What Makes a Good (or Bad) Tourist?

I just ordered a 0.5-liter bottle of water and a cappuccino which I paid no more than 2.50 euro for in total. Now I’m sitting at a small table in front of a cafe in the pedestrian zone, enjoying the afternoon heat under a parasol. Fort the first time since I arrived in Budapest two weeks ago, I really feel like a tourist.

My reasons to travel in this second pandemic summer are of romantic nature. Initially, I was planning to visit Greece with my high school friends from Stuttgart, but halfway through the summer break I impulsively changed plans. I decided to go to Hungary, to see someone instead of something (love-tourism, if you will).

Exploring the city of Budapest play a secondary role in this endeavor, yet as in conventional tourism, my motivations are purely pleasure-oriented. Learning about the culture of the place becomes rather a byproduct of recreational activities: a visit to one of the many bathhouses, a weekend spent at Balaton, food and drinks at corner shops and hidden squares.

Besides that, meeting his friends and family and listening to stories about growing up and living in this place that is foreign to me.  In a way, one could say that my perspective of this city, of this country, is a more authentic one than the one of a conventional tourist. It’s informed by the political views, the hopes and the hardships of local young adults, the social circles that I got access to through my friend Boldizsár.

Can this encounter of mine still be called tourism, I wonder.

Observing general touristic behavior, it seems to me that for a lot of people, travel and vacation are ways to escape their life at home for a while. It seems to be more about distance (from the familiarity of home) than about closeness (to the life at the destination).

In the experience of the average tourist, is tourism about connecting or disconnecting?

In an ideal world, travel and tourism could be seen as means to develop a broader, more universal consciousness.

In an ideal world, travel and tourism could be seen as means to develop a broader, more universal consciousness. A step toward something like a global identity, a way to feel connected to the world and its inhabitants.

In reality, the goal of mass tourism seems to contradict such an ‘ethos’. People travel for hours by car, plane, or train to end up doing mostly the same things that they do at home, just in more extreme or excessive ways. The disconnection they wish to achieve form their home,  their job, their responsibilities, they proportionally achieve as well with regard to the place they chose to visit.

Can I blame them for it? I’m not sure about that. Don’t we all deserve a break from our lives sometimes? I guess the problem I seem to have with mass tourism lies not in its motivations but more in the effect it has on its destinations and getaways: mindless littering, disrespect to the environment and people, showing yourself from your worst side while not having to fear any consequences cause you bring in the money.

When we travel somewhere we leave an impact, it is up to us to decide what that impact will be. Whether it will be a positive or a negative one, we will leave a physical, and emotional, an economic, and environmental trace. The awareness about this impact that one inevitably has seems to be rather small in nowadays mass tourism.

Could it be that being a good tourist starts with being a good local in your own home? Is someone who approaches their hometown and its people with care and solidaity a better tourist by default? Or is it in the end, as with all major problems that are a result of a world that moves much too fast, about changing conditions on a larger scale? Could it be that the solution to big masses of ignorant tourists lies in changing the root cause of the problem instead of the symptoms of a burnt-out and overwhelmed society?

Maybe I’m being too harsh on the average tourist here as well, I don’t know. What I can be sure of is that no matter which big city you look at, especially speaking about capitals, inhabitants have learned to accept a basic level of nuisances caused by foreigners streaming in and out of their city in search of entertainment. In exchange for (some of them) making a living off tourists, they tolerate noise, pollution, and other more serious problems like gentrification and the de-personalization of their cities in an attempt to cater to the needs of the temporary dwellers.

When did it become desirable to the majority of tourists to find on their vacation the exact things that they left behind at home

But how did we end up here? When did it become desirable to the majority of tourists to find on their vacation the exact things that they left behind at home, just in slightly different packaging? Wasn’t travel once for the brave and curious that longed to be confronted with the unknown, the unfamiliar? Or am I being too romantic?
A couple of days ago we went to visit a friend of Boldizsárs who currently lives in a hostel in the center of the city. Due to Covid-19 the hostel owner started renting out the rooms semi-permanently to local students since the stream of travelers entering the city died down remarkably.

We were sitting in the common area that is plastered in small messages, bits of memory, written on banknotes from across the world, postcards, shopping receipts and torn-out notebook pages. What they all had in common was a positive tone, a sense of joy, speaking of good times had and good people met, of beauty seen and of the wish to return. And I thought to myself: „This is a place that I would like to stay in as a tourist, a traveler.” These notes seemed to be written by people that, for a short while, found themselves a home in Budapest. Maybe it can be said that someone who feels that romantic urge to connect with a new environment, to travel, and to be in touch with the unknown has to be capable of finding a home somewhere far away from the familiar. To not see the new as separate but as part of oneself. To find a sense of belonging.

In my opinion, that is what makes good tourists. They become part of their environment, become aware of the fact that they will leave a trace in one way or the other, and make an effort for that trace to be a good one.

Today is my last day in Budapest. Soon we will pack our bags and head to the bus station. We will spend a few days in Hamburg, staying with my grand cousin, and then head to Amsterdam where we both live and study. I didn’t feel much like a tourist within the last few weeks, yet I came a long way.