The debate on this subject is very hot among the actors in tourism. Mass tourism is still a problem and the pandemic has managed to fix it in its own way. Of course, hotels, restaurants and tourist destinations had to suffer losses, but we will know how to fix things.
Nobody wants to be a tourist
According to data from the World Tourism Organization, tourism is the second fastest growing sector in the world. In 2018, tourists set foot in a foreign country, and billions poured into the state treasury. This does not mean that 1.4 billion people traveled outside their country of residence, only some cannot go on vacation more than once a year. The family, with higher salaries and excellent passports compared to the rest of the world, migrates from one corner of the planet to another. Traveling has become a way of life and the number of visits to the country is in the unknown range. Nobody wants to be a tourist. However, everyone aspires to be a traveler.
Vacations have become a social status
New types of tourism are emerging: for example, ethnic tourism, i.e., travel with the aim of getting to know, mostly, indigenous cultures. So far, rather than a cultural rapprochement, its result has been that desert dwellers, hoping for financial gain from the display of their traditions, start dancing as soon as an all-terrain vehicle appears on the horizon. Spiritual tourism has also developed, in which Western travelers, misled by their spiritual insight, travel to the Amazon for ayahuasca rituals, for example. Although the rituals traditionally take place in the jungle, cities like Iquitos in Peru have built their economy on ayahuasca tourism.
At the same time, various pseudo shamans have started to offer their services, and the price of ayahuasca has more than tripled in the last decade, making it unaffordable for indigenous people.
