Travel Elitism
Originally published February 18, 2020 on goabroad.com
Whether you’re a seasoned traveler or you’re packing bags for your first trip overseas, it’s never too late to avoid the pitfalls of travel elitism. What is travel elitism, you ask? Great question! Let’s dive in to find out more so you can make the most of your experience.
A rose by any other name...Travel elitism, aka travel snobbery, or travel privilege, are all talking about the same thing. We’re not going to sugarcoat this for you, so take a deep breath and keep reading. These are all shorthand ways to talk about being a jerk about travel.
What does “travel elitism” or “travel privilege” mean?
Travel elitism is about putting travel up on a pedestal as a universal good (dare we say, necessity) without taking into account the context that makes it easier for some to travel and denies the opportunity to others.
It’s about judging someone’s worth by how many stamps they have in their passport. It’s about disparaging someone for the way they travel, or don’t, if it doesn’t align with how you think about the world. It’s about being clueless to the way your travel, well-meaning as it might be, can affect a community long after you’re gone.
And it’s definitely about passing judgment on a place and her people, or showering pity on a community, because you’ve encountered a way of life that’s different from your own. Is any of this starting to sound familiar?
The truth is, we’re all guilty of travel snobbery from time to time. Hopefully, when we do engage in travel snobbery it’s unintentional, but that’s still no excuse. We all know that intent and impact aren’t the same thing. So, what can you do about it? Keep reading for tips to avoid being a travel snob!
How to avoid being a travel snob
1. Be aware of the issue
The first step is recognizing that it’s a problem. By becoming aware of the issue, you can make the proactive choice to learn more and do better. If you have the resources to be a world traveler, then there’s a good chance you’ll be accused of travel elitism more than once in your life. This isn’t something you’re going to solve overnight, and you’ll definitely make mistakes along the way. Guess what? It’s not the end of the world.
2. Accept that you have work to do
Your ability to reduce travel snobbery is all in how you react once you realize you fell into the trap. Do you get defensive, deny that it happened, or make excuses for your actions? Or do you slow down, listen deeply, ask questions, and make a plan to act differently in the future? If you haven’t guessed already, we’re definitely big fans of that second approach. Welcome to a lifelong journey!
3. Don’t engage in travel shaming
Travel shaming is a subset of the larger problem of travel elitism. It’s specific to passing judgment about how people travel. It usually shows up by showing disrespect to someone about their attitudes and experiences related to travel. This could be for not traveling, traveling too much, traveling too fancy, traveling too rough, traveling to the “wrong” places, or traveling in the “wrong” way. You get the picture!
Remember that we’re all on a journey, and if you find yourself being rude about someone’s travel choices, try asking some questions to understand more. You might be surprised how much you can learn with just a few open questions. This probably goes without saying, but make sure to ask with a genuine sense of curiosity. It’s easy to accidentally ask questions that are dripping with judgment or lead you to pounce into travel shaming.
4. Language matters
When traveling abroad, especially to places where your home currency goes a long way or customs and culture are really different from where you live, how you talk about your experience matters.
As an easy example, if you travel somewhere where driving is on the opposite side of the street, remember that it may be different, but it’s not the “wrong side” or “backwards.” You can extend this thinking to talking about cuisines that you may find unappetizing, but that doesn’t make them “weird,” “gross,” or “disgusting.” Using this negative language is a sure sign of travel elitism.
While traffic and food are more surface-level examples of travel snobbery, these kinds of quick reactions and deficit-based language can quickly extend to people and deeply held cultural beliefs and practices. Even if your intentions are good, you can cause confusion and anger if your words and actions don’t align with local ideas about health, wealth, happiness, education, and family.
To avoid travel elitism, rather than making quick judgments, try to learn more about the reasons things are done so differently. When you ask why with curiosity and empathy, it’s amazing what you can learn from alternative ways of knowing and being in the world. With that extra bit of time, respect, and thoughtfulness, you can choose language that highlights the strengths and merit of a culture so different from your own.
5. Actively avoid white privilege travel
The header of this section might have turned you off, made you a little uncomfortable, or even maybe a little angry. Those are all totally normal reactions. If you’re a person who identifies as white, then we invite you to sit with that discomfort and keep reading — this section is written specifically for you.
If you’re a person of color, then we want to acknowledge that you’ve been witnessing white privilege your whole life and probably don’t need to read this section. Feel free to skip ahead and learn more about different ways to ward off travel snobbery. These are important things to consider no matter what your racial or ethnic background is.
White privilege travel is a particular aspect of travel elitism based in racism and classism that results in vast inequities around the world. For those of you who’ve never heard of white privilege, there are some amazing resources available to learn more, and we encourage you to do so.
In the meantime, a working definition of white privilege is the unearned advantages white people receive as a result of institutional and systemic racism and bias. This doesn’t mean that white people don’t work hard; it just means that because of historic and enduring racism, they receive benefits above and beyond a return for their hard work. Let’s all take another deep breath together, it’s gettin’ real!
So, what does this all have to do with travel? Everything! White privilege travel can show up in where, when, and how you are able or choose to travel. It can show up in how you are treated once you arrive, and it will definitely show up in your interactions with people around the world whether you know it or not. There’s really no escaping it, so your best bet is to be mindful about how you wield it.
The first step is to recognize and accept that white privilege is real. Rather than avoiding the discomfort of that reality, try engaging with what it means. Learn more about white privilege and start identifying how it shows up in your travel experience. Once you start, you’ll probably be surprised at how prevalent it is, and you might even start noticing how it works outside your white privilege travel life.
Awareness and acceptance are an important place to start, because knowing is half the battle. Next comes listening to how white privilege affects those who experience oppression and learning when to amplify those voices or speak up on your own. It’s important to know the difference!
As a world traveler, one of the most important opportunities you have is to be in conversation with other white folks about white privilege. This is a lifelong journey of continued learning, understanding, and interrupting white privilege whenever and wherever you can. All of the other tips in this article also apply to you and are actions you might take to disrupt white privilege travel.
6. Use easy ways to transform your experience
Although not everyone will have white privilege travel experiences, everyone who travels has the potential to engage in travel elitism. Here are a few action steps you might take to mitigate travel snobbery.
If you always fly between cities, or take taxis between point A and point B, why not try out public transportation next time you’re traveling? Not only will it save you a bundle of money (and probably some time in the most congested cities), it will put you in proximity with people who live, work, and play where you’re staying.
Some of the best conversations and the coolest opportunities to experience life in a new place can result from striking up a conversation with someone on a local train or bus. Not to mention, making friends is a great way to learn about a place beyond the tourist trail.
Asking locals is ALWAYS a great way to find off-the-beaten-path shops, parks, galleries, and tasty places to eat. It’s always good to ask about reputable vendors, or look for where people are lining up to buy food and make new friends while enjoying the local delicacies.
Supporting locally-owned and indigenous businesses is a perfect way to put money back into a community. This might mean eating in family-owned restaurants, staying in smaller hotels and hostels rather than international chains, or finding tour companies run by local community members rather than expats.
These approaches to avoiding travel elitism can take a bit more time and upfront research, but the payoff of traveling with community sustainability in mind will be huge! After all, isn’t that what meaningful travel is all about? Approach your experience with a spirit of partnership that honors the humanity of every person, and you’ll be forever transformed.
This list is just a beginning. What ways can you think about to avoid travel elitism?
7. Finally, think twice before posting to social media
We know that one of the best parts of travel is sharing your adventures with your friends and family! What better way to do that than using social media? Unfortunately, social media is also one of the biggest pitfalls for travel elitism.
On one hand, your pictures might make your life look more glamorous than it really is. Are you posting to impress or paint an idealized picture of your real story? If that’s the case, it probably falls in the travel snobbery category, and you might want to think twice about sharing.
Before posting, think about how you can tell your story in a way that invites others into discussion with you about what you learned and how you changed as a result of your travel. This will lead to a much more thoughtful conversation than one that invokes the green-eyed jealousy monster among your followers.
On the other hand, you might be posting photos that reinforce stereotypes about a place or portray you like a superhero in the community. We’ve all seen the photos of a white volunteer surrounded by black and brown kids in a poor community. While this might seem like a cute photo that highlights the joy of children around the world, it’s actually a harbinger of white privilege travel.
Despite your best intentions, it is all too easy to reinforce a narrative about tourism as a way to “save” a community or infantilize local people as puppets in your adventure.
Either way, take time to consider the impact of your photos, hashtags, and captions before posting. If you do choose to post, make sure to get consent from any people who might be in the photo and ensure that they are portrayed with dignity.
Another good idea is to ask yourself if your reasons for posting are aligned with your values. Being thoughtful and respectful about what and how you post will help challenge (rather than reinforce) stereotypes and help you avoid travel elitism.
By being thoughtful about your posts, you can engage people around the world in critical conversations to build equity, cultivate compassion, and explore new ways of being in community with each other.
Take the journey…
There is deep wisdom in community and a common humanity among and between us. While we all have similarities, don’t stop at minimizing our differences. Instead, you can use travel as a force for good rather than snobbery.
Travel is the perfect time to use your experiences to connect with others, suspend judgment, and build cultural bridges across differences. In other words, don’t assume your way is the best way (aka travel shaming) and be open to new ways of understanding the world.
However you choose to engage in respectful travel, explore your assumptions before you go abroad. Learn about the history and current context from multiple perspectives, not just what you see on TV.
Even though things may be unfamiliar to you, to counteract the effects of travel elitism, try embracing new practices and ways of doing things. You never know how your life might change when you start experiencing the world from different perspectives!
Here at GoAbroad.com we want to acknowledge our own complicity in travel elitism. We too unintentionally make assumptions and pass judgments about travel experiences! After all, our whole premise is to encourage meaningful travel and that’s why we’re writing this post. We recognize that as we help pave the way for exploration, we also have a responsibility to help our fellow travelers reflect on their experience and engage in travel as a tool for reconnecting with our common humanity. What better way to create meaningful travel than to break down barriers and build true connections?!