Misguided Adventures



Main Street U.S.A., Magic Kingdom

           When I go on a vacation I know the last thing I want to be thinking about is the repercussions of every little thing I choose to do. I want to relax, and for me that means forgetting about the things that are hard to think about. Is it too much to ask that for one week I can forget about wars and melting glaciers? As tempting as playing pretend can be, living in luxury for a week may in fact be too much to ask. As I get older it’s been harder to ignore the excess. The last time I walked down the main street of Magic Kingdom in Disney World I couldn’t stop thinking about how all those stores were providing air conditioning for the entire street. Unfortunately few people feel this way when they are on vacation.

          Modern tourism is having many negative effects on the environment. Mostly because it allows people to live in the most wasteful way possible without feeling like they are the ones being wasteful. Hotels are bad for this. By the very nature of their service they have to launder things that may not be dirty and throw out things that may not have been used. Lucky for us the tides are turning. It really is not in a hotels best interest to waste in this way; it costs them money. So now that they have a reason to, they can but measures in place to conserve energy and materials, all in the name of the environment. This makes everyone happier because travellers can feel like they’re doing a good deed when they sort their towels after use and hotels can save on water. We just have to make sure we take advantage of these measures when we are travelling.

          Cruise ships have become another burden to our Earth. They expel waste into the ocean and guzzle massive amounts of fuel.  All that waste will affect coral reefs and shorelines in other areas!  Golf courses are another ridiculously wasteful pastime. These forms of entertainment and relaxation have become so wasteful and we still find ways to excuse ourselves from the guilt. We tell ourselves this is something we need when really it’s completely non-essential. Many of our attempts to become closer to the Earth are misguided and we end up doing more harm than good. Few scenery based tourist attractions are better off now that they have people streaming through them and development around them.

          Many people see tourism as means to support small populations in developing countries. This is true in some cases but in others the “support” is not as appreciated as one may think. Indigenous populations are often not the ones seeing the money you spent on your vacation. It’s the corporation you bought it from. Indigenous people often feel exploited by the tourism industry and their culture is rarely improved by foreign investment and activity. A good example is the indigenous people of Hawaii and their troubles with the tourism that consumes their home.

Here is a video of an astonishing endeavour to create the ultimate tourist location. Fantastically luxurious, excitingly furturistic and astonishingly wasteful; this is the new Dubai.