The longed-for “return to normal” after the Covid-19 pandemic includes the opportunity to travel. The dramatic decline in tourism activities marks a clear turning point in a growth that has been unbroken for decades. While some residents of tourist hotspots have found this break to be quite beneficial, those who wish to travel have seen it as an unheard-of restriction of freedom. The first relaxation of travel warnings and restrictions was the reason to target the “most beautiful low-incidence destinations” on the travel pages of the newspapers. Now it is a matter of (more than) making up for what has been missed under the motto “revenge travel”.
From the perspective of the sociology of tourism, this development is not surprising - despite its contradictions: It may be surprising that holidays, which are supposed to leave everyday life behind, become the vanishing point of a "normal" life. However, this is only logical in so far as modern tourism has long since made the escape from everyday life a routine, which has only been suspended for a short time. This is followed by the observation that there is “freedom” to travel more in a legal than in a sociological sense: You are allowed to travel again, but for that very reason you have to, if you don't want to get into explanations. The decision as to where to go is also socially regulated: the free choice of travel destination leads to the fact that you often encounter others who apparently had the same idea.
I hope you enjoy my vacation
In a recently published article, British tourism researchers take these contradictions as an opportunity to shed light on the relationship between tourism and freedom with the help of Jean-Paul Sartre.
They refer primarily to Sartre's portrayal of the “mauvaise foi”, that is, the “bad faith” or the insincerity that arises from the denial of individual freedom.
The waiter in the café, according to Sartre's famous example, who embodies his role with admirable elegance, can only do this "insincerely" because he (over) fulfills the expectations of others, not his own.
Does this, ask the authors, not also apply to tourists?
Indeed, it is easy to find examples that the freedom of tourism is only an apparent one. So not only is traveling itself regularly experienced as a social obligation, but also the way in which it is presented. If you go to Pisa, you can't ignore the selfie with the "Leaning Tower". In particular, through impressive templates that circulate via social media channels, expectations have spread to recreate specific motives - and the experiences of others. Hell, that's - loosely based on Sartre - not just the others, but above all their well-made pictures on Instagram. The encouragement of the followers, but not that of the existential philosophy, is secured by those who always see their own holiday experiences through the eyes of others and arrange and stage them accordingly.
Flight shame instead of freedom of travel
Choosing the right means of transport shows how difficult it can be not only to meet other people's expectations, but also to meet your own expectations. The authors see air travelers in particular in a “moral dilemma”: Given their limited free time, many individual travel needs can only be realized with the help of an airplane. The fact that the greenhouse gases emitted pollute the environment and contribute to climate change makes some travelers feel guilty. Many leave it at that, some try to calm their conscience through CO2 compensation - only a few give up flying altogether. But in times of “flight shame”, the authors themselves do not see the renunciation as a guarantee to act honestly.Anyone who decides against the trip to the dream destination under the impression of the expected criticism from climate protectionists - possibly from their own family - sacrifices the realization of their own wishes to social pressure.
However, the ambivalence and contradiction of tourism will not be resolved by the fact that, in the sense of existential-philosophical sincerity, in the future, blurred photos without recognition value will be used to document those air travel that one undertakes to realize one's own identity, in spite of Greta Thunberg. Realistically speaking, consistency and authenticity expectations of the tourist's social role are in any case only slightly pronounced. It can therefore be doubted whether more sincerity is socially desirable at all: Once the reputation has been ruined, it travels quite unabashedly.