The Tourist Trade Contributes
Absolutely Nothing to Increasing Understanding
Between Nations
The tourist trade is booming. With all
this coming and going, you'd expect greater
understanding to develop between the nations
of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems
of communication by air, sea and land make
it possible for us to visit each other's
countries at a moderate cost. What was once
the 'grand tour', reserved for only the
very rich, is now within everybody's grasp.
The package tour and chartered flights are
not to be sneered at. Modern travelers enjoy
a level of comfort which the lords and ladies
on grand tours in the old days couldn't
have dreamed of. But what's the sense of
this mass exchange of populations if the
nations of the world remain basically ignorant
of each other?
Many tourist organizations are directly
responsible for this state of affairs. They
deliberately set out to protect their clients
from too much contact with the local population.
The modern tourist leads a cosseted,
sheltered life. He lives at international
hotels, where he eats his international
food and sips his international drink while
he gazes at the natives from a distance.
Conducted tours to places of interest are
carefully censored.
The tourist is allowed to see only what
the organizers want him to see and no more.
A strict schedule makes it impossible for
the tourist to wander off on his own; and
anyway, language is always a barrier, so
he is only too happy to be protected in
this way. At its very worst, this leads
to a new and hideous kind of colonization.
The summer quarters of the inhabitants of
the cité universitaire: are temporarily
re-established on the island of Corfu. Blackpool
is recreated at Torremolinos where the traveler
goes not to eat paella,
but fish and chips.
The sad thing about this situation is that
it leads to the persistence of national
stereotypes. We don't see the people of
other nations as they really are, but as
we have been brought up to believe they
are. You can test this for yourself. Take
five nationalities, say, French, German,
English, American and Italian. Now in your
mind, match them with these five adjectives:
musical, amorous,
cold, pedantic,
na?ve. Far from providing us with any insight
into the national characteristics of the
peoples just mentioned, these adjectives
actually act as barriers. So when you set
out on your travels, the only characteristics
you notice are those which confirm your
preconceptions. You come away with the highly
unoriginal and inaccurate impression that,
say, 'Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites'
or that 'Latin peoples shout a lot'. You
only have to make a few foreign friends
to understand how absurd and harmful national
stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign
friends when the tourist trade does its
best to prevent you?
Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can
be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations
stir up racial hatred and blind us to the
basic fact--how trite
it sounds! - that all people are human.
We are all similar to each other and at
the same time all unique.
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