In reading Ganna Yankovska and Kevin Hannam’s “Dark and Toxic Tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,” I found myself disgusted with tourism as an oppressive, passive, and ignorant system. Throughout the article we see tour guides state how many tourists come to be “entertained” and “fascinated” by a tragic event in which people still suffer from the aftermath of radiation. I find it hard to believe that these tourists go to Chernobyl to mindfully educate themselves on a disaster that has helplessly sought support and activism. We live in a day and age where Google, databases, books, and vlogs can shed light to so much more information than what they may take away from one tour. These tourists visit Chernobyl to essentially be in their version of a virtual-reality horror story. As soon as they get back on their plane to America or Western Europe, they can take their VR goggles off at any time and go right back to their ignorant and passive existence.
This article made me think about a similar concept commonly referred to as “voluntourism.” An article criticizing voluntourism mentions seven great criticisms to the wasteful and ineffective industry of going on “service trips” to foreign countries.
I encourage you to read all seven criticisms, but one that relates to my sentiments on the Yankovska and Hannam article is that these trips are an “egregious waste of money.” The voluntourism article gives some stats like “Two weeks on a medical trip to Tanzania can cost you $3,040, not including airfare, which is roughly $2,000. If six people go on this two week trip, that’s more than enough money to pay for a local doctor’s annual salary. Let that sink in.” Now if tourists to Chernobyl would like to genuinely help Chernobyl in its political, environmental, societal, and economic efforts, then the thousands of dollars they spend on plane tickets and tour agencies can instead be directly given to those already experienced social activists, journalists, and scientists in Chernobyl.