Tourism and the force of change | Leonardo (Don) A.N. Dioko | TEDxUniversityofMacau
## Speaker Context - Speaker role: Presenter discussing the force of tourism. - Audience: Attendees at an event (implied gathering/conference). - Framing: The force of tourism is massive and affects individuals and communities; the discussion must look at how to interact with this force in a better way. ## People - Barack Obama + former resident of Kyua + location used for example. - Marcel P + French novelist + cited for a quote. ## Organizations - UNWTO (UN World Tourism Organization) + estimated global tourist numbers. ## Places - Venice + city experiencing profound change due to tourism, noted for huge cruise ship docking. - Kyua + small town near Barack Obama's former residence, where people are advocating against tourism. - Barcelona + city where people have expressed antagonism towards tourism; mayor issued an 'away' statement. - Lisbon + location where people formed advocacy groups to oppose tourism. - Siner, Italy + picturesque village/island that closed off to tourists, requiring pre-arranged booking. - Kotachai, Thailand + island near Macau, closed by government authorities due to degradation from tourism. - Macau + hometown/city where streets were not designed for high tourist volume, used as a current case study. - Luang Prabang + village in the Mekong River, described as a Buddhist village with temples, used in illustration of intrusion. - Bali Island + location with a museum in Ubud curating traditional rice paintings, used in example. - Beijing + city noted for a contradiction between being highly visited and its arts struggling (Beijing opera losing audience). - Saba, Malaysia + location where tourists climbed Mount Kinabalu. - Grand Canyon + location where men were observed removing clothes. - Salt flats of Bolivia + location where men were observed removing clothes. ## Tools, Tech & Products - Cruise ships + vessel docking in Venice, disembarking thousands of tourists. - Air ticket + example of booking travel in advance. - Social media + platform identified as destroying the art of getting lost in travel. - Museum in Ubud, Bali Island + curates historic Balines traditional rice paintings on rice paper. ## Concepts & Definitions - Tourism + A massive force affecting individuals and communities. - Serendipity + Being surprised by joy; what makes travel pleasant. - Dispersion + Strategy of diverting tourism away from concentrated "hot beds" of activity. - Preemption + Strategy involving asking "how much tourism is too much," aiming for an optimum balance. - Colonial consumer + described as the mindset of traveling, implying arrogance and entitlement. ## Numbers & Data - 1995 + Year when UNWTO estimated half a billion tourists globally. - Half a billion + Estimated number of tourists worldwide in 1995. - 2015 + Year when 1.2 billion people were estimated to have traveled globally. - 1.2 billion + Estimated number of people who traveled worldwide in 2015. - One in seven / about one in six + Ratio representing how often a person met could come from another place. - Considerable + Adjective describing the cost of air conditioning needed for preserving Balines paintings. ## Claims & Theses - The force of tourism is affecting us in an individual sense and in also a bigger sense as much as the sense of our community. - Our heritage sites and visitor attractions are all buckling under the weight of this massive force called tourism. - Macau seems to have lost the charm that actually draws tourists to Macau to visit. - The personal space of Buddhist monks practicing long traditions is very much disappearing or under threat due to tourism intrusion. - Tourism can also be a force for good. - Lowcost carriers have allowed us to travel far more than to understand the places that we travel to. - Social media has destroyed serendipity in our travel experience. - We need to find that optimum balance [of tourism] not having too few tourists but not having too much either. - We can make tourism a force for construction instead of being a harmful force. - Travel is freedom with responsibility. - We should regard the places that we visit with a lot of dignity and with a lot of civility and with a lot of courtesy and respect. ## Mechanisms & Processes - Tourist influx (Venice): Huge cruise ships dock, disembarking thousands of tourists daily, causing profound change in city life. - Macau's struggle: Streets, designed historically, are hard to get through when inundated with thousands of visitors. - Process for Macau: Asking questions regarding quality of life, pollution, income, and job stress to find optimum visitor numbers. - Ideal visitor engagement: Engaging with locals, speaking to them, and treating them with respect or courtesy and politeness. - Correct visitor behavior: Supporting local goods and products by going to small and small businesses and street stores, rather than large malls or shopping centers. ## Timeline & Events - 1995 + UNWTO estimated half a billion tourists. - 2015 + 1.2 billion people estimated to have traveled around the world. ## Examples & Cases - Venice + A very historic city where now there are more visitors on a particular day than residents, due to huge cruise ships. - Barcelona + People expressing very obvious antagonism towards tourists; the mayor said "go away we don't want any more tourists." - Siner, Italy + An island that closed off to any more tourists, requiring pre-arranged booking. - Kotachai, Thailand + Island near Macau, closed by government authorities because it degraded from tourism. - Luang Prabang + Buddhist village in the Mekong River where tour buses disembarking tourists deliver tourists right in front of monks collecting alms. - Museum in Ubud, Bali Island + Curates traditional rice paintings, needs air conditioning cost covered by visitors but receives little visitation. - Beijing opera + Losing its audiences to the point where it cannot fund its apprenticeship program. - Fishing folks in a small village + Switched from slaughtering whale sharks for meat to earning more by bringing visitors closer to enjoy the ocean. - Two drunken tourists in Barcelona + Went about visiting in their birthday clothes, causing visible reaction from residents. - Group of tourists in Saba, Malaysia + Climbed Mount Kinabalu and removed their clothes upon reaching the summit. - Men in the Grand Canyon and Salt flats of Bolivia + Observed removing their clothes in a public place. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - Trade-off in Macau: The charm drawing tourists vs. the inability to maintain it when inundated. - Trade-off in preservation (Bali): Needing AC for paintings vs. the museum hardly getting any visitation. - Alternative economic model (Fishing): Slaughtering fish for meat (old way) vs. earning more by allowing controlled tourist viewing (new way). - Trade-off in travel ethos: Traveling merely to tick off a list (social media dictated) vs. the art of getting lost. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - It is not just heritage sites or visitor attractions, but also our cities and our community that are affected by tourism. - The negative experience can be mitigated by keeping a sort of certain kind of buffer zone between guests and hosts. - Before concluding tourism is harmful, many places need tourism (e.g., the museum in Ubud). - The low-cost carriers make us travel before we understand. - We are not always bad visitors; many places desperately need tourism. ## Methodology - Observation and documentation of community reactions (e.g., protests in Venice, advocating against tourism in Kyua). - Research/Researching relationship: Conducting research at the center where the speaker works to find a relationship between number of tourists and quality of life in Macau. ## References Cited - The New York Times + Identified a trend of "a revolt against tourism" occurring globally a couple of years ago. - 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." ## Conclusions & Recommendations - We should find out what makes tourism negative/repulsive instead of attractive. - We must find the optimal balance of tourism (preemption strategy). - We need marketing and promotion of destinations that says "don't visit now, it's best to visit on some other time." - We should make tourism a force for construction, not destruction, by changing our behavior. - Visitors must understand that we are part and parcel of the tourism force; our behavior (how we travel, when we travel, and where we travel) affects the destination. - If you aren't ready to eat the food of different cultures, maybe you're not ready to travel at all. - We should support local goods and products by going to small and small businesses and street stores. - We should regard the places that we visit with a lot of dignity and with a lot of civility and with a lot of courtesy and respect. ## Implications & Consequences - If tourism continues unchecked: Local shops change to serve visitors instead of residents; residents can lose housing. - If lowcost travel continues: People experience touristic experiences before learning anything about the place. - If social media dominates travel planning: The art of getting lost, which is part of the travel experience, is destroyed. - If Macau fails to manage visitor numbers: The city's charm may be lost. - If visitors fail to act responsibly: It leads to disrespected behavior (e.g., removing clothes in public places). ## Open Questions - How do we tame this force of tourism? ## Verbatim Moments - "We're back in business." - "It's 1 in seven or about one in six roughly." - "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." - "We are travelling at a time before we even understand the places that we visit." - "Travel is not really freedom. Travel is freedom with responsibility." - "We do not really need to see new landscapes. We need to see with new eyes."