Is Protest Tourism a real thing?
Or maybe it’s just Travel itself that is innately voyeuristic
It all started with a friend who came to Chile one week after the riots had started. His trip was booked a while ago so even knowing what was happening he decided to come anyway.
Long-Story short when he arrived he asked me if I could bring him to the “Zona-cero”, the hot spot of all this social movement.
So a bit hesitant at first, we went. We got down in the metro Catolica and approached the plaza Italia walking from Vicuña Maquena. One of the first things that hit was the crowd of people no actually in the protest fighting against the carabineros but actually just as mere observers, blog enthusiasts, and selfie explorers. Both national and international. (European or Americans standout from the crowd rather easily)
That’s when it struck me, even if little mentioned, that, for all its dangers, protest can be more exciting than the drudgery of daily life — and when everybody else is doing it, solidarity becomes the fashion.
It was quite a spectacle to see this gladiator-style protesting. The adrenaline rush you got by the screams, shots, explosives broken windows was astonishing and similar in its sensation to a football match.
The scenario was Plaza-Italia. In one corner was the red team ‘Protesters’ against the green team ‘Police’.
I approached a couple of foreigners to ask why where they there.
Their answers where simple :
- “I wanted to see something real”
- ”I just want to tell my friends I was here”
- “I was just too curious to watch what was going to happen.”
We ended up in a building terrace overlooking the whole place,
with “first-class seats” of what was happening.
Maybe it’s our own human nature that draws us to see violence yet from a comfortable and safe spot. Close enough to feel it yet far enough to not be involved. Or maybe it’s just Travel itself that is innately voyeuristic?
Dark Tourism
“It’s a phenomenon that’s on the rise as established sites such as Auschwitz and the September 11 museum in Manhattan enjoy record visitor numbers. Meanwhile, demand is rising among those more intrepid dark tourists who want to venture to the fallout zones of Chernobyl and Fukushima, as well as North Korea and Rwanda. In Sulawesi, Indonesia, Western tourists wielding GoPros pay to watch elaborate funeral ceremonies in the Toraja region, swapping notes afterward on TripAdvisor.
Along the increasingly crowded dark-tourist trail, academics, tour operators and the residents of many destinations are asking searching questions about the ethics of modern tourism in an age of the selfie and the Instagram hashtag.” Simon Usborne
