Travel is more than just visiting places
End of April edition
Hi friends,
Here we are at the end of April! I want to apologize for the weird formatting in my last newsletter. I am not sure what happened but it looked wonky and I didn’t notice that until after publication. Published is better than perfect though and I let it go.
But summer is just around the corner and that means a lot of people are planning or have already planned their summer travel, have you? I have a weekend trip planned, to participate in a surf trip in Tofino, BC that I attended last year, but nothing else yet. I have fall travel to go to two weddings, in October, and since they’re both in the US I’ll spend the week between them in the US since I can visit family and friends and I work remotely.
I guess that my point is that working in the tourism industry and planning trips for others has changed my planning style. Whereas I used to plan something months in advance, or almost a year for some trips like when I climbed Kilimanjaro and went to Tanzania, Kenya, and Zanzibar with two friends. I now might have something in mind but do very little planning until a few months before. What is your planning style? Do you plan for months? Buy last minute? Somewhere in between?
Before I jump into articles and links, I wanted to share the results from the last poll, when I asked about around-the-world cruises. None of you. are into that! No surprises there, I think it takes a certain type of person not to mention a lot of money that could be spent on many more trips plus other things. But some of you were into the idea of the month-long, all-inclusive cruise. I think I would be too. I would not do a month by myself, that is too long.
Jumping into articles now…Afar has a lot I want to comment on this time1
ChatGPT to plan trips
I am not into this at all. “This” is using AI as a concierge for anything that needs a human touch. Or for art or music, or whatever else it is being used for that I don’t know about yet. If you don’t know how it is controversial right now in the music industry, click here. Both The Daily and Today Explained had recent episodes about it and I recommend listening to either of them for more insight.
I shared an article about someone using ChatGPT to plan a trip last time, and I’ve shared one again because it raises other points other than the advice that can be pretty generic. Namely, it mentions that “As a nonhuman entity, ChatGPT doesn’t necessarily take sustainability or larger ethical travel issues into consideration. So, for example, says Borko, “It could make overtourism worse by concentrating tourists rather than dispersing them.”
Ick, no. What could ChatGPT be good for in the tourism realm? I think as an interactive informational tool in places like historic sites, informational centers, parks, points of entry, etc. I could see it being really interesting if you were touring a national park and wanted to ask questions but didn’t have a tour guide. HOWEVER, again, this takes away a person’s job and I’d rather ask a human questions. I don’t want the machines taking over.
What are your thoughts? Do you see value in ChatGPT for anything? I want to believe it can be useful but so far I am not that convinced. I don’t want a robot (sorry but that is what I am calling it!) writing music or planning my vacations or creating art. Robots don’t have souls or opinions. They can perform surgery or do mathematical calculations but stay out of the arts.
Back to summer travel planning
I did not fly anywhere last summer. I had a new job after 2.5 years of unemployment and graduate school and I was broke! But I know, because of my job, that flying was not a picnic last summer. Mostly, luggage was lost and delays and cancellations were numerous. Apparently, this summer isn’t going to be better? Yikes! Last summer seemed to turn a lot of people off from EVER checking their bags on a flight again. I’d like to report that I flew to Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and the US in the last 6 months and did not have a single bag mishap. Have some faith and say a mantra to the travel gods.
Antarctica tourism
Once upon a time, I wanted to visit the White Continent. My opinion has changed in the last few years and this article convinces me I don’t need to go. It is still enticing, but I’m a bit turned off by the thought of the environmental impact. And that is all I am going to say. Travelling anywhere has an environmental impact but Antarctica deserves extra special care. I also don’t like boats that much and crossing the Drake Passage is something I am not wild about doing. I’ve read Endurance, a great book that you should read if you have not!
Nature-based tourism
I am taking my definition of this straight from an organization’s website for the clearest and most concise definition. My source is Youth4Nature and you can read about their work here.
“Nature-based tourism (NBT) is defined as the number of outdoor activities performed by tourists in the natural environment. NBT activities represent high level adventure activities like jet boating, skydiving and mountain climbing as well as more relaxing activities like bush walking, wildlife and scenic tours and boat cruises (aucklandcouncil, August, 2009)1. It is the most known type of tourism which every country has (researchgate, March, 2019)2”
So, on that topic, this month’s tourism issue and article deals with the environmental impact of tourism and is titled “Memorable tourism experiences and critical outcomes among nature-based visitors: a fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis approach.” In the introduction, the researchers mention one of tourism’s, especially nature-based tourism, big problems: how to simultaneously attract visitors and promote a destination while also not destroying the environment, biodiversity, etc. They almost seem like two opposing efforts.
The researchers in this study analyzed a protected tourist area where turtles live on the island of Cyprus and surveyed tourists about behaviours, intentions, and questions that related to place attachment. They acknowledge that it is a limited view since it is one destination. They did select an environmentally sensitive area, animal, and popular tourist destination. I will not bore you with the details of their methodology and charts/tables. The link is there if you want to deep dive and my aim is to keep this academic-light and not put you to sleep - moving on.
The researchers also emphasize that nature-based tourism has grown in popularity because of its benefits and practicality. It is practical because it protects the local environment for residents (plant, animal, and human) and tourists, and creates jobs (guides, maintenance, etc.). The researchers in this article do an excellent job of setting up their question and explaining place attachment theory and how the tourist experience is related to the emotional connection to a destination. They reference other studies that show an emotional connection to a destination can affect a tourist’s behaviour. Simply, if you feel connected to a place you visit, you’ll want to care for it. They elaborate so well that I am just going to plop a paragraph in here again
Additionally, the relationship between individuals’ place attachment and their environmental behavioural intentions has been thoroughly documented (Buta et al., Citation2014; Qu et al., Citation2019). Lee et al. (Citation2015) found a linear structural relationship between recreation experiences and tourists’ environmentally friendly behaviour in Taiwan. People’s interactions in natural environments and their recreational experiences significantly contribute to the development of human–nature bonds (Buta et al., Citation2014).
After the study and results were collected, the researchers summarized that as “tourists become more aware of the impact of their travel, the meaningfulness of their visit to the destination increases.” (Akhshik, Rezepouraghdam, & Ozturn, 2022). They make recommendations for tourism managers and destination managers to appeal to the emotional connections of tourists in order to get them to care about the destination, thus educating and guiding tourists to behave in a way that aligns with a destination’s sustainability goals. The researchers specifically mention as an example that tour guides at the turtle sanctuary in this study might remind tourists of how they witness baby turtles hatching or the mothers laying the eggs.
Finally, the researchers write that intentions do not always result in behaviours that are put into practice and follow-up research would follow tourists and their intentions and behaviours on future trips to new places as well as any repeat trips. This is a thoughtful observation. I define sustainability behaviour as one that is practiced out of habit and because of one’s beliefs. So, if you’re practicing sustainability at home, wouldn’t you while travelling as well? I would hope that a person’s behaviour and practice improve as they learn more. Thoughts?
Have you ever been anywhere specifically where you witnessed an endangered habitat or animal and it really stoked a fire in you to do something about it back at home, at the destination, or to examine your practices at home and while being a tourist? I immediately think of plastic in the ocean and how that impacts the animals and plants of the sea and sky (birds) and land. I remember seeing a baby sea lion playing with a piece of plastic, basically chewing on it, in the Galapagos. Our tour guide bravely approached the pup to snatch it from its mouth and the mother sea lion was not happy that she got so close and chased her but luckily our guide was faster! And got the plastic from the sea lion!
I liked this paper because of its recommendations for destination management organizations as well as its explanation of how tourists might behave or form intentions, based on this one study in Cyprus. It is important to care for the Earth while travelling and while at home.
Reference
Akhshik, A., Rezapouraghdam, H., & Ozturen, A. (2022). Memorable tourism experiences and critical outcomes among nature-based visitors: A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach. Current Issues in Tourism, 0(Issue ahead of print), 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2106196
Consuming!
On to lighter subjects. I just finished an easy read that pepped me up after quitting The Tokyo Romance after 60 pages. I was not into it. I tossed it into a free little library for some other person to find. I found Run Like a Girl in the free little library and while it was nothing groundbreaking, I enjoyed it and it was a nice reminder of why I enjoy running after having a little period of feeling pretty blah about it.
I am not sure what book is next because I bought a few today since it is independent bookstore day but I’m excited to start something new.
One Friday Netflix recommended The Diplomat to me and by the end of the weekend I had finished it. I don’t often watch political shows like that but I was hooked. It had some fun twists and I liked the two lead characters.
Then I immediately watched Next in Fashion because I have been sewing and wow does that show get me excited to build upon my skills and make things!
That’s it for this edition! Thanks for reading!
-Sonya