A couple of months ago, Travelllll.com published an article asking if you would be inspired to travel like and with a local, even if it were for a fee. The responses somewhat predictably ran the gamut from “I prefer to walk around myself” and “you can [already] find people willing to give you a tour and show you the city on Couchsurfing… for free” to “this would be an awesome way to meet someone who can show you around.”
To me, however, the question itself misses the whole point of local travel. And, much more critically, the responses to it betray just how deeply self-centred travellers (and people who write about travel) often are, a mindset in grave need of a change.
You see, local travel isn’t only about how meaningful an ‘insider’ experience you can have. It’s not just about what you can take away with you – how unique your under-the-hood vacation was or how little (or much) you paid for it. Instead, it’s about balancing that discovery experience against the needs and interests of the host community by being sensitive to the local environment, the local heritage and culture, and the local economy. That’s what local travel is – give-and-take travel.
If you just rolled your eyes, then you must also enjoy feasting on endangered species and driving the kind of pointlessly expensive low-gas-mileage car that is accelerating global warming. It’s all part of the same short-sighted mindset.
Local Travel is a Return to Travel’s Roots
Starting about 175 years ago, the publication of travel guides helped turn travel into an industry. Before that – before early entrepreneurs launched into the world with the intention of penning primers designed to help smooth the way for others – there was rarely any timely and accurate travel detail available about faraway places. Thus all travel was necessarily local travel. The Magellans, Battutas, Polos and Ericsons plunged into the unknown and relied on local welcome and directions to find their way.
That being said, these trailblazers also struggled against mighty mindset headwinds. Although many cultures’ long-standing traditions of generosity and hospitality helped many travellers stay safe and kept their forward momentum going, both visitors and hosts were usually weighed down by deeply seated ignorance-fed suspicions and superstitions.
The echoes of their bias and fear still resound today, of course, but we’ve learned a lot from their mistakes. Generally speaking, few of the explorers of yore were as open-minded as the vast majority of travellers now are. However, for decades, and all in the supposed interest of security and comfort, we’ve been sliding further and further from the old-style person-to-person visitor-host direct interactions that used to be so fundamental to overcoming ignorance and apprehension. Many visitors to a country never really get to know a place because social and economic realities are hidden from them, and they aren’t incentivized to engage with locals passionate about how life really is. Instead, they’re encouraged to think that high-definition glossies and time-lapse videos are enough.
Until recently, that is. As the ubiquity of guidebooks and group tours made contemporary travel safer, it also became increasingly soulless. And, as a backlash, a new attention to ‘traditional’ travel – aka local travel, with a greater emphasis on making human connections – has risen from the ashes.
A Mindset, Not a Label
I sense a growing fatigue with labels in travel. I share it. But this isn’t about identifying a new slogan through which to market a rebranded vision of ecotourism or responsible travel. Although I see plenty of value in it, this isn’t a tisk-tisk rebuke about how to do things better or with respect for legally guided ethics. No, it’s a reminder that there are human qualities in us all that we somehow think are OK to set aside when we’re away from home.
When we’re at home, we’re taught to be upstanding members of our communities, gauging and respecting the social and cultural norms. So why shouldn’t we be just as civic-minded when we’re visitors to another community? We may not be as fluent in reading a foreign culture, but that’s why local instruction is so critical.
When we’re at home, we use our time to seek out special local experiences – quality alternative food, unique gatherings, recurring and/or transitory happenings – suited to our tastes. Why should we be any less inquisitive when we travel? Why is anyone ever content with bland tourist pap, plastic souvenirs and a seat in a cultural spectacle purged of real culture? We might not know where to hunt for something else, but that’s how meeting a local can help.
When we’re at home, we steer friends away from the worst of the invading hordes, counsel against the most egregious traps and do our best to share little slices of real life. Why when we travel would we not be just as vigilant for ourselves? Or identify a local who could point us the right direction?
I have a friend who recently spent a week in Saigon. Through an acquaintance he met someone local who, over the course of several days, introduced him to meals of snake, rat and dog. Did my friend visit the Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum or Cu Chi Tunnels? I don’t know. I didn’t ask. He didn’t mention them. Because his local dining experiences – unusual fodder, consumed way off the beaten path and in the company of locals – were the highlights of his trip. His short experience in Vietnam is arguably richer than many longer ones I’ve read about, even if no one quite shares his gustatory inclinations. That’s what local travel is about.
Are You Part of the Local Wave?
When was the last time you did a Web search for local travel Albania? The results I get are an eclectic mix of information, opinion and service articles. Now contrast that with a search for the top 10 things to do in Albania. It’s filled with typical lists by TripAdvisor, Lonely Planet, VirtualTourist, tripwolf and Wikitravel. The contents of the articles are all remarkably similar.
But how many times can you read about the city of Gjirokastra? How much more about it could one 250-word snippet reveal than any other? Are any of them going to help you develop a more meaningful understanding of life in Gjirokastra?
In Gjirokastra and all over the world, revenue from tourism is not fairly distributed. By some UN World Tourism Organisation estimates, “economic leakage” sees as much as US$80-90 of every US$100 spent on travel in the developing world banked by deep pockets with little connection to those countries. So if you want to be of service both to your readers and to the destinations you’ve visited or in which you’ve lived, think like a local. Dig a layer deeper and offer something different. Just as all the big kids are clamouring for dominance in all things local, so too should travel writers be responding to growing consumer demand for something other than yet another top-10 list. These days, if you’re not local, you’re nowhere.
So what does local travel mean to you?
Featured Image: Flickr/Stephan Ridgeway
Great article, even kinda comforting when I think about my site, about my ideal while traveling & writing. Definitely “local” goes beyond. To me, is about the experiences in a very detailed and conscious way. Not necessarily in a big city or small lost town. Is about the real feeling of what we’re trying, tasting, seeing, listening. Thank you for a good point of view. Cheers!
Thank you for this article. I have been experiencing, and believe a lot in ‘local travelling’ where you stop being a tourist and actually immerse yourself in a different culture, a different way of thinking, an eye-to-eye exchange of host communities and visitors. One way to achieve this, for me, is through “creative tourism” which I have experienced from Chile to New Zealand to South Africa and to Paris. It’s a wonderful way of not only meeting the locals, but to learn from them: In their kitchens, in their ateliers or in their workshops. Wonderful!
As usual Ethan a very well written, thoughtful post.
I do like your headline – It’s a Mindset, Not a Label
I guess this what drives all my efforts right now – to help members of our global community understand that our unexamined assumptions, our beliefs and values shape how we “see” reality and determine what is the best course of behaviour. I have applied the word “conscious” very reluctantly as a pre-fix because we have so many labels and labels tend to separate not unify.
Do we need another label put on the front of an old and tired word, tourism? No we don’t because then all we’re doing is trying to fix a way of seeing, being and doing that isn’t working. It’s tinkering at the edges; insufficient, not challenging enough and counter-productive. What we need is the ability to change the way way we see, be and do in order to be better aligned with how the world works. That means facing up to issues around limits, congestion, equity, fairness, respect etc.
I’ll stick to my guns by continuing to state that, in reality, all travel occurs locally at a place. It has the potential to mutually benefit and engage host and guest. Whether it does or not depends on the mindset of both guest and host. You ask “Why is anyone ever content with bland tourist pap, plastic souvenirs and a seat in a cultural spectacle purged of real culture?” Well, I guess they are just sleep walking through their vacation and perhaps that suits them.
Fortunately, we’re living at a time when more and more of us are waking up to what those mindsets are made of. Furthermore, the evidence suggests that more travellers do want “authentic, local and quirky. It’s vital therefore that hosts don’t miss the opportunity to engage, delight and support conscious travellers by helping them experiences the riches and differences of a truly local culture and setting.
Thanks again Ethan! Where are you by the way?
The first step toward a “local” style of travel is to stay at a destination long enough to become at least minimally familiar with it.
When I was in my teens, I was an amateur radio operator. In those days (and maybe today, for all I know), there were “DXers” who collected countries the way a philatelist collected stamps. The goal was to collect “QSL cards” from at least 100 countries and keep adding countries until the walls of your ham shack were covered with cards.
Quite a few bloggers seem to have the “DXer” mentality. They try to visit as many countries as they can, often within a specific period (their gap year or sabbatical year or whatever), and when they’re on the ground in Country A, B, or C, they’re staying in hostels where all the other country-counters are staying. Their travel isn’t about getting to know places; it’s about collecting stamps in a passport. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that (if one ignores the carbon costs), but it has more in common with an “If It’s Tuesday, This Must be Belgium” coach tour than with “local travel.”
Nice article. Totally agree. It’s not just about getting local tips, it’s more about the connections, & sometimes life-long friendships, you make with local people. It’s one of my main motivating factors for creating Party with a Local!
Great article. Thank you for this. I was moved and inspired to do local traveling on my next journey!
I enjoyed reading your article! We agree that traveling should be about “balancing that discovery experience against the needs and interests of the host community by being sensitive to the local environment, the local heritage and culture, and the local economy.” If that happens, travel can change people’s live – both for travelers and locals.
Great article. I increasingly feel that a lot of travel journalism is a bit hollow and meaningless, so it’s nice to read a piece like this. As you say, it’s so important to think about the actual communities that live in the places you’re visiting and look to support them and engage with them, rather than just taking what you can get.
Fantastic article Ethan, and I can see you’ve inspired a lot of deserved thought from your readers as well. It is indeed the mindset in travel – and in many other parts of society – that needs to be changed from “me” to “we”. There is also the misguided perspective that a traveler is entitled to certain experiences simply by virtue of being able to afford a trip to a different country. I honestly believe that giving real people access to other real people in a country will establish a connection and deeper understanding that will bring about the paradigm shift you elude to.
Great article. I couldn’t agree more, but then I am bias. In late 2009 I launched a local guide for my home city of Leeds after becoming frustrated at the inaccurate content found online published by big well known publishers. I have a team of five freelance writers who all live in the city and have different interests. What content would you trust the most – something written by a travel guidebook writer who has visited the destination once, maybe twice, or someone who lives in that destination and spends their life there?
When I travel now I find myself searching for blogs and guides written by local people, rather than reading travel guidebooks.
“What content would you trust the most – something written by a travel guidebook writer who has visited the destination once, maybe twice, or someone who lives in that destination and spends their life there?”
It depends. Often, guidebooks or Web sites written by local folks have what might be termed a “local bias” and “local blindness.” What a New Yorker or a Parisian wants in a guidebook or a Web site isn’t necessarily what a visitor wants.
For example, the first-time visitor to New York probably wants to see the view from the Empire State Building. The person who lives in New York probably couldn’t care less.
Similarly, a trendy German who lives in Munich might be interested in hip new restaurants that serve molecular cuisine. A visitor to Munich is likely to say “No, thanks–I can get that at home. Can you give me directions to the Hofbräuhaus?”
Practical advice written by locals is often inadequate, too. Our Venice, Paris, and Rome transportation articles get a lot of readership because we offer more detailed advice (with pictures) than the local tourist offices’ sites and other locally-produced travel sites do. And why not? Locals know how to get from the airport to downtown. What locals may NOT know is that the ticket machines at the Charles de Gaulle Airport RER station don’t work with most American credit cards.
Bottom line: The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Where the cook lives is less important than the quality and quantity of the pudding itself.
Love this!
Referencing you here ‘It’s not just what you eat, it’s who prepares the food’ http://ronmader.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/comidaindigena
The new face of responsible travel is to recognize the faces, to provide kudos not just to the restaurants or the foodie checklist but to the people who make the food. Anyone can make ‘Caldo de Piedra’ and Oaxaca has a few knock-off versions. But to eat the food made by those who have a story that connects their culture to the food, that’s a trip worth taking. Meanwhile, TripAdvisor and so many other bland top-10 review sites spew out the same old, same old. No wonder visitation to Oaxaca lasts around two nights. Locals have not given potential visitors enough clues to justify a week, or two week or 600 week vacation. The bright news is that local travel is the future of travel (kudos to Ethan Gelber here!)
“No wonder visitation to Oaxaca lasts around two nights. Locals have not given potential visitors enough clues to justify a week, or two week or 600 week vacation.”
I think a bigger reason is that people who travel long distances from home want to cram in the most sights for their money. A typical American going to Italy, for example, might spend a week in the country: two days in Rome, a day or two in Venice, and a day or two in Florence, with a side trip to the Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast sandwiched into the schedule. I personally think that’s a terrible way to travel, but the solution isn’t a greater emphasis on “local travel,” it’s a greater emphasis on “slow travel” (to use another buzzphrase that gets bandied about quite a bit). Longer vacations would help, too: The average American is lucky to have a two-week vacation, compared to twice that (or more) in many European countries. By the time John and Jane Doe have taken the kids to see Grandma or Uncle Bob and Aunt Bobbi in Biloxi, they don’t have a lot of time left over for their trip to Oaxaca, New Orleans, or Adelaide.
Some of my best travel experiences were the stops off the beaten path. I think it helps to take your hobby or passion on the road with you. For me, it’s always been surfing, so I constantly wind up in small, hardly-visited fishing villages where you often times have to rent a room in a house. But the town offers great waves, great foods, and great people. Most spots have no information in the guide books and even if you type in “local things to do…” into a search engine, you’ll probably receive the refreshing answer: “Did you mean…”
Vacation time is irrelevant.
We’re planning and dreaming and remembering the trips beyond the actual doing them. The social web – on blogs, facebook, twitter, youtube, wiki and the rest – is now connecting locals and visitors in ways we didn’t imagine 10 years ago. As to who to trust: a local or a foreign guidebook writer … I’d say that’s irrelevant as well. We need to be looking at relationships and that requires the social web and honestly being social.
What’s the future of travel? It’s being happy. On the global stage we are figuring out how to measure and rank the overall happiness within countries. (Thank you, Bhutan!) What if we started to come up with an estimation of the happiness of locals and visitors working in tourism? This is the future of travel: let’s prove the value of tourism in terms of shared happiness.
Wonderful article! I especially like the line, “When we’re at home, we’re taught to be upstanding members of our communities, gauging and respecting the social and cultural norms. So why shouldn’t we be just as civic-minded when we’re visitors to another community?”
I truly believe in the power of travel as a tool for empowerment and economic growth. I work for an organization called Investours (www.facebook.com/investours). We bring travelers in Tanzania and Mexico to meet local artisans who have applied for loans to grow their small projects. The group gains an intimate perspective on local culture, traditions, foods, and daily life. Later, we use tour fees to support 100% interest-free loans.
I have been inspired by the feedback from tourists about the experience of meeting local artisans and knowing that their tour fees support the local economy. I hope that the network of socially responsible tourists grows and more people realize the potential they have as tourists to give back.
The “give and take” is an interesting point Ethan! I must say we (Spotted by Locals) also focus on the “take” (“experience cities like a local”). Maybe we should stress the “gving” part a bit more – food for thought!
Does anyone know the name of the organization or website that provides tour guides from the local community anywhere in the world for FREE? The people do it for the love and provide of their community and not for profit. I think they ask that you just leave a donation, if you’d like. Please let me know if anyone is familiar with this organization Thank you!!