Too many people in the same place at the same time. Infrastructure that harms local communities. Animals and children exploited for selfies. The Last Tourist dissects mass tourism in its worst ways. This confronting documentary also offers ways to travel in a more ecological and equitable way.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
The desire to travel is deeply inscribed in us: the human being learns by accumulating experiences and in contact with others, recalls the documentary The Last Tourist, featured on Crave beginning Sunday. Hence the expeditions carried out by our ancestors and this desire that we still have to go and see in person these places and these cultures that we only know through images.
And at the beginning of XXIe century, more than 1 billion international flights carry travelers every year to the most remote corners of the planet. “Somewhere along the way, you become a tourist. We become a person disconnected from the very place we are going to visit”, remarks however The Last Tourist.
The tourism industry is an important economic driver: 80% of countries place tourism among their top five sources of income, according to the documentary. About 90 million people visit France every year – especially Paris – even though the country has just under 70 million inhabitants. Another example: there are 4.3 million annual visitors to Jamaica (mainly cruise passengers) for a population of less than 3 million people.
Public nuisance
You can go almost anywhere nowadays, but once there, people all visit the same places (Machu Picchu in Peru, Saint Mark’s Square in Venice), practice the same activities (safaris in Tanzania, meeting with Maasai in Kenya) and extend over the same beaches in Rio or on the Costa Del Sol. In short, there are often too many people in one place.
There are also too many of us who do not question the impact of our actions. Lounging for a week on a beach in Mexico is relaxing.
We easily forget that we consume more water there than a local resident and that, behind the scenes, wages are often meager, profits often go abroad and local communities do not get much out of it. thing. And it’s like that everywhere in less developed countries, from the Caribbean to Asia, argues the documentary.
The journey, says The Last Tourist, has become perverted: we no longer go out to meet the other, we move around hoping to find elsewhere the same comfort, the same conveniences and the same food as at home. With sometimes incredible entertainment, such as go-karting on a boat in the open sea…
There is worse: the exploitation of animals in Asia, and even that of children.
In some African and Asian countries, the orphanages where foreign tourists go to volunteer during their holidays are real businesses where families struggling to make ends meet place their children. Who will experience repeated emotional trauma there.
Nope, The Last Tourist is not tender in its way of presenting the human cost of mass tourism.
Learn to travel again
Its great quality, in addition to its real empathy towards local communities, is that it offers possible solutions. Tourism is here for good. However, it can be transformed, argue several stakeholders interviewed in the documentary, including anthropologist Jane Goodall. It’s about small gestures: traveling with a reusable bottle or cup, for example, but above all taking the time to get informed.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
A tourist experience with a local community, in South America. Scene from The Last Tourist.
Who benefits from this expedition to meet a community living on Lake Titicaca? Is there a way to practice real solidarity tourism, if you want to get to know another culture? Which places are the most appropriate to be in contact with elephants in Asia: a sanctuary or one of those places where they are given a show?
One of the solutions, suggests the documentary, is to learn to vote with our wallet.
Tipping employees generously, buying from local markets rather than shops recommended by a cruise line or travel agency (which often collect a percentage of sales), choosing local businesses over large chains, learning about tourism initiatives that directly support the communities visited.
Travel can be a great tool for redistributing wealth. With a little more critical thinking and preparation, the documentary argues, it could nurture the human experience…and entire families.
The Last Tourist will be available on Crave this Sunday.