The Anti-Tourist
Daniel Kalder gives a broad meaning of
what he considers anti-tourism by stating, “For me, anti-tourism is to reject
this common path and to pursue your own trajectories, to step into the wastelands
and forgotten zones that are usually neglected in the standard form of tourism”
(Kalder). By common path Kalder refers to more traditional tourism destination,
whether it be a big city or a national park, and suggests these places come
with a sort of subjectivity. These common destinations have been so well
documented culturally that to get a fresh perspective of them seems difficult. Of
course this view also brings to mind the famous Robert Frost poem “The Road Not
Taken”, which eloquently lays out an individuals choice to go down two paths
and decides to take the one less traveled. Anti-tourism is the road less
traveled and Kalder most certainly takes these roads throughout his travels in
Russia, where he had been living for about 10 years or so (Kalder). The
anti-tourist demands the unknown and in turn takes away much more from those experiences.
In a much broader sense of the meaning I think anti-tourism promotes an individual
to think for them selves and reject the common path, whether that common path be
a landmark or a belief system or a way of life. In modern society ideas,
culture, politics, and everything in between saturates the air and comes at us
from every angle, how do we know what’s up and what’s down? Anti-tourism is
such a great term for defining someone who wants to build anew experiences,
perspectives and discover them on their own terms. It’s important to explore
the unknown; this is what our civilization is built upon and I hope we continue
to explore the unknown. So cheers to the anti-tourist!
works cited:
Kalder, Daniel. Interview. To the Best of Our Knowledge. WPR, Madison. 17 August. 2011.
Cory R Gorman | Film 116 | Fall 2014 UW-Milwaukee
