07 March 2005
At home, I am a tourist
As Gwyn Topham, The Guardian's travel editor, says:
"Because the job of the travel industry is to arm visitors with preconceptions of elsewhere, so that they are transported by illusions as much as the plane."
I think there are a couple of other angles to be explored, but this brief and entertaining piece satisfactorily skewers the utter fatuity with which most leisure travel is approached.
"Tourism brooks no objective facts: the key to a successful break is to preserve and export your selective holiday view of the world, as developed by Holiday 2005 et al. What the travel industry declares a heritage centre, a must-see, a natural wonder, may well perplex those who live there. But taking different roles lets us see places in radically different ways. Me tourist, you quaint."
And if you think this is misled, try reading the LP or Frommer's guide to your home town.
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