{"id":1468,"date":"2017-04-12T16:08:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-12T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=1468"},"modified":"2017-04-12T16:08:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-12T20:08:07","slug":"tourism-is-a-euphemism-for-ignorant-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/04\/12\/tourism-is-a-euphemism-for-ignorant-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism Is A Euphemism for Ignorant Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"

In reading Ganna Yankovska and Kevin Hannam\u2019s \u201cDark and Toxic Tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone<\/a>,\u201d 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 \u201centertained\u201d and \u201cfascinated\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article made me think about a similar concept commonly referred to as \u201cvoluntourism.\u201d An article <\/a>criticizing voluntourism mentions seven great criticisms to the wasteful and ineffective industry of going on \u201cservice trips\u201d to foreign countries.<\/p>\n

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Source: Adventure Travel News<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 \u201cegregious waste of money.\u201d The voluntourism article gives some stats like \u201cTwo 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\u2019s more than enough money to pay for a local doctor\u2019s annual salary. Let that sink in.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In reading Ganna Yankovska and Kevin Hannam\u2019s \u201cDark and Toxic Tourism in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,\u201d 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 \u201centertained\u201d and \u201cfascinated\u201d by a tragic event in which people still suffer … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tourism Is A Euphemism for Ignorant Travel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[196,197,198],"class_list":["post-1468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-a","tag-chernobyl","tag-tourism","tag-voluntourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1470,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1468\/revisions\/1470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}