How would you feel if you were in your office, on the phone to a client and a group of tourists
came through snapping photos as you’re closing a deal? “Look, Mommy” a child says, pointing at you. “What are those
things around their necks?”
“That’s called a tie, dear. The guidebook says they wear them when they work. How interesting.”
“Honey, get a photo, will you?”
Sounds like a Monty Python skit, doesn’t it? But if you think about it, this is basically what happens every single
day in villages and towns around the world as tourists descend on them with their cameras and guide books and endless
enthusiasm for places and people that are different.
Well, the Christian Science Monitor runs a piece
about the nascent ethical tourism movement. There seems to be some confusion whether ethical tourism is the same as
eco-tourism, which has older roots and applies to a more of a “pack in what you pack out ” ethic. But this
notion of ethical tourism is something we all ought to consider as we head out on our globe-trotting expeditions.
Travel is wonderful. But try not to mess anything up when you go. Because you never know, with the rise of China and
the decline of the dollar, there just might be tourists in your cube in years to come, snapping pictures of you and
your “primitive ways”. Then you’ll know how it feels.