A monarchy in the spotlight and what it has to do with travel
Confirmation of Queen Elizabeth II’s death created hour upon hour of mournful traditional news segments, with the occasional outlier. It felt like a different planet compared to those who synthesized the news on social media.
TikTok users flocked to IrishTok and DesiTok. They wanted to hear about how the monarchy via British colonialism hurt their communities.
Take the dissonance in this twitter thread as another example. BBC Africa, which is based in Nairobi but answers to leadership in London, published this video of the Queen’s “long relationship with Africa.” Several users pointed out that colonial oppression is not a relationship.
So… what does all this have to do with traveling?
We’re at the beginning of a reckoning of all the systems that formed from colonialism, including leisure travel.
We hear colonial history in today’s travel phrases: exploring and discovering places and describing said destinations as exotic. Read this article to learn about more problematic language.
Today’s travel norms are overdue for decolonization, but what will replace them?
The real Panama tour in Panama City, hosted by tour guide Victor Perez.
I don’t think people will stop traveling altogether, but I do believe more people will want to travel in more responsible ways.
Putting original communities—the inheritors of the land— and marginalized folks in charge of how they want, or don’t want, their hometowns to be visited must be at the heart of the way forward.