Today’s tourism

Tourism has always been about seeing things you heard about or wanting something exotic as a break from everyday routine. There was a time only the privilege and wealthy could travel, modern tourism apparently appeared around 1850 when Britain had firmly established its garrisons abroad allowing people to travel to far away lands and be assured that military protection or Law and Order was at hand from the restless native. I think of places like Egypt and the Holy Land or India or even further away like the Far East. Such trips required months of free time to travel, money and hiring local staff and bringing your own personal attendants just to handle all your luggage and what not. This was not necessarily the best form of tourism since it often conveyed the worst racist attitudes towards people living in those far away countries.

In the 1960’s traveling was still an adventure, today with mass tourism and ease of travel, you can go almost anywhere and meet crowds of people brought there by charter airlines. The magic of certain far off destination is pretty much gone, all the same food, same shops, same souvenirs, same hotel chains and same music playing in restaurants, shopping malls or hotel lobbies. There is not much danger that you will be challenged in what you know or expect at most you will be amused at worst bored and wonder why it can’t be just like it is back home. I was recently reading the book of Durrell on the Greek Islands when he first visited in the 1930's and compared it to what I saw last October, things have changed and not for the better.

One of my pet peeves has to do with the lack of respect people have in general when visiting a different country.

I always wonder why the natural reserve or barrier you would feel at home to behaving outlandishly is suddenly gone. Is it because you think that I will never be back so it does not matter what I do or say or is it a sense of entitlement because this vacation is costing a lot, so they owe me for the money I am spending in their country.

In Catania I witnessed some truly awful behaviour, it seems to occur either in Museums or in Churches, groups come in with a guide and proceed to march around as if they own the place, shoving aside other people not in their group or blocking areas completely or speaking loudly about this and that or simply run around to take pictures of anything that attract their fancy or of themselves, using flash when told not too. In Syracuse we visited one church with a famous painting by Caravaggio, it clearly says NO photography, luckily in this case the guards pounce on anyone who tries to take a picture. One lady of a certain age who should have known better nonetheless pleaded like a 5 year old with the guard who politely but firmly told her NO. In Catania in the Cathedral a group of school kids around 14-15 years of age where visiting with their teachers, the group was about 25 strong. They ran around the church playing tag, spoke loudly, this was an outing for them. Even in the chapel where the sacrament is exposed and reserved for prayers, there they were pushing and showing each other to the dismay of people trying to pray. I realize that visiting old churches nowadays is no different than going to the mall or an amusement park. But is it so difficult to be respectful of others? In another church a Dutch tourist walks in and does not take his hat off as is customary in any Christian church, his wife came in with her dog on a leash. The excuse we are Protestants this is a Roman Catholic Church we don’t believe in this stuff. It is not a matter of what you believe but a matter of respect. I witnessed the same thing in Cairo and in Istanbul in the great mosques when non-Muslims wish to visit, women and men appear to fail to understand that modest dress is required, meaning no shorts and no sleeveless T-shirts or blouse. In Rome the Vatican enforces a dress code, no one objects but elsewhere it seems that lack of sensitivity and lack of respect is the rule.

Unfortunately when you have mass tourism and a general lack of awareness this appears bound to happen.

The worst offenders are not children but mature adults, the older it seems the ruder. I have seen some truly foul mouth rude people in there 70’s and 80’s; you wonder how can this be. Is this an effect of popular culture today or is it that people are fed up with the change they see around them and this is a form of protest. All this to say that the veneer of civilized behaviour is pretty thin.