Holiday Hijack: smaltzy or sustainable

 TV show busts luxury holiday myth with local heart

Holiday hijack sets out to show tourists the reality behind romantic, luxurious destinations.

We all know that there is a sleazy impoverished side to most ‘luxury’ holidays. Nobody that’s been in the industry for any time believes, for instance, that those hard working, well-turned out staff on luxury cruises sleep in luxury quarters.

Our industry is in the business of selling dreams, creating illusions at the lowest cost, and selling them on to clients who don’t really want to know the mechanics of making them. Why should they, after all? They are holidaymakers not investigative journalists.

Our clients want to believe the smiles and the warm heartfelt welcomes. All they want to know is that nobody has been harmed in the making of their exotic, luxury experience. And the fact is that, by and large, they haven't.

Everybody knows, or should know, that you don’t make a fortune selling souvenirs, waiting at table, making beds or doing any of the many little jobs in a destination. And everybody knows, or should know, that living conditions are pretty bad in less developed countries.

Except, of course, the majority of tourists. After all our selling message is a simple ‘Come with us to paradise’, it isn’t ‘Come with us to a beautiful place that very much isn’t paradise for the impoverished people who actually live there – but it will be for you if you avert your eyes to the difficulties that the local inhabitants face.’

The truth is that if we sold the whole picture, we wouldn’t get many takers so we use the airbrush a bit, well, a lot.

Good thing too, if we tried to sell the unvarnished truth all these beautiful poor destinations wouldn’t get the bit of money that we do bring.

So ‘Holiday Hijack’, currently running on UK’s Channel4, is making an easy hit by hijacking luxury-seeking tourists and introducing them to REAL people who show them how difficult their lives really are. The myth was always there ready and waiting to be exploited.

And is the production company is doing everyone a service by exposing how cringe-makingly stupid and thoughtless these tourists are, and showing them ways that they can actually help locals by eating in their local restaurants and buying their locally-made goods?

But whatever we want to believe, or want to blame, even these specially-chosen holidaymakers aren’t actually stupid or thoughtless – as is very evident when they make true friends of their hi-jackers and realize their plight. Then the tears flow and the arms are outstretched.

And it was never the holidaymaker’s responsibility to find out the socio-economic situation in any ‘luxury’ destination – otherwise the more sensitive would holiday at home. And who would lose then?

The people who really know about destinations and create the bridge between rich and poor are the tour operators. The tourists just buy in to what they are told, thankfully.

Many operators nowadays are realizing this and taking responsibility for their effect on destinations – hence the work that the Travel Foundation, Planeterra, WWF, and many others, are doing on their behalf to help destinations. It isn’t enough, of course but it’s many steps in the right direction of making shows like ‘Holiday Hijack’ impossible.

In the meantime, we should get braced for an onslaught of destination reality – judging by the audience figures for another show of the same ilk – ‘Tourism and the Truth’ http://www.watershedtv.co.uk/

Lined up behind is ‘Local Perspectives on Tourism’ http://www.localperspectives.net who have interviewed a bunch of locals about their attitides.

To see current episodes of ‘Holiday Hijack’ visit: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/holiday-hijack

Valere Tjolle: Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011 Special Offers HERE