Tourism and the force of change | Leonardo (Don) A.N. Dioko | TEDxUniversityofMacau
The presenter argues that tourism, a massive global force, is eroding cultural sites and local communities due to visitor over-saturation and irresponsible behavior. To mitigate this, travel must shift from a mindset of colonial entitlement to one characterized by responsibility, respect, and a desire to see with "new eyes." The ideal model requires finding an optimum visitor balance (preemption) and supporting local economies rather than mass consumerism. ## Speakers & Context - Presenter discussing the force of tourism's impact on individuals and communities. - Audience is attending an event where the speaker is invited to discuss this force. ## Theses & Positions - The force of tourism is a massive force affecting life on both an individual and community level. - Over-visitation is causing heritage sites, visitor attractions, and entire cities/communities to buckle under the weight of tourism. - The core challenge is moving beyond treating travel as a right earned by the visitor and adopting a mindset of responsibility. - Tourism can be made a beneficial, constructive force, but this requires fundamental changes in visitor behavior. - *“Travel is not really freedom. Travel is freedom with responsibility.”* - Visitors should regard places with dignity, civility, courtesy, and respect. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Tourism:** A massive force affecting individuals and communities. - **Serendipity:** Being surprised by joy; the pleasant element of travel. - **Dispersion:** Strategy of diverting tourism away from concentrated "hot beds" of activity. - **Preemption:** Strategy involving asking *“how much tourism is too much,”* aimed at achieving optimum visitor balance. - **Colonial consumer:** Mindset of traveling implying arrogance and entitlement. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Impact on City Life (Venice):** Huge cruise ships dock, disembarking thousands of tourists daily, causing profound change in local shops from serving residents to serving visitors. - **Macau's struggle:** Historically designed narrow, charming cobblestone streets are difficult to navigate when inundated with thousands of visitors. - **Optimization Research (Macau):** Process involves researching the relationship between the number of tourists and the local quality of life by asking questions about pollution, income, and job stress to find an optimum number. - **Economic Shift (Fishing):** Local fishermen switched from slaughtering whale sharks for meat to earning more by allowing controlled tourist viewing of the ocean. - **Improved Engagement:** Ideal visitor engagement involves interacting with locals, showing respect, courtesy, and politeness, and supporting small, local goods and street stores. ## Timeline & Sequence - **1995:** UNWTO estimated half a billion tourists globally. - **2015:** Estimated that 1.2 billion people traveled worldwide. - **Present:** Discussing the need for immediate behavioral change to address current saturation levels. ## Named Entities - **Kyua:** Small town near Barack Obama's former residence where local people are advocating against tourism. - **Barcelona:** City where residents have expressed antagonism toward tourism; its mayor advised people to *“go away we don't want any more tourists.”* - **Lisbon:** Location where residents have formed advocacy groups opposing overwhelming tourism. - **Siner, Italy:** Picturesque island that has closed to further tourism, requiring pre-arranged booking. - **Kotachai, Thailand:** Island near Macau that was closed by government authorities due to degradation from tourism. - **Macau:** Hometown/city whose streets were never designed for the high volume of tourists now visiting. - **Luang Prabang:** Buddhist village in the Mekong River, illustrating intrusion as tour buses drop tourists directly in front of monks collecting alms. - **Museum in Ubud, Bali Island:** Curates traditional Balinese rice paintings on rice paper; preservation requires considerable air conditioning costs, but the museum struggles with visitation. - **Beijing opera:** Losing its audiences, preventing it from funding its apprenticeship program. - **Barack Obama:** Former resident of Kyua. ## Numbers & Data - **1995:** UNWTO estimated **half a billion** tourists globally. - **2015:** Estimated **1.2 billion** people traveled worldwide. - **Ratio:** Travel frequency is equivalent to **one in seven or about one in six** people encountered coming from another place. ## Examples & Cases - **Venice:** Historic city now has more daily visitors than residents due to huge cruise ship docking. - **Barcelona/Saba/Grand Canyon/Salt flats of Bolivia:** Instances of visibly inappropriate behavior (e.g., drunken tourists in birthday clothes; men removing clothes after summiting Mt. Kinabalu or visiting salt flats). - **Low-Cost Carriers:** Allowed people to travel much more frequently than to truly understand the places visited. - **Bali's Paintings:** The need for considerable air conditioning to preserve rice paintings is not matched by sufficient local visitation, despite the island receiving thousands of visitors. ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Cruise ships:** Vessels docking in Venice, disembarking thousands of tourists. - **Social media:** Identified as destroying the art of getting lost during travel. ## References Cited - **UNWTO (UN World Tourism Organization):** Organization that estimated tourism numbers in 1995. - **Marcel P:** French novelist, cited for the quote: *"in order to have a real voyage of discovery, you do not really need to see new landscape. All you need is to see with new eyes."* - **The New York Times:** Identified a global trend described as *"a revolt against tourism"* occurring a couple of years prior to the talk. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - **Trade-off in Travel Ethos:** Traveling merely to tick off a list (social media-dictated) versus engaging in the "art of getting lost." - **Economic Alternative (Fishing):** Shifting from immediate consumption (slaughtering whale sharks for meat) to controlled, respectful viewing to generate income. - **Visitor Behavior:** The alternative to colonial consumerism is treating places with dignity, civility, courtesy, and respect. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The assertion that tourism is purely harmful is flawed, as many communities, like the museum in Ubud, desperately need the revenue from tourism to survive. - The initial premise that negative visitation proves the need for tourism is questionable, as the problem lies in behavior, not merely the presence of visitors. - The negative impact is often driven by the low-cost travel industry enabling superficial travel before understanding. ## Methodology - **Observation/Documentation:** Documenting community reactions, such as protests in Venice and advocacy groups in Lisbon. - **Research:** Conducting research (as done in Macau) to find measurable relationships between visitor numbers and quality of life indices. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - Implement policies that achieve the **optimum balance** of tourism (preemption strategy). - Marketing must evolve to suggest timing restrictions (e.g., *"don't visit now, it's best to visit on some other time"*). - Visitors must commit to supporting local goods and products from small businesses/street stores rather than large malls. - Travel requires internal maturation and responsibility, ensuring visitors are prepared to experience cultures beyond mere consumption. ## Implications & Consequences - Unchecked tourism leads to the erosion of local culture, loss of housing for residents, and commodification of civic life. - If the pattern continues, the authentic charm of places like Macau could be permanently lost. - The prevalence of low-cost travel encourages experiences before genuine learning or understanding of the destination. ## Open Questions - How to tame the force of tourism to balance economic necessity with cultural preservation? ## Verbatim Moments - *"We're back in business."* - *"We live amongst visitors, that we live amongst strangers, that one out of seven of every person that we meet actually come from another place."* - *"It's great seeing you, but I don't want to sleep with you."* (Translation of a Chinese phrase conveying boundary setting) - *"We do not really need to see new landscapes. We need to see with new eyes."* - *"Travel is not really freedom. Travel is freedom with responsibility."* - *"If you aren't ready to eat the food of different cultures, maybe you're not ready to travel at all."*