Ines Lopez

As I was strolling today through a touristic beach village I felt deeply sad.

Well to be honest, first I felt annoyed and angry at all the howlers offering me their stuff. I lost count of the amount of times someone asked me if I wanted a massage. Sometimes I would reply no thank you, but I must admit some other times I didn’t even reply at all, which can be and probably is rude, but after the 20th time I didn’t have it in me. Of course the 21st person is not to blame for the previous 20..

After my annoyance at the whole situation I started questioning what would this people be doing if this town weren’t focused on tourism. Right now they are all competing for tourist attention to be able to make some money. Meter after meter is the same type of stuff, selling massage, food, drink or low cost souvenirs. For kms of pedestrian walk all the business are the same. And I don’t even think all of them would make enough money to even cover the rental costs and there has to be something going on underneath to keep some of them afloat. But probably that is a different trail of thought.

Going back to the humans doing the selling. Clearly they earn enough from it to make it worthwhile. That inspired two questions:

1. Why were those types of sells worthwhile doing in the first place?
2. What would these sellers be doing if tourism wouldn’t work that way or the town didn’t have tourism?

My take on the first point is that through marketing and the working system that we have now people need a quick break from routine and they are used to evade themselves and compensate themselves from the displeasures of their day to day life by taking a massage on the beach, drinking alcohol and eating loads. The occasional magnet reminds them the fact that there were there, and also show it to people when they come to their home. And I am not saying this with judgement in my words but with sadness. Because I used to bring magnets home not that long ago.

I travelled on my holidays to evade myself from the deep void I had inside. I liked my job but I knew deep inside that I should be brave and do something different with my life. The only way to quiet that voice was travelling as much as I could. I too bough magnets to remind myself of the places I had been. I was never a big restaurant spender on holidays, I rather travelled to more destination and eat sensible priced food. But I totally understand wanting to splash on a meal or ten while you are on a break and not looking forward to coming back to the life that is now on pause.

So I get how all the routine we live through back at home sets us up for this type of tourism purchasing. I also know that culturally we have been told this is the normal thing to do when you travel. I don’t recall any advertisement about the need to buy a fridge magnet as proof that you have gone on holiday but somehow it feels to me that has been ingrained in our minds that we should buy cheap stuff wherever we go and fill our bags with it.

That is deeply sad because the money we are spending in those things, though minimal for us it is not minimal for the planet. If each magnet or small home decoration was priced considering the real value of the planet resources and the carbon footprint to manufacture it and deliver it to where it is being bought, it would become a luxury item. And on top of that, sooner or later, a lot of those things may end up in a garbage bag when we are tired of it or someone inherits our stuff.

This made me wonder if the western culture of work-holiday has created this tourism spending culture that is now the livelihood of so many people around the planet. The tourism consumption driving what people should be doing. This brings me to my second question. What would the sellers be doing if not this?

Right now they are fulfilling a market demand, or a capitalism demand more precisely. If this wouldn’t happen perhaps they would dig deep and find what they are passionate about and what they are good at and share that with the world. Perhaps some are musicians, perhaps others are painters, sculptures, accountants, mechanics you name it.

The problem is that in a small touristy town you may not have clients for any type of profession so they would all go into the tourism industry because it is the most likely scenario to earn some living.

But I dream with a society where people can focus on their craft and share it with the world being safe that they would be able to make a decent living. That housing, food, healthcare would be covered. That people doesn’t have to sell out their inspiration or gifts for fear of not being able to make it financially. Then if you apply more effort you get increased finances but at least you can have a humane living.

This would require a complete change of the socio-economic system that we have running everywhere. Right now the upper layers dictate what is valuable and what is not and set salaries according to what the system considers a good job, necessary for the perpetuation of the system itself. They say is “the market” but let’s be honest, the market is defined by humans, it is not an entity on its own. This is why a banker earns so much more money than a policeman or a firewoman. But if I am in danger I am far more likely to want one of the later to come saving, the banker is not going to help me just because they know how to input numbers into a machine or sell stock at Wall Street.

The rest of the people have to choose a profession based on their economic desires and sometimes also factoring in a dislike or not on the subject at hand as well as how many resources they have to invest in their future (university costs or setting up a business). Some lawyers or mechanics may have chosen that path because they were interested in the field, others may have done it because they saw it as a way to make a living. Then you have the entrepreneurs that are able to bypass the establishment to an extent, setting. up their own salaries once their business is big enough. But even within these guys there are a lot of people that are doing things just because they know people would buy them, not because their inspiration and gifts are in it.

So in this different economy of my dreams a touristy town may have people wanting to sell massages and magnets if they feel that selling those things is what keeps them happy. But you may have in that same pedestrian walk poets, fabric makers, story tellers and any other profession you may think of, offering their gifts to the people with the certainty that their economic needs will be met. Some would get sales and some won’t but all will have their rent, food, basic needs and healthcare sorted.

I always had that dream since I am a teen. Recently I am reading the Celestine Prophecy book series and discovered that my dream society is not only mine, someone else has thought of it. I can only wish enough people come to this conclusion so that it can be brought to life.

And in that type of economy, I invite you to take a deep breath and feel in your body what would you be doing?