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I think there's a distinction to be made between travel as accumulating social capital masquerading as "experiences" and travel as seeking genuinely novel exper
by _hardwaregeek 8y ago
I think there's a distinction to be made between travel as accumulating social capital masquerading as "experiences" and travel as seeking genuinely novel experiences. It's the same difference between going to Instagrammable restaurants and seeking out places that have legitimately good food. Then again, I don't think this distinction is new. There's always been a dichotomy between people who travel like an RPG where they have to see X monument and have Y experience in order to tell their friends about it, and people who come in open minded.
- cm2187 8y agoYes and no. Before instagram you had tourist guides (books). If a major guide mentions a location as lovely and must seen, you will have hordes of tourists raiding the area, often to just take a quick picture and mark a notch next to the entry. Like I just don’t get people going to the Trevi fountain in Rome. The place is so crowded that all they get is pushing their way to a tight spot where they can see some of the horses, take the same picture than the first 1,000,000 results on google image and then push their way out. What’s the experience?
- bsder 8y agoOne could just as easily say this about the Sistine Chapel. And yet most people who go there still regard the experience as profound.
- dantheman 8y agoThe choice is - don't see it or see it in a slightly less than optimal way. It's an amazing fountain, it's different than anything at home for many visitors, and it's super easy to get to.
- ryanwaggoner 8y agoThis is a false dichotomy. When I travel to new places, I like to see the standard tourist stuff, but I also like to walk the back alleys and go "off the beaten path". I'm not unique in this either. The gatekeeping people have around the right kind of travel is amazing.