Street roots., August 16, 2013, Page 8, Image 8

street roots
Aug. 16, 2013
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W IK I C O M M O N S P H O T O
Form er New York Times correspondent Elizabeth Becker has strong opinions about the cruise industry because o f pollution an d its low-wage jobs. B u t, she says, there are some cruise lines out
there that follow environm ental rules a n d pay good wages.
On holiday
Form er economics correspondent Elizabeth Becker looks at the impact o f our roving hearts
BY MIKE WOLD
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
olitically conscious Americans have an
ambivalent relationship to tourism.
P
On the one hand, many of us love to
travel to foreign countries — if we can afford
it. We deplore the fear of strangers that
keeps some Americans at home. On the
other hand, many of us seek out places that
have been unspoiled — unspoiled by tourists,
that is - and complain about the effects of
tourism on the places we visit, as well as on
our own communities.
Elizabeth Becker, a former economics
correspondent for The New York Times, has
one clear message: The tourism industry is
important, whether for good or for bad, and
people need to start paying attention to it.
She points out that there’s been an
explosion in travel and tourism over the
past 40 years - the number of foreign trips
in the world has quadrupled; there were a
billion such trips in 2012. At least 10
percent of jobs worldwide are associated
with the tourist industry.
Becker is by no means opposed to
tourism. However, the way it’s structured
will determine whether it has negative or
positive effects on the places tourists go.
She holds up France as a positive example
since France has been particularly mindful
in producing a “good” tourist experience
that is about French culture and has
resisted dissolving that culture into the
global melting pot of cheap souvenirs and
unvarying package tours.
Similarly, Costa Rica has made a point of
keeping local control of its tourism industry,
with the result that the country’s natural
beauty and wildlife areas have been
preserved and enhanced rather than
degraded by the tourists they attract.
Becker’s negative examples include the
cruise ship industry, which sells an
experience of heavy consumption rather
than of travel: Cruise passengers generally
see very little of the countries they visit and
are enticed into spending much more than
the price of their tickets.
Workers’ wages are usually kept
extremely low; most cruise workers’
incomes come from tips. Similarly, the
country of Dubai provides a kind of tourism
oriented almost entirely to consumption —
not only of goods, but water and energy —
with very little cultural experience to it.
Most of the money from tourism in
Cambodia goes either to feed local
corruption or to multinationals, while World
Heritage sites like Angkor Watt are
degraded by surrounding development and
unsupervised visitors.
Venice, which now has more tourists on
an average day than residents, is becoming
unaffordable for Venetians.
Becker clearly believes that “good”
tourism is what we traditionally think of as
“travel” — going places to meet people and
see how they live, rather than going
somewhere simply to spend money.
However, Becker also emphasizes the
money a country can make from tourism.
She believes that tourism can be an
economic engine for a locality and that, if
done mindfully, can help to foster a
consciousness of local identity rather than
creating a kind of fake culture that’s geared
to tourists.
Her examples of good tourism, though,
tend to sound costly: trips that I would
consider more or less unaffordable for run-
of-the-mill travelers. Furthermore, although
she deplores tourist developments that
displace the poor in urban neighborhoods or
companies that don’t provide decent wages
and working conditions, she doesn’t talk
much about how tourism can be designed to
help rather than hurt the poor.
In a short phone conversation, Elizabeth
Becker answered a few questions to expand
on some of these issues.
M ik e W o ld : There’s often a tension
between the poor a n d homeless in a locality
an d the tourist industry. E ven granting that
tourism brings more money into a locality,
what can be done to benefit the poor as well as
the m iddle class and wealthy?
E liz a b e t h B e c k e r : You (have to) look at
tourism from a citizen’s point of view, not
just a consumer’s point of view. Most
people, when they read my book, say, “How
can I be a better tourist when I travel?” The
first way to do that is to be a better citizen
in your own community. How do you want
tourism to help your community? A lot of
people who do no volunteer work in their
own community will go overseas and
volunteer. They spend a lot of money to
send their kids overseas to be a volunteer,
but they don’t volunteer in their own
neighborhood.
So, look at tourism and travel as a citizen.
I had breakfast with the World Affairs
Council the other day: lovely people. One
woman asked how we can get more support
behind our tourism industry, and my
suggestion was, broaden the scope. Invite
community members to be part of your
board. Invite arts people. Invite the
environmental community. The people who
advocate for the homeless and the poor
should be part of it as well. Tourism can
benefit whoever the locality wants to
benefit. You can figure out what in your
locality benefits the poor. Maybe the poor
can be bus drivers or guides.
M .W .: Your book is pretty negative about
See HOLIDAY, page 5
Elizabeth Becker
^Most people, when they
read m y booh, gay, *How can
1 be a better to u rist when 1
travel?" The firs t way to do
that Is la be a better o ltlie n
i» your own eom m iially,
M
lo t of people who do no
volunteer w ork in th e ir own
com m nnlty w ill go overseas
and volunteer« They spend a
lo t of money to send th e ir
kids overseas to be a
volunteer, but they io n "t
volunteer In th e ir own
neighborhood/"