Responsible Traveling and Global Visionaries

I’ve had the amazing fortune of being able to jump from one beach to another in Thailand’s beautiful southern islands. Towering, craggy limestone cliffs signal a dramatic ascent from beneath the sea in epochs past, with powdery white sand blanketing the ocean floor and clear turquoise water lapping at the shore—at that moment, while ensconced underneath the open sky, life couldn’t seem to get any better. Thailand’s uninhibited geophysical gems truly humble the spectator into believing he or she is encountering the sublime.

But then, Euro-techno music, empty bottles and discarded plastic bags littering the beach mar this immaculate work of art by nature. Having paid expensive plane tickets from across the world, hordes of foreign travelers assume entitlement to do whatever they wished: toss their garbage freely, parade about half-nakedly in a Muslim community, withhold sensitivity towards native workers, engage in environmentally damaging packaged enterprises… the list goes on. For the sole pursuit of pleasure, they forget that the place they are visiting is a real place with real communities, and that the damaging consequences of their actions are real.