I’ve been traveling Southeast Asia for a while now. And in every hostel common area there’s always a version of the same conversation. “This place has too many tourists now.” “You shouldn’t post secret locations.” “I only go where locals actually go.” Etc …
what that conversation actually is, when you strip the philosophy out of it, is a group of tourists complaining about tourists. People who flew here on a plane, sleep in hostels, and move to the next destination in a week.. deciding that their version of tourism is morally above everyone else’s. It’s not.
Tourism is jobs. A family running a guesthouse. A guy renting motorbikes. A woman with a food stall. In places where there is genuinely nothing else no industry no infrastructure no opportunity tourism is the difference between a kid going to school or not. Wanting to keep a place undiscovered is wanting people to stay poor so your experience feels more exotic. I don’t think most people mean it that way. But that’s what the position is.
You want the aesthetic of simplicity without any responsibility toward it. Locals notice. You are not as beloved in those communities as you think. You are tolerated.
The most real moments I’ve had traveling had nothing to do with avoiding tourist spots. They happened because I was genuinely curious, respectful, and treated people like family instead of props. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. You can have a hollow experience in the most remote village on earth and a life changing one at the busiest tourist spot it depends entirely on how you show up.
Travel should make you more humble not less. More open not more convinced you figured it out. Some people go everywhere and learn nothing because they were never actually open. They were just collecting places to perform about later.
The tourist doing the popular tour and spending money at local businesses is contributing more to that place than the guy who found a secret waterfall and told nobody about it.
You don’t hate tourists. You hate being ordinary. And that’s a you problem not a tourism problem.