5 ms·
Instagram is a really big part of this. There are so many places that are commonly photographed, my favorite examples being Antelope Canyon in Arizona and Kink
by habosa 8y ago
Instagram is a really big part of this. There are so many places that are commonly photographed, my favorite examples being Antelope Canyon in Arizona and Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto.
When you see that amazing picture, what you don't see is the crowd of 100 people behind the photographer waiting for their turn to get the same picture.
Not only is it a bad experience for tourists, but it makes the locals resentful of what should be a valuable revenue stream.
It's not clear how to fix it. Most people who travel have limited vacation time and are making a logical decision to head for known interesting landmarks. There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday.
- aboodman 8y ago> There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday. That's pretty much what the Rick Steves books specialize in.
- Scoundreller 8y agoEurope Through the Back Door is one of his classics.
- splonk 8y agoTrolltunga is a very popular travel photo. Here's some random site showing what it looks like on Instagram, and what the lineup for the Instagram photo looks like. It was pretty funny the first time I saw a crowd photo as opposed to the dozens of versions of the single traveler on the edge that I'd previously seen. https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norway/ https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norw...
- peterlk 8y agoI recently did lots of traveling as well, and this attitude just boggles my mind. I got lucky on my day at the Louvre because they cleared out the whole place because a fire alarm got pulled. So I started as far from the Mona Lisa as possible, and slowly worked my way toward it. Far away from it was still amazing art, but the closer I got to the Mona Lisa, the more people I saw with their phones out snapping pictures of things that hundreds of other people were snapping pictures of. I amused myself for at least an hour taking pictures of people taking pictures of pictures. To me, the point is to stand in front of things (art, nature, architecture, etc.) and allow yourself to be awe-struck. If you want to look at it on your phone, there's no reason to use your camera to do it.