No More 'Broadening Minds"?

 Tourism’s Decline is Coming

I’ve been out of the U.S. 49 times. I’ve visited all but one state. I’ve driven 6,000 miles on one trip in North America and hit 1,000+ miles in one day on 2 other trips.  I’ve traveled to a good number of countries in the world, every continent but one, seeing Canada, Mexico and Europe the most. I’m a dual citizen and was born in Europe, so I think like a ‘citizen of the world.’  It’s a cliché but there it is.  It also relates to politics.   What I see is tourism won’t be continuing in the future like it has in the past.   The latest, of course, is the tourist boycott of the U.S. because of Trump's vicious nationalist bullying.

In 10/2024 51% of U.S. citizens had passports, which means 49% have never been out of the country or want to go.  This is probably a major chunk of the working-class.  Some people have not been out of their state or even zip code.  Insularity and parochialism are common, but there has been an increase in passport applications each year, mostly coming from young people.  These figures show that for many the U.S. lives on a psychic island, not just a physical continent or a political anomaly.  It is reflected in politics 9 times over.    

Over-tourism is one reason fewer will be traveling.  Sites like Barcelona, Venice, Machu Picchu and Dubrovnik are putting limitations on short-term rentals like AirBnB, cruise ships, visitors and more.  Tourists have been pushing out working-class locals who live in these towns, as gentrification by cash takes their housing.  The doors are beginning to close or narrow.  Additionally, some tourists don’t like crowds either, and are avoiding certain places or not going at all.

Global warming is another.  Fires, smoke and heat waves, typhoons and hurricanes, wind, dust storms and tornadoes, floods, snows and heavy rains - all block roads, shut down transport including airports and ships, damage towns, crush nature and cause travel chaos.  Some damage, like from Acapulco's two hurricanes, never gets fixed. And then there is the issue of fuel.

Pandemics are a third.  We’ve seen what CoVid did to travel.  Given we live in ‘Pangea’ – a virtual continent that covers most of the world – isolation now is almost impossible.  CoVid won’t be the last epidemic.

War is a fourth.  No one travels to a war zone or to a failed state.  These are increasing and unless you are a journalist, work there, live there or are a thrill seeker, you are not going. 

Civil strife is fifth.  The class struggle is heightening in many countries in the world, so strikes, demonstrations, occupations, guerilla actions and more will continue and grow.  These interrupt the ‘free’ flow of tourism.  At present, for instance, there is a travel advisory for certain roads in Peru due to protests.  Last year the whole country was a 'warning zone' as campesinos, workers and the indigenous protested against the reactionary government.

Poverty is another.  Civil strife is caused by exploitation, poverty and inequality, with the ‘palliative’ of dictatorships of various kinds only increasing the turmoil.  Additionally, travel is more expensive as time goes on.  Add crime to this and voilá.  Tourists become targets as they are seen as rich and foreign, from pick pockets to gouging to kidnapping.

Airports are near the last.  Airports are the crowded, stressed, controlled bus stations of the present age.  Add possible problems in the air – technical, staffing, maintenance, air traffic control, security – and you might have fewer people wanting to even go near one.

Driving is the end.  Traffic jams, accidents, construction, trucks, huge cities and volume all dissuade people from getting in their cars.  Then add weather. 

Humans have always traveled.  Now budget jumbo-jets and huge cruise ships bring thousands to places that are barely able to handle the influx.  Even certain little villages in the Cotswold’s get flooded with selfie-snapping hordes brought by buses.  Tourist dollars, yuan, euros, pounds, rupees or dinars create tourist economies, jobs and structures, plus plenty of over-drinking and eating.  These economies will begin to dry up unless they are oriented to the very wealthy.  Tourism will become a grosser mirror image of the inequality that stretches across the world.

Prior blogspot reviews on this issue, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 19 year archive, using these terms:  "Mark Twain," 'travel,' 'traveling.'    

Kultur Kommissar / March 30, 2025