Tourist Privileges

Jamaica Kincaid, in her book: "A small place", portrays the typical tourist experience in Antigua and then reflects upon her childhood experiences in the island. There is a quote that depicts how she feels regarding what a tourist is and how he views the country which he is visiting: “But some natives--most natives in the world--cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place where they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go--so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they enjoy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself(18-19).” This quote portrays how the tourists is a priviledged person in a foreign country.

Becoming a tourist makes you unaware of the realities that each country faces. You're visiting just for fun. You arrie at the hotel, eat dinner at the local restaurants within the area you are staying, do some of the popular tourist attractions; nothing more. In a sense, you are like an escape artist which evades troubling situations as you distance yourself from the realities of the place you visit. As said so in "Constructing a nation: Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place", written by McLeod, "the tourist is more determined to remain oblivious to local social ills; after all, the tourist has paid good money for this fantasy, while the colonizer is either born in the colonized space or immigrates there for personal and financial opportunity (McLeod,89)." Tourists visit countries in order to escape their own realities; they are ignorant of the political and social realities of the places they visit.

Although being a tourist is fun, if you really want to experience a country, you must become a traveler and learn from the different aspects of the country: its culture, economic reality, political status, social norms, etc. all of these elements will give a more compelling picture of what a country truly has to offer. Then accepting these realities will bring you closer with the locals, thus eliminating the feeling of being an outsider who does not understand the lifestyle of the locals.

Tourist for a Day

For our class we did a little social experiment in which we were to dress up (optional) and act as tourists for a day. I decided to compare how tourists are treated vs how locals are treated at the Mall of San Juan. Choosing which type of tourist I wanted to be was a relatively easy task since I'm particularly adept at imitating different accents. I tend to do that in my house with my family members and it always cheers them up. I chose my best accent which is Argentinian and proceeded to pose as an Argentinian tourist which visited the Mall.

My first stop was a store called Nordstrom. I quickly noticed how well everybody treated me at the store. Since I love suits I went to the men's department and was greeted by one of the salesmen. He offered me a Giorgio Armani suit which was way over my budget. He though I could actually afford it. It was a very funny scene but I did not break character and politely declined the offer. Later on I felt hungry and asked for directions to Kona Grill (even though I knew where it was). I ordered a skirt steak ( I could not be any more stereotypical) and proceeded to thank the waiter for such an amazing dish which reminded me of my hometown in Rosario, Argentina.

 People looked at me in a weird way as if I was some sort of outsider. I felt othered by my accent. People were very polite, but not as when you are a local. When I returned as a local people treated me as I've always been accustomed to. However, I was treated differently by the salesmen of Nordstrom. I did not receive the friendly treatment they gave to Argentinian me. I guess this happened because that mall is tourist oriented instead of being oriented to the people of Puerto Rico.

This experience was an interesting one because it let me observe the difference in treatment that a tourist experiences when coming to this island. It also served me as an opportunity to feel as they feel when they come, to feel othered, and to be a stranger among Puerto Ricans. Below, I included a video which portrays how a group of tourists spend their time on Puerto Rico.

  

Happiness in Bhutan

Eric Weiner, in his book: "Geography of Bliss", wrote about how happiness was a policy in Bhutan, the city which he explores and compares it to Shangri-La. The latter was a " place of eternal peace wher poets muse... a remote place, cut off from the horrors of the outside world, though not from its tactile comforts (Weiner 50)." As he arrived to Bhutan he was received with the upmost in hospitality, as Weiner says: " the Bhutanese were never colonized, never conquered, so their hospitality is served straight up, devoid of the gratuitous deference and outright ass-kissing so common in this part of the world (51)."

Weiner speaks of the Gross National Happiness. This is Bhutan's national policy which seeks to measure progress by how happy–or unhappy– the bhutanese are in general. This is related also to the idea that the bhutanese believe in reencarnation (the belief that when you die you become reborn as someone, or something else). Since you are coming back as another being you would like to be treated well.


We can see in this narration that the bhutanese are, overall, happy: their life expectancy increased from 42-64 years of age, free health care, free education, and its the world's first nation to become a non smoking nation. Gross National Product is a measure of a nation's progress. Bhutan challenges this notion as it clearly demonstrates that it has progressed considerably.