On travelling and tourists

[jlh]

folk is hosting a post about other people's perceptions of Americans—if you're a non-American go ahead and give him your thoughts. The original post, which was a guide to being a good British visitor for American soldiers in WWII got me thinking about general advice to travelers, which I would have replied to him but it got lengthy and a little OT.

I grew up in Maine, where we get a massive influx of tourists in the summer, a somewhat smaller but still significant pile of skiers in the winter, and a generous amount of "leaf peepers" in the autumn. (Maine in the spring is really just a lot of mud.) I don't know a Mainer that doesn't dread Memorial Day and pray for Labor Day (the unofficial beginning and end of summer in the US). I went to Harvard-Radcliffe college, which itself gets a fair amount of tourist traffic, and I now live in New York, unfortunately needing to walk through Times Square to get to the subway.

I hate tourists. I hated them as a child, when they would just make our lovely home completely crowded and treated the locals as 'local color' there to make their visit that much more quaint. (By the way, that's tourists, not the summer people who are a whole other kettle of fish. Also by the way, a lot of the tourists in Maine aren't Ugly Americans; they're Québécois.) If I had a dollar for every time someone stopped me in the Yard and asked if I was a real Harvard student I'd be able to pay off my student loans. It's all I can do now to shout at people, "The sidewalk is not for strolling!" as I try to get through crowds of people looking up in Times Square.

I hate tourists so much that my worst fear is to be one. I only travel to places where I know someone so that I can see the locale through their eyes as a local, be they domestic or foreign places. I never carry my guidebook with me if I can help it, or at least I try to read it surreptitiously. I admit that I am completely neurotic about this; one of the worst experiences of my life was getting glared at when I was with some local friends in a restaurant in Notting Hill, which certainly convinced me that I could never live in London and fit in and made me very wary of visiting again, though now I have friends there and feel a little better about it.

But all that said, I think that the perception you get of people when they are visiting your country, and certainly the perception you get of people from their TV shows, and maybe even the stereotypical perceptions you have of people, are sort of irrelevant. I mean, I'm a non-white woman, so you have a lot of expectations of me even without the American part. We all work against type all the time. Why should this be any different?

In other words, why do we care so much, particularly when it's apparently something that we can't even change by being the loveliest person in the history of the universe?

Comments

[dramawench.livejournal.com]

I think people are inherantly lazy about things - we tend to want to simplify in all areas of our lives, so it makes sense that we think in stereotypes and generalizations. But the funny thing is that no one wants to be thought of in that way - we all want to believe we are unique and special and that this should be obvious to others. So when we are lumped into a group, it hurts.

I know how you feel about tourists and everytime I go to New York I work extra hard to try and fit in. I hardly ever take my camera out and just absorb the city as I walk. However, going to Boston after TWH, I was a complete tourist. I tried not to be obnoxious, but I took tons of pictures, had my map out, the whole nine yards. And i enjoyed every minute of it and tried to supress my feelings of being a complete t00b.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

The thing about New York is, unless you're taking a picture of your friend, someone has taken a picture of that spot and you can buy a postcard or even a poster of it. I like taking momentos—I'm a wicked collector of subway maps.

The one time I'll admit to wandering about avec guide book is the first time I was in London. I had a "writers guide to London" and it listed all the places in Bloomsbury where both writers and fictional characters lived, including the vague location of Harriet Vane's fictional address. It was the middle of the day, Bloomsbury is still mostly residential, I was with my friend who lived there, it was all good. And then we went to a local pub for dinner and I stopped being a tourist.

I'd also say that going to museums is not touristy because I do that all the time just in my regular life. However, I admit that I am like, fully neurotic about this.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Actually, I will say that in London I've taken just about every "London Walk" there is. I just love them so much I don't care about being touristy (I figure they make you less touristy in the long run). The groups on those tours often include locals as well, or at least people from nearby.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

LOL--I am so the same way about being a tourist. And many of the places outside the US where I go I can fit in, at least when I'm just walking down the street. I think I probably make an effort to walk fast and look bored no matter what I'm doing.

I remember a couple of times in Paris I was asked for directions and the person was always horrified when they realized they'd ask a non-French person directions (these were French people, maybe even Parisiens, themselves) so I tried to learn to say "I don't know" sounding Parisien. During one of my many attempts to actually learn to speak French a teacher told me that while I couldn't really speak it my accent was great! I think it was from that.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

In other words, why do we care so much, particularly when it's apparently something that we can't even change by being the loveliest person in the history of the universe?

Maybe we care because at least we then know *we* are not representative of the horrible stereotype, even if others will still make that judgement of us?

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, but it doesn't really —I mean, I like knowledge that will allow for change. The Ugly American stereotype is older than our country, even.

I think we forget that the way it gets brought up is sort of, I dunno, oversimplified in a "let's contrast our favorite bits of our country with the worst bits of that other country in a self-satisfied manner" that I think is somewhat unattractive. Okay, you met some people you didn't care for; I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do about that or even with that knowledge, as they are usually doing things I wouldn't do anyway.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I don't hate tourists. Sure, they're annoying but anyone who travels is automatically a tourist, even if they don't behave in the typical fashion. So I'm not going to hold it against anyone who travels, because I myself would like to travel.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

anyone who travels is automatically a tourist, even if they don't behave in the typical fashion

I completely disagree. First, there's traveling to visit a friend, which by and large isn't being a tourist. Then there's traveling for business which is an entirely different thing. People who have a second home in another place—summer people in Maine, snow birds in Florida—are not tourists. Or folks who used to live someplace but don't anymore, especially when they're going to visit parents and such. All those people are travelers; technically I'm a traveler whenever I set foot out of New York. But they're not tourists.

And even if you travel someplace, you can, you know, behave with courtesy and understanding and hopefully not cause too much annoyance to the locals around you.

[wednesdayschild.livejournal.com]

If I had a dollar for every time someone stopped me in the Yard and asked if I was a real Harvard student I'd be able to pay off my student loans.

I am so with you--the number of times that happened to me in Cambridge did my head in. Also the were a frightningly large number of people who "surreptitiously" photographed me (whilst loudly pointing out that I was a Real Cambridge Student), especially when they were punting.

So, yeah, the tourists thing is not so cool (and Cambridge is like a honey trap for them, especially in summer), but in the end I learnt to live with it--because we're all tourists at some point in our lives--so as long as the people aren't obnoxiously loud or irritating then I think it's OK. I mean, I'm glad that people like coming and looking at the places where I live, because they are are cool places ;)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Well, always an undercurrent, however grudging, of being glad: Tourism is the #2 or #1 industry in Maine, and since it's mostly in summer it provided summer jobs aplenty during high school and college for everyone I knew. I encourage friends to go up there because it's gorgeous and people should see it and I was definitely spoiled by being able to live there for 18 years. (Only, go in September. The summer crowds are gone but nearly all of the seaside stuff is still open, and it's not like it's really warm enough to be a beachy place anyway.)

It's more, as I said, that attitude (not particular to Americans) of assuming that everyone you encounter in your travels is there to make your trip better. It's not as apparent when you're at Cambridge or in Cambridge, MA, but oh, the condescension we would get up in Maine, as though we were all just part of the quaint local color. I think that's why everyone up there gets so irritated with tourists. Here in NYC, I just want them to stop blocking the sidewalk. But I'm happy to tell them how to get to wherever they're going.

It just makes me a horribly neurotic traveler because being thought a tourist is like, fear #1.

Wait--people would take pictures of you while they were punting, or while you were punting?

[kay-taylor.livejournal.com]

If I had a dollar for every time someone stopped me in the Yard and asked if I was a real Harvard student I'd be able to pay off my student loans.

We started charging people who took pictures of us Genuine Oxford Students in our medieval exam dress. Exploitative, but fun.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

That is awesome. Very enterprising.

[zorb]

Even if we totally break the mold on what someone else's expectations of us are, being American - and Californian, or a Mainer, or what have you - is still a big part of our identity, especially on the global scale. I don't think it's laziness that forces us to generalize - it's that to get an accurate "type" for a person would require breaking it down so far as to no longer be a useful categorization system, and certainly not one that impacts how we're treated in a legal sense. I think the conflict arises in that we can't but be tied to a locational identity and seen as its representative (and be perfectly happy and proud of this identity), but along with that tie comes a bag full of generalizations that don't apply to us, personally.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

And being aware of that stereotype, I mean, I suppose it's useful? But I'm not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with that knowledge. It isn't going to change how I personally behave since I already don't behave that way. And it isn't going to change our overall national character, because no one person can change that. And I refuse to be "suitably ashamed" because I don't think there's anything to be ashamed of, or at least, no more than any other country. I mean, this place is a mess—a big, fascinating, beautiful mess that I love and that I plan on spending the rest of my professional life studying, and I don't think I need to apologize for either.

[sheryll.livejournal.com]

I carry maps, sometimes guidebooks when I travel, but they're usually stuffed in the bottom of my purse somewhere. I find it interesting that I'm more often stopped by someone asking for directions when I'm traveling than when I'm at home.

Ottawa is very much a tourist city and not just at any particular time of year, so I encounter my fair share of visitors if I'm downtown. And I'll frequently stop and ask someone who looks a bit lost if I can help them find what they're looking for. Might come from having moved around a lot when I was younger, I've often been the one looking a bit lost. :)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

There is some sort of universal vibe that people give out that gets them asked for directions. I am asked for directions even when I'm visiting someplace new. Part of it could be that I'm confidently walking wherever I'm going, but I don't think that's all of it. Maybe we're just approachable? It's a definite thing, because I have two friends who are also asked for directions no matter where they are.

I would say it is our secret power, except that I still get lost myself, so it isn't much of one.

[sheryll.livejournal.com]

I think you're right that part is being approachable and part is walking confidently. I do like the idea of it being a secret power. I get lost too, but isn't that part of the adventure of travel? Some of the best places are found when you're lost. :)