Traveling is a privilege.
Posted at 7:30 p.m.
That’s always true, but maybe even more so these days. If you’ve started planning your vacation, like me, you’re possibly discouraged by the price of gas, car rentals, accommodation… It’s a pain, a pandemic tourism recovery in full inflation.
Privilege problem, I am aware of it. Far too many Quebecers cannot afford the luxury of an excursion… But I must admit that despite my enviable situation, I realized that with such costs, I would have to review my relationship with tourism.
Either travel less or travel differently.
Big mandate, in a society that values the thing enormously!
It’s well seen to take a walk in the West… In fact, travel is a form of statutory consumption, explained to me Dominic Lapointe, head of the Tourism, Territory and Society Research and Intervention Group (GRITTS).
That is to say, it testifies to our status in society.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Dominic Lapointe, Head of GRITTS
“If someone visits the Maldives, they are sure to put photos of their hotel in a lagoon on Instagram, he continues… But these islands will disappear with climate change. We’re stuck in all this, what do we do next? »
Because in addition to the financial issues, there is the climate crisis and the power relationship between tourists and citizens to take into account… But the idea is not to stop walking. The journey has a role to play in our identity, our encounter with the Other, our learning, even our mental health.
Among the factors that encourage us to escape is the desire to break with our daily lives, explained to me Isabelle Falardeau, professor in the department of leisure, culture and tourism studies at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières ( UQTR).
PHOTO JOSÉE BEAULIEU, PROVIDED BY ISABELLE FALARDEAU
Isabelle Falardeau, professor in the Department of Leisure, Culture and Tourism Studies at UQTR
“Our daily life is a bit alienating! It comes with pressure and constraints… The all-inclusive model is made to respond to this desire we have to break the routine and live with ease. […] We contribute to our well-being through our tourism practices. That’s why our decisions are not purely based on the exchange rate or inflation! »
So, rather than stop travelling, we adapt, explains the researcher. To save money, some go less far. Others prefer not to go to restaurants or visit relatives to avoid accommodation costs.
Some even opt for conspicuous non-consumption, Isabelle Falardeau tells me. It is a movement that encourages tourists to consume less: to travel less; or spend less (which can be problematic when you are in a disadvantaged country, since you do not support its inhabitants); or choose destinations with a social vocation, such as the Monastère des Augustines, in Québec.
“There are also family camps,” she continues. A form of all-inclusive with pricing based on income, like the Saint-Urbain family camp. »
A great resource for making travel more accessible, indeed. And that’s important, because they are an opportunity to grow. For many, travel is even a right. (Let us thank the labor movements which have allowed workers to have access to paid holidays…)
It remains that our thirst for movement has negative repercussions on the environment and many communities. How to adopt healthier practices?
A glimmer of hope may lie in Quebec’s new tourism policy, which tends to make us leaders in sustainable tourism.
“We say for example: ‘Dear tourists, we want to see you again, but why not travel less often and longer?’, summarizes Isabelle Falardeau. It’s an interesting strategy! We will avoid travel, allow travelers to have more time to meet others, and then see them spend more in the same community. »
However, it is necessary to avoid that all the responsibilities of sustainable tourism rest on the shoulders of the travellers… Traveling for a long time, reimbursing the carbon emissions of a plane flight or staying in an ecological hotel, that requires means.
“And who are we to judge someone who needs an all-inclusive or wants to see the Eiffel Tower? asks Isabelle Falardeau.
Nobody.
The state has a whole role to play, therefore. It could, for example, invite us to find the elsewhere near us, according to Dominic Lapointe.
Local tourism is already important in Quebec, but we can do better, according to him. We could start by emphasizing our particular ways of living according to space.
“We must stop occupying our territories and start inhabiting them. Tadoussac, which empties in winter, is not living in the territory… It is occupying it. »
Betting on regional specificities all year round, that could make us want to get away from it all at home.
(Parenthesis: in this thirst for authenticity, the Tourist Office of the city of Dunkirk, in France, invites all visitors to live a “typical northern adventure” by ” [faisant] a chip shop”… In short, it’s about ordering a chip to take away from a pataterie. My kind of successful vacation, it’s true.)
“For me, changing our relationship to travel means changing the window,” continues Dominic Lapointe. We put the traveler at the center of the development of tourism. We must now bring tourism back to the needs of the communities. »
And how do we do that?
“I will quote Emma Lee, an indigenous researcher from Tasmania who reminds us that in the right to tourism, there is the right to non-tourism. Without putting a lock on certain villages of Gaspésie, the idea is: how to use tourism to meet local needs? »
He throws me an idea: what if we created models, in the regions, where we used part of the profits made through tourist accommodation to build and maintain rental units at affordable prices for residents?
There is a new world to design.
And, at the very least, some good leads on the drawing board.