… The World Needs Less Tourists and More True Culture Lovers…

… The World Needs Less Tourists and More True Culture Lovers…

As this world becomes more interconnected and distances are narrowed more people are becoming aware of the diversity of this planet. This is not only a reality for developed countries or urban cities, but the entire world is a now under the effect of media and technology that bridges distances and supplies massive information in no time. As we bump into each other more frequently and at a faster rate, it is to no surprise that diversity is no longer something that we can avoid and certainly acknowledging and dealing with cultural differences are only the basic requirements to live a somewhat fulfilled life. While it takes much more than just tolerating cultural differences to fully experience our human potential, this phenomena has also created a false perspective in celebrating cultural diversity: it has created ‘Disney-Tourists.’

Certain attractions of places may be the center of attention that draws us to visit them or be interested in that specific culture, but this deteriorates our experience of the other. The practicing of this ancient tradition often referred as tourism is not only deteriorating cultural richness but it undermines our cultural endeavors altogether. Once again the reality of a fast and interconnected world through technology has shaped our cultural experiences to be merely data to be interchanged, in which, only certain objects or main attractions deserve our attention.

The building of stereotypes is made this way. If you get a glance or a shot of a different culture, the automatic response would be to be impacted by what is different from your own. However, with time, one picks up on the similarities. The problem here is the most people are not willing to put in the time to really get to experience the similarities within cultures giving that our sense of immersion in another cultural revolves around the desired to be perplexed by the newness of the experience.

While it is true that the world is making distances shorter and information a lot more accessible, it is also creating culture and altogether human experiences superficial. The need to appreciate our similarities and celebrate our differences arises from an experience that truly affects us as individuals and not from a data-based description of what culture is like.

What does the world need? The world needs less tourists and more true culture lovers. The world need people who are willing to disengage from the picture-taking and the crave for transitory newness. The world needs people who are willing to immerge in a culture not for a week or a couple of months on a giving vacation, but for some years, people who are willing to engage and sustain in other people’s customs and traditions. Unfortunately, the world tells otherwise, it points out for us what ‘should’ experience. Technology has made of culture, a data-transition. It is to no use that we have shorter distances if we are not truly experiencing the other.