Who loves aircon? I love aircon! Especially in the steaming hot country of Jordan, a luxurious coach with aircon is not a luxury perse, it is a must. The very well organized tour with its bus has a lot of benefits. Did I mention the aircon? Of course we get everywhere in luxury and style, we don't need to figure out the local transportation system nor haggle with pesky taxi drivers for the best fare. Our guide Omar uses the microphone to inform us with facts and stories on Jordan and the sites we visit.
How could anyone argue that this style of travel has a downfall? Well, you could debate on the kind of tourist experience you get. Cohen proposed there are five different kinds of tourist experiences.[1] The core concept is the distance between the traveler and his own society and the search for meaning in his travels. So we have 'existential travelers' who want to escape their normal society and life and have a deep longing for authenticity[2] and meaning in their experiences abroad. On the other side of the spectrum we have 'recreational tourists' who don't want to leave their own reality and society, They don't have a need for authenticity, they just want to be entertained!
For me, it feels like were more and the latter side of the spectrum than on the 'soul searching who-am-I?' type of tourism. We want luxury and we want to visit some entertaining sites. We are not concerned with travelling among the locals, meeting them, talking with them, knowing what the country genuinely feels like. Today we wanted to escape our lives and our studies, and just enjoy the Dead Sea in our own little bubble. We don't need to figure out who we are in our core. We just want to sit in our bubble with aircon, staring at a place that isn't ours, and never will be.
1. McCabe, Scott. "‘Who is a tourist?’A critical review." Tourist studies 5.1 (2005): 85-106. I go deeper into this typology in blog entry Tourist or Traveller, the Verdict.
2. See blog entry For Rent: Authentic Bedouin Tent. With Wifi. for more thoughts on authenticity and the article MacCannell, Dean. "Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings." American journal of Sociology (1973): 589-603
I don't think that existential travelers necessarily means 'soul searching who-am-I' type of tourism. Sure, I think that getting far away from your own normal society can have that affect on people. On the other hand, I think there are people who prefer this kind of experience for the exact reason that they have a full grasp of who they are. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that's me. I like to get away from my own normal society now and again, but never to far and certainly never for to long. Just like you wrote in your second blog, I like to be adventurous but I'm cautious at the same time. If I stray to far from the trodden path, I get anxious. For some people rock climbing is boring while wearing a safetyharnass, but for me it's exiting enough with one. And although I wish I had the balls (and skills) to do what they do, I know I could never enjoy it, and also think they are a bit crazy. Horses for courses I guess.
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