We all like to travel, right? So it kind of means we strive for being a tourist. On the other hand we hate places full of our fellow tourists. Of course there must be lots of people who don’t care about the crowds or who rather like visiting places tested by hordes of people. However I’m not that kind of a tourist. And pretty sure I am not alone. I probably wouldn’t be lying to say I hate the beaten track. I hate being recognised as a tourist. I hate that special treatment by the locals. I don’t want to sound as a person who would hate interaction with locals in total but rather than being treated as a tourist I prefer being a person who would raise interest, or surprize. Therefore the best travelling experiences I’ve had so far was at the moments I was either alone or with just a small group of close friends or family.
Being a Local Guide then I’m often confused about this contradiction because on one hand I like these secluded beautiful places touched by as few people as possible, on the other hand I like to share such experiences with the whole world and consequently stepping towards putting the place on a beaten track. Am I selfish at this point for helping this place become more touristy after I’ve already had a chance to visit it still as a secluded place? Or am I an altruist who just cannot hide it from the rest? I recently hear a lot of stories that numerous tourist attractions are being closed due to overtourism. So where is this line when crossing it you change from helping others know about a place worth knowing, to contribute to degradation of the place once considered amazing? What are you thoughts about it?
Hello @jowlis ! What I most like about being a Local Guide is that it allows me to share my genuine and authentic experience with others and takes advantage of others contributions. When I’m visiting a place, I like to read others experience on Google Maps to make my decisions. They provide me a more accurate experience than a advertisement for example. I like also to looking for local experiences and reading reviews from locals has helped me a lot.
I believe that reviewing places on Google Maps you are not contributing for overtourism. People who like crownd and more touristic attractions will on the opposite understand that it is not the place for them.
Hi @AlexandreCampbell , thanks for the insight. I agree with you on most of your statements. I use Google Maps ratings a lot when picking restaurants for example. Again, since I don’t like crowded places, I can act accordingly based on reviews. But what I am trying to contemplate is that any location is shaped by every review and every visitor. For example, I know numerous occasions when a new restaurant opens, it offers very nice food and has an amazing overall vibe of the place. It starts collecting great reviews and consequently gain popularity, becomes crowded, waiting time increases, service quality drops, food becomes not as good as it used to be and so on… So in this particular example reviews first help the restaurant to gain more clients and grow the business, it helps people find a place to get an enjoyable meal, but eventually these same reviews become more and more negative. Of course it’s not necessary like that. Some businesses might embrace the opportunity and maintain overall quality. It’s probably up to business to make the best of it. But when it comes to natural objects don’t you think that reviews become a burden, because growing popularity increases the damages done to locations?
Hi @C_T , thanks, that’s a good point. But again aren’t reviews we give accessible to both - travellers and tourists? Or looking at hundreds if not thousands of people climbing Everest, what portion of this crowd should be considered travellers?