What kind of experiences do you want?

I should really highlight more photography from other photographers…

Photographer Jörg Brüggemann’s project Same Same But Different:

Within the last decade backpacking has literally become a global youth movement. Every year millions of young people from first world countries travel the planet taking with them nothing more then their backpacks. They are hoping to find freedom, cultural exchanges and a lot of fun. It has become a tourist industry on its own that has developed its very own touristic infrastructure. In some places like Ko Pha-Ngan in Thailand, Arambol in Goa or Vang Vieng in Laos individual or alternative travel is no longer existing. It has been transferred into a different kind of packaged tour.

I love Brüggemann’s project; his images of Western backpackers in non-Western countries really struck a chord with me, especially since I have been to many of the same places (e.g. Goa, Jaisalmer, Chiang Mai, Hampi, Himachal Pradesh) and seen the exact same sights.

But it’s not necessarily the chord you think.

The popular disdain for packaged tours and tourists by “dedicated” travelers is understandable but fundamentally misplaced.

Although I tend to be fairly sensitive to travel destinations changing due to the impact of increased tourism, I also recognize that tourists and travelers each have their own right to experience a place and a destination in their own way, for their own reasons.

It’s up to us to determine what kind of experiences we want.

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Talking about experiences, what kind of experiences are you creating through the people you work with?

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(Brüggemann via Conscientious)

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Nomadic Matt 1 month ago 1 point
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in many ways it is like a packaged tour. but it is still a lot of fun and you can do it locally too, it just takes more time....

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Taylor Davidson 1 month ago 1 point
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In many areas it is indeed like a package tour: everyone does the same basic set of activities and see the same basic places, whether we choose to create it locally or not. But at the end of the day, we create our own experiences: it's up to us to create what we want.

It's not just what we do, but how we do it.

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