The Tourism Alert and Action Forum has released a critical statement focused on World Tourism Day 2018. Read this extract and comment on it.
TOURISM AND DIGITAL DYSTOPIAS THIS WORLD TOURISM DAY
World Tourism Day arrives annually on September 27th. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) seizes the moment to tout tourism as the solution to poverty, the pathway to development and the tool to empower communities. This flies in the face of the evidence from the grassroots that we of the Tourism Alert and Action Forum see every day. This year’s World Tourism Day (WTD) theme is “Tourism and the Digital Transformation”. The UNWTO proclaims:
"We know that a digitally advanced tourism sector can improve entrepreneurship, inclusion, local community empowerment and efficient resource management, amongst other important development objectives. This year’s WTD will help us to further explore the opportunities provided to tourism by technological advances including big data, artificial intelligence and digital platforms."(http://wtd.unwto.org/content/worldtourism-day-2018).
Invoking the public relations terms long favoured by tourism proponents including “sustainable”, “responsible” and “inclusive”, the UNWTO joins the bandwagon praising the arrival of digital technologies in tourism:
"World Tourism Day 2018 is a unique opportunity to raise awareness on the potential contribution of digital technologies to sustainable tourism development, while providing a platform for investment, partnerships and collaboration towards a more responsible and inclusive tourism sector."
This statement is laughable when this WTD would be better invoked with the word on everyone’s lips, “overtourism”. The digital technologies the UNWTO advocates are in part the cause of the overtourism onslaught. For instance, the digital disruptions of Airbnb and Uber are decimating neighbourhoods, making workers precarious and shirking corporate regulations. The social media apps of Instagram and facebook are increasing the almost pathological narcissism of tourists. A case in point is found in Goa, India, which has taken the step of implementing 24 “no-self zones” on its coastline as a response to deaths and casualties of selfie-taking tourists. Destinations are no longer seen as vibrant places with living and struggling communities but instead as photogenic locations holding iconic sites attractive solely for their Instagram capture-ability.
A philosophical point to address is exactly what do the UNWTO’s WTD public relations crew mean by “sustainable tourism development”? The term sustainable is problematic and has been abused for years as a cover for the irresponsibility and unsustainability of tourism. Almost universally, tourism practices have been geared to growth and it is clear that ceaseless growth on a finite planet is not possible. These words could be more accurately rearranged as ceaseless development to sustain tourism.
(Full statement available at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/TourismAlertAndActionForum)
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6 comentarios:
In my view, the most relevant issue mentioned in this statement is overtourism, specially for Barcelona. Because of overtourism prices rise, and this is negative for both tourists and residents.
From my point of view, one of the biggest issues there is nowadays is the need of posting everything we do in social media. People have lost interest in seeing in person what they have travelled for, instead tourists search for a good spot to take a picture and post it so everyone can see it and to be honest things weren’t like this before.
Reading this article makes me think of the huge impact that social media has had, and now is affecting tourism too. It affects us more than it should. We should travel to discover, to live new experiences, to acquire more knowledge. Instead we are more worried about how many likes our picture in las Bahamas has. Technology should be a resource to make tourism better, but real tourism.
Reading this extract we can see how internet and more specifically social media has affected in our lives.
It has had a huge impact on the world of tourism, because if we compare it to the kind tourism we had 100 years ago, we can see that it is completely different. Also, the impact that internet has in our thoughts and decisions is crucial because of the amount of attractive spots of different kinds of holidays.
To my mind, tourism companies should face the new reality in which it is vital to have knowledge about their customers and population.
Technology is the key tool to reduce the state of being mistaken and a big opportunity to personalize our customers travel. I really think that the place where you travel is not the most rellevant, but the experience you live there. To be honest, if I would like travel to see a monument then I preferred to drink milk cafe in Madrid.
It is also necessay to make use of technology on those places where there is a big huge of tourism, because the natural impact must be reduced.
An example of sustainable and personalized tourism that I have seen in Barcelona is touring the city with the guide by bicycle instead of the bus.
Wonderful blog! Are you looking for tourism day theme ideas? We bring you world tourism day celebration ideas, to celebrate this international tourism day virtually with remote colleagues.
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