“A Small Place”
How do you feel when traveling to a foreign place? Excited? Intrigued? Curious? If you said yes to any of those emotions, you are like most people. When traveling to a new place, such as a foreign country, we become these naive, curious tourists. As a tourists, the first thing we want to do is look around to see all the beauty found in our surroundings. Without realizing it, we are actually ignoring big issues currently going on in the environment. We have so much built up adrenaline and excitment for our trip to begin, that we don’t even notice the big picture going on in the society we are visiting, like corruption. Although not all foreign nations are corrupt, many small nations are.
A Small Place is all about how small places, such as the island of Antigua, can be impacted dramatically by foreigners. Kincaid divides the reading into sections whcih further explain the impacts. Locals of these smaller foreign countries describe tourists as ‘ugly people’. What is meant by that phrase is that the locals find it annoying and confusing on why these people leave their perfect lives at home to visit these less fortunate places for entertainment purposes. In fact, most locals can’t stand tourists. Tourists are not only threats to the peace of the locals, but also a threat to their culture and practices.
Most of these nations hold resentment againsts tourists because of past events. Antigua, for example, had a rough up bringing. Locals of Antigua were living comfortably with their own lifestyle until the English settlers colonized it in the late 1600s. This changed everything in Antigua, from architecture to beliefs. They experienced racism verbally and in the form of slavery. Also, the governemnt that was set up was horrible. The corruption seen in Antigua today, is mostly related to this. Natural distasters that took place, such as Earthquakes, did not help out.
Although Antigua achieved independent in the late 1900s, there still hold a grudge towards foreigners. The locals are still suffering from poverty because of their past. Antigua is the only place the locals are familar with, therefore don’t see the reason why people come and visit. All they see are the poor conditions of the island. Therefore, they hate seeing these toursists come through admiring the ‘beauty’ of their island instead of acknowledging the real problems.
Work Cited
Abe, et al. “Why Tourists Ruin Places They Visit (and What You Can Do).” Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site, 1 Jan. 2021, www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-tourists-ruin-the-places-they-love/.
Eunice, Mary. 25 Countries Where the Locals Are Totally over the Tourists. 26 Dec. 2018, www.thetravel.com/25-countries-where-the-locals-are-totally-over-the-tourists/.
“History of Antigua and Barbuda.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/place/Antigua-and-Barbuda/History.
Hi Kara! I didn’t know that tourists were viewed this negatively in many third world countries. It is truly sad how much the culture and history of these countries was impacted by colonizers. Hopefully these countries can provide the much needed support to countries like Antigua and so relations can improve in the future.
Great job on the presentation Kara! I do agree with you statement about how tourists are a threat to the locals culture and practices to an extent. Yes, I understand that with the constant exposure to different cultures and futuristic ways, smaller communities will start to give way to more modern ways in regard to culture. The only thing I want to point out is that these smaller places almost always rely on the money that tourism brings in. Without tourists, much of these people in these towns cannot be financially stable. They often need to money to feed and support their families.
Kara,
I guess I wasn’t really aware of the prominence of the tourist stereotype. I have never really had the ability to experience what it is like to be a tourist to a foreign environment and I have never lived in a tourist town. Therefore your post was eye opening for me. I do get where you’re coming from as I did have some of the feeling when I came to college at OSU.
It is always so interesting to reflect on tourism in this way. Although still in the U.S, my homestate of CA shares some relation to the idea of tourism. True, there is not widespread poverty or harsh conditions, but there is still a large environmental, economic, and cultural impact that tourism has on where I am from. There would be times in which something was not enjoyable because tourists were treating my home as a temporary fixture. I cannot fathom the types of feelings people in places like Antigua and Barbuda feel about tourism and the impacts it has on the country as a whole. I did find myself feeling guilty of being a tourist in Hawaii. I felt a sense of guilt for almost using the islands. However, it was interesting for native Pacific Islanders to think that where I came from was more interesting than their home.
Hi Kara, thank you for your post! You mentioned a very interesting idea about tourist. I never knew that some people were may unhappy with the arrival of foreign tourists. They may find it offensive that foreign visitors admire their scenery. I think people’s thoughts are very different, we should respect every opinion.
This is a very clear and important post to fully understand and it is something that needs to be fully realized because it can play a huge role in the future for that economy. When being a tourist you would only see the positive and beautiful things within the travels because it is like a mental block for negative like the individual would not want to look for the negative and block it out during their travels. This is a bad thing to have structured for groups of individuals because this means that the factor of help within that area has decreased because only the positive positions were seen while the negative was kept within the shadow.
Hi! Great post. I really found it interesting when you mentioned that tourists are a threat to culture and practices. I definitely understand Kincaid’s opinion on this topic. However, I do not believe that all tourists have bad intentions. Many individuals who tour locations are genuinely interested in the culture and practices of a foreign place. I know that I can account for that, as my family always goes on cultural excisions when on vacations. Of course, travel is a luxury, but it is such an eye opening experience to explore different cultures.