Tourism’s dark side

Chapter 6 encourages the travel journalist to write about the “worst” in travel. Heather Davis of National Geographic.com describes her family’s tough experience while traveling in China. More important than her stories of locals snapping pictures of her family at random and reaching out to touch their hair, are the lessons she learned after the experience. Here’s a bit from Davis’ piece:

As a family that believes there are things to be learned from everything in life, we try to turn even the most frustrating experiences into teachable moments. — Having your every move documented gets old, and quickly. The celeb-obsessed culture prevalent in many parts of the world can desensitize us to what it’s like to be on the other end of the lens. Our experience in China showed us how photo taking can go over the line and taught us to be better at respecting each other’s privacy and personal space.

Overall Davis seem to have enjoyed her time in China, however, her lessons learned their will last a lifetime. The travel journalist can learn from Davis’ experience as well. Maybe snapping pictures of that local covering her face isn’t such a good idea after all.