't the reasons why you now need to make so many advanced reservations these days before travelling to Europe. Instead, blame discount airlines and emerging economies in Asia and elsewhere who only want to see the same things that everyone else does, and always have. Smart travellers don't have to let these things ruin their trips. Good travellers plan ahead, get their information from a reliable source (not Tic Toc or someone's stupid blog or social media), and know what to expect.

... it is one thing to take a picture, it is another thing to take several, stand there and edit them and then retake them because you didn't like them.

I've encountered that more than a few times, most recently inside the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna - it seemed endless.

Good travellers plan ahead, get their information from a reliable
source (not Tic Toc or someone's stupid blog or social media), and
know what to expect.

Tic Toc not a reliable source? Balderdash!

Actually, I do find YouTube helpful for travel... especially if I stick with videos made by ugly people.

Dave,

ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Do ugly people make better YouTube travel videos.?

I love the youtube travel videos. Use them. a lot and for the most part feel that the content creators deserve whatever income they get from their videos In many cases, I feel like I am there.

geovagriffith

I am somewhat older than you (78) and new to travel. For many years, I was forced to be homebound and only began some travel about 13 years ago.

When you and I were younger, persons in our age group often could not travel due to health reasons and cost of travel. Many people never made it to our age. Thanks to medical science and better knowledge and awareness, we old peopler are still able to go places and do things that previous generations were not able to do.

I am a grateful old lady.

I think that having to make appointments to get into attractions may have something to do with COVID. You probably know more than me but to control COVID and then manage it, it was necessary to limit numbers.

Now, we have what some are calling Revenge Travel -- pent up demand and available money. We got stimulus money that I saved for travel. Because of staff shortages, workers are making a lot of money and have more disposable income than they have ever had. And they have time. Have laptop, will travel. In some cases, they can work anywhere in the world.

And travel has become cheaper allowing more ordinary people to travel although I am on a strict budget and still have to be cautious of cost.

I just took a moment to read the article again. Its several pages of entitlement dribble. The author seems to berate anyone that wants the same holiday that she once believed was reserved for her type of people. Kind of sick actually.

The comments here reinforce a lot of the same sentiment. Many presume to know more about local growth and change issues than the local inhabitants do.

I assume the local people continuously evaluate the situation and the benefits and costs of the situation and use the democratic system at their disposal to keep things in balance as they think best serves them. I'm sure it’s not perfect, but I am also sure it’s better than acting on the criticism being thrown out here.

So, I research what I need to research to have a trip that meets my interests. When I arrive I am well aware of what I am walking into relative to crowds, cost, general cultural norms. I treat those around me with kindness and respect and to this date, have always received the same in return in all of my travels.

bostonphil,
I don't think key sites requiring bookings are caused by COVID. This was an issue prior to COVID.
It is the volume of travelers.

You are spot on about what medical science has done for us in the past two or three decades. I had an Aunt that died of Non-Hoskins Lymphoma in the 70s. She was in her 50s. A few years ago, a first cousin of my had the same disease and with chemo and a bone marrow transplant, he has been cancer free for three years. I could cite other cases. Even surgery is now simpler than it was in the past. I had a hernia operation a couple of years ago and the surgeon didn't have to cut into my body, except though my navel. Recovery was very quick.

And then there is life or nature or God or whatever you care to call it

I am certain that when many persons booked their perfect Southern Europe vacation, they did not expect the terrible heat wave that Southern Europe is experiencing.

I imagine it is not very much fun walking around Italy or standing in line in 105 degrees.

And same with Greece and Rhodes. Some persons felt that they were going to have the perfect vacation., right?

Sometime Life Happens and you have to have a good attitude, go with the flow and have a Plan B and even a Plan C.

"I am certain that when many persons booked their perfect Southern Europe vacation, they did not expect the terrible heat wave that Southern Europe is experiencing."

While it is a drastic heat wave now (not wanting to minimize that at all!) , perhaps some travelers did not do their due diligence by checking the actual monthly temperatures on a site such as Weather Underground. In looking back at Athens Greece in July 2012 there were temps that were in the 99/100F range that year. I did not look at the intervening years for data but it's available. Others are perhaps stuck with summer travel due to work/school schedules.

https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/gr/athens/LGAV/date/2012-7

"I think that having to make appointments to get into attractions may have something to do with COVID."

I agree with Geovagriffith, this has to do with volume of travelers at present. In the Summer of 2019, before the pandemic, the Louvre took the step to go with timed entries to decrease the volume of visitors and distribute it across the day. This was in response to their security and reception personnel going on strike due to the high volume of people coming thru the Louvre. Here is an NPR article from May 2019.

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/28/727592823/the-louvre-is-suffocating-museum-closed-as-workers-strike-citing-overcrowding

I agree with the quote in the OP about there being "too much" information at times. I participate a Yellowstone-related forum where we try to give good advice much as the folk on this forum do. In looking at the FB pages related to Yellowstone travel I can almost not read them because there is so much misinformation and terrible advice.

Most of the folks on this forum give advice based on travel experience which is helpful.

In the end it's up to the poster to separate the wheat from the chaff and do their own research to see if the advice fits their travel style.

Hi Pam,

I checked out the links that you sent me.

I have traveled very little so I did not realize that southern Europe including Greece was so hot in the summer. Like a lot of things, I never even thought about it. Had no reason to.

I travel in the shoulder season, usually in the fall.

I have a cruise booked for October 2024 which will include Athens and Greek islands. This October I am going to be sailing from Southampton to Lisbon.

I do check the weather of places that I am going to be. and I book my vacation in the cooler weather. as well as the (supposedly) less crowded season. But the shoulder season is now also very crowded.

I did take a Baltic Cruise October 2019 which included St Petersburg Russia and tourist sites were very crowded . My cruise company offered an excursion to The Hermitage in the evening which I regret not taking. I heard that the cruise passengers had the place to themselves.

I possibly read or heard about some tourist sites in other countries being terribly overcrowded but paid it no mind because I was not going to those countries.

Before I book my next vacation, I do a lot of research and I mean a lot.

I hate heat and I hate crowds. A few years ago, I went on a Western Caribbean cruise but went a little too early (for me). In Mexico, I took an excursion to the pyramids walking through the jungle.. The heat and the humidity ruined it for me and I thought "never again"

I live in Austin, TX and summers are alway terrible. This one is especially terrible. But I am not a tourist and walking around.

I am fortunate in that I can travel Spring, Fall and Winter. I can avoid holidays and summer travel but whatever season you travel, weather can always be risky.

I watch YouTube videos and some content creators post videos like "Rome In October" (very long videos) and I was "shocked" to see how crowded Rome is in October. I had no idea. I had been thinking of taking a cruise from Rome and the video caused me to change my mind.

So what do you think the answers are to over tourism or are there any. Weather is another story. We are in a changing climate

Sometime Life Happens and you have to have a good attitude, go with
the flow and have a Plan B and even a Plan C.

Absolutely and most bad travel experiences dont have to be "bad", its mostly about attitude. Too hot, get over it and since there is "too much information" its shouldnt take 5 minutes to find an airconditioned Plan B.

I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed of going to Vienna. 20 years ago, when I got there, it was a total bust. All that dreaming dumped, gone, lost, so disapointing, terrible, it was ..... hell it turned out to be the best most impactful trip of my life. Because I got on the first train out of town that took me to this G-d forsaken, bleak, black, soot stained, post-Communist hellhole caled Buda-something. As of this year, I call Buda-something "home" 😁

Some years ago I lost an entire afternoon of sight seeing in Prague due to a thunderstorm. It was a miserable loss of time on a short vacation schedule. Then I heard singing coming from a basement bar. I went down and found about a dozen servicemen, I have no idea why they were there, but they sang and drank and sang and drank, and invited me to join ...... 3 or 4 hours later i realized it was a damn good thunderstorm.

Most of the folks on this forum give advice based on travel experience which is helpful.

I wish those who have never visited but have done "research" for a future trip would leave the advice giving to those who have actually experienced a place and not just looked it up online.

Frank II worse
One guy reads a 20 year old internet article that says the taxi's are dangerous. And he posts it as fact.
20 people read it and 6 months later post what they read as fact.
Each of those 20 posts are read 20 times and six months later 400 people repost it as fact
REPEAT ...... Now it is fact, true or not, it is fact because 16,000 people who have never been in a taxi say it is so.

I wish those who have never visited but have done "research" for a future trip would leave the advice giving to those who have actually experienced a place and not just looked it up online.

Well, I will say I've done that occasionally. Not really give advice but I will sometimes steer them somewhere if they are not getting a response here. Someone posted something about a small town in France (I have not been there) and asked if there were tours starting from the town. After several days, no one had responded so I looked it up, found the town's website and a list of all the tours that were offered and responded with a link.

But I don't give advice if I haven't been there. :) And I guess this is not really analogous to what you were saying, Frank, so in the words of Roseanne Roseannadanna, "Never Mind!"

Mister E...sometimes folklore becomes fact to the point it is taught in our schools:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/paul-reveres-ride-legends-myths-and-realities

Frank II, excellent Thank you.

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/paul-reveres-ride-legends-myths-and-realities

OK, so that's not the same guy who founded and played organ for Paul Revere and the Raiders ... interesting.

I think that was his third cousin once removed.

@bostonphil7...

ugly is in the eye of the beholder. Do ugly people make better YouTube
travel videos.?

Eh... bit of a joke. Granted, a subtle one. Perhaps so subtle it's not funny. Influencers tend to be physically beautiful people. Like the Tik Toker in the article. The joke is that a physically less attractive person is less likely to be an influencer. More likely to create genuinely helpful content. It's a gross over-generalization, I realize. And "ugly" is a bit of hyperbole. Perhaps even thrown in for a little shock value. To try to get a laugh. You didn't laugh. I'm sad ☹️.

Dave

I did think that it was tongue in cheek but I am not someone who laughs very easily However, I liked your sense of humor.

Not all creators of youtube videos are beautiful people.

I do think Covid restrictions that generated booking systems for sights allowed organizations to see that there are some benefits to having such a system and thus they are keeping them in place. My recent visit to Paris allowed for bookings at museums that are not at all in the top 10 for popularity. While pre bookings weren’t required, we were able to buy tickets at the door although in 1 instance, we were the last 2 to enter in that time slot and the museum was not particularly crowded.

Pam I agree with some of your comments about travel groups on Facebook. For one that I participate with, I have tried to encourage folks to get a guide book, instead of relying on responses on the FB page, because the vast majority all decide to go to the same 4-5 ‘must see’ sights. And then they wonder why these sights are so crowded:)

These days you are uncool if you don't follow one or more influencers, so I need to pick one. Why? It's hard to think for oneself. Let someone else do it.

How about the Kardashians?

I talked to a late teen a few years ago and asked him (in a more dignified way) what he wanted to be when he grew up.

He replied, "Do you know what an influencer is?"

I always cringe when people listen to me.

I'm not sure if it's fair to divide people into categories of travellers vs tourist. Am I a tourist because I went to Pompeii, or am I a traveller because I spent about 12 hours over 2 days there instead of a quick 2-hour check-it-off-my-list tour?

Puddles Pity Party is my influencer. :)