Anthony Bourdain was right...
Is travel a right, a luxury, a necessity or a pain for locals?
There’s a lot Anthony Bourdain was controversial for. Drug use, smoking in the kitchen (it was the 90s), spreading the inside scoop of the inner workings of the sanctity of the kitchen, eating questionable looking meals at roadside stalls... But there’s one particular thing he wasn’t controversial for, and one thing I would shout from the proverbial rooftops at the moment. ‘Be a traveller, not a tourist’.
A similar sentiment was made by Matt Haigh, best-selling Author this week in a recent Instagram Post. Haigh, who lived in Ibiza in his early 20s, has recently set his new book (The Life Impossible) on this enchanting island with a big reputation. Haigh writes, “It’s easy to feel ashamed [as a brit] when you see mass tourism in Spain”. But I think we can extend that because it isn’t just about the English traveling, is it? Australians, Americans…the list goes on. He continues, “I love Ibiza for god’s sake. But we have to admit that we have some work to do…in terms of our attitude to ‘abroad’ and how insane we are when we go there.”
[Read Haigh’s full comment here]
Having recently moved to Spain, my phone has been pinging this summer with questions of whether I’ve been sprayed with water guns, locked ‘in’ to a restaurant with red and white tape or made to feel unwelcome as a ‘non-local’. Has my travel been impacted by protesting? Have I had to buy a water-gun to ‘fight back’? Do the Spaniards know how much their economy relies on “us tourists” travelling to “their” country? I’ve heard it all. And really, at the moment, you can interchange ‘Spain’ with Italy, Greece, France etc. and the sentiment remains.
Not only have I just moved to Spain, I have also worked in the travel industry for the better part of the last decade. I am a frequent flyer, an ex-tour guide and a travel journalist expat. As far as these ‘protesters’ should be concerned, I think they’d consider that I’m the problem. And yet, I’ve felt nothing but welcomed here in Barcelona and in broader Spain. I even recently came back from a trip to Mallorca and Menorca, where click-bait news cycles would have you believe I am public enemy number one.
So what’s the difference, in my opinion?
Integration and respect.
Or attempts at integrations.
It is the difference of being a tourist rather than being a traveller (thanks Anthony). However, that could be too simplistic. There is certainly a type of tourist that this category encapsulates. The tourists that trods only the previously trodden, and worn down, beaten path. Those who comes to Spain, eat Mcdonalds and leave packets of golden arches floating along the street in the hot summer wind rather than the rubbish bins. Those who refuse to learn the basic phrases, expecting all European countries to speak English without a moment’s thought. Even those tourists who, meaning well, come to sweltering summer Barcelona and take three showers a day in their conglomerate hotel rooms while the city publicly notes its drought status.
You see, it’s not about how long you stay or how far you’ve come. It’s about how hard you try to take in where you are, to respect it’s differences and to try and be engulfed by it’s culture. It’s really not hard to be a traveller. I think most people would rather be considered a bit of a vagabond but they stick to the path well known out of fear or anxiety of the new.
Spaniards, I think, aren’t really protesting your visit to their country. After all, they have a unique pride in this historic land - just watch how they celebrated winning the Euros earlier in the Summer! They’re protesting, as so much of Europe is, about being treated like a place to come and in some cases, misbehave, but in most cases, be used like a place that can be used up, squeezed out and left worse than it was before. A traveller comes and takes their time, discovers local cuisines without turning up their nose, visits the small stores and local artisans and buys trinkets that aren’t mass produced. A traveller walks and takes local public transport to get the full experience. A traveller has five or ten local words up their sleeve - hello, thank you, excuse me, where is, one beer please… - and whilst they may not know those phrases in both Catalan and Spanish, they are, at least, curious about the difference.
All in all, when I see people asking whether it’s still ‘safe’ to come to Spain, I feel a little despair. Of course it is. Is it worth it? OF COURSE IT IS.
And if the worst that happens to you is that you get sprayed with a water gun, you’ll be ok. In the peak tourist season, it’s thirty degrees here by mid morning - so you might even thank them!
Just be a traveller, not a tourist. Maybe take the road less traveled, or the road well-travelled but treading lightly. In the ever-wise words of Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”
My passport and I are sending you love.
L
