Stay Human. Celebrating World Tourism Day 2024

Celebrating World Tourism Day 2024 – Tourism and Peace, reflecting on the difference between travellers and tourists towards “Tourism as industry of Peace”

Tourism and peace: this is the theme launched by UN Tourism for World Tourism Day 2024. But is tourism truly a vehicle for peace? Without a doubt, we can suggest a causal relationship between tourism and peace. However, it is essential to clarify that certain conditions must be met for this to be genuinely possible, starting with the following: the need to bring tourism back to its essence— the travel.

From my observation, tourism in its most common form often reflects—especially among Western tourists — a superficial post-historicism, an egocentric view that, perhaps unconsciously, embodies a sense of superiority with regards to the visited communities. In contrast, traveling should mean breaking down those barriers and recognizing that, at the core, we are all equal. But how do we change course? How do we recover the human factor?

Looking back, midway through this adventure called life, I see myself as someone who has always observed the world with curious eyes. I’ve dedicated time both to traveling and to the scientific study of it. However, I don’t identify with the typical image of a tourism scholar who loves to post photos on social media, showing off himself/herself in trendy, elegant destinations. My experience, both theoretical and practical, is different: I see myself more as a traveller than a tourist.

Being a tourist evokes the image of a person moving through a carefully constructed world, where every detail is designed to create the illusion of authenticity. The traveller, on the other hand, lets the journey itself carry them, immersed in the unexpected and in encounters with others. The Greek philosopher Aristotle once said: “When a man enters a community and thinks he can do without others, he is either a beast or a god. But he is not a man.” If we apply this concept to tourism, we can notice a big difference, for example, between wanting to connect with local residents and having to connect with them. Because you find yourself alone in an unfamiliar place, without a tour operator or an app to solve your problems. And in this situation, and only in this situation, do you return to your true nature: that of being human, and therefore needing others. Because you are neither a god nor a beast!

I often travel alone, mostly for work—I avoid traditional tourism as much as possible, even as a practice. In solitude, you are free to get lost and truly encounter the reality of the place. I remember when I found myself without contacts, without internet, without the convenience of Google Maps, and especially without fuel (!) in the middle of the Iranian plateau, with the nearest city 300 kilometres away. Or when I found myself in Ecuador, accompanied by a randomly encountered anaconda hunter, to reach an indigenous tribe after two days of walking in the Amazon rainforest. Without technology, just me, him, and the machete he carried with him. At the end of the journey, finally in the Shwar village, I was fortunate enough to witness the birth of a baby girl, Ya Nua, and become her godfather. Or being on a late summer night with a 12-year-old shepherd boy, his blue eyes twinkling like the stars of that remote place between Jordan, Syria, and the West Bank. No, I don’t believe these are experiences tourists encounter. These happen to those who choose to be travellers, to those who decide to put human encounters at the centre of their experience.

In short, traveling brings the human being back to their most authentic dimension. Traveling without the support of modern conveniences; without that consumeristic incontinence; without the post-colonial and post-historic arrogance of the majority of Western tourists (whom operators have quickly learned to exploit to the fullest, disregarding any ethical limits); being a traveller rather than a tourist forces us to depend on others, to recognize our vulnerabilities, and – because of this – to rediscover our humanity.

Stay human, then, in the truest sense of the word. Let’s stop being tourists who merely observe fake worlds. Let’s learn to travel again, to put encounters, discovery, and above all, others, at the centre of our journey. Stay human, to fully realize the aspiration suggested by Louis d’Amore, who first proposed the challenge: Tourism. Industry of Peace.

Let’s work on it.

Fabio Carbone
Academic, humanitarian activist, and global ambassador of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism.

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