Let's imagine a tourist destination as our own home, and a tourist as a guest who brings gifts to that house: their money, time, trust, and recommendations to others.
We often tend to trivialize the word “tourist”, considering it to be someone who comes along the way to “sleep over” and “see something”. However, the modern traveler is looking for much more than just a tour and wants to know where we sleep, what we eat, where we go out, what our yards, streets and riverbanks are like. He wants to try our food, walk our paths and meet our people. In short, he wants to become a part of our everyday life for a few days and is willing to pay a fair price for it.
Even by a rough estimate, the average tourist in our destination spends 100 euros a day. That amount is quickly and easily distributed throughout the local economy, from bed and breakfast, to morning coffee and lunch in a restaurant, to taxis or car rentals, fuel, souvenirs, local products, etc.
And how do we behave when we expect guests in our own home? We don't leave dirty socks in the middle of the room, we don't pile garbage bags behind the door, and we certainly don't throw an old mattress in the yard. We tidy up, air out, dust, and often buy flowers for the table. By doing so, we show respect for both ourselves and the person who is visiting us. So why should it be any different with our destination?
There is more perfection in a drop of water,
Albert Einstein
than in any machine
which man made.
Why is it acceptable to us that the containers are overflowing, that plastic and garbage are deposited near rivers and lakes, right next to the roads that tourists and our children pass by every day? If we carefully protect our living room, why does the riverbank serve as a landfill? If we were to put things away around the house so that guests wouldn't trip over them, how can we, with a clear conscience, leave garbage on the shore and naively expect that no one will notice?
Statistics and global trends do not forgive negligence. According to data from relevant tourism platforms and organizations, more than 70% of today's travelers directly consider environmental awareness and cleanliness when choosing a destination. A bad review due to an illegal landfill on the way to a viewpoint, or a photo of garbage on social networks, instantly erases dozens of good ratings. A tourist who stumbles upon our negligence rarely returns.
To change this, we must understand that tourism is not just the job of tourism workers, utility companies, or local caterers, it is a reflection of the entire society.
Change requires concrete steps, from ceasing to view public property as something "alien", and understanding that riverbanks, forests and streets are our backyard, through competent services that must ensure adequate infrastructure, because it is necessary, and is often the very problem that builds on individual negligence, to zero tolerance towards those who destroy, either through citizen warning initiatives or stricter application of legal penalties.
A destination is a mirror of our culture of living. As much as we care about the place we live in, it will be just as important to our guests tomorrow. Cleanliness, order and care for the environment must be the minimum of our personal and collective self-respect.
"The waste and destruction of our natural resources, the stripping and depletion of the land instead of increasing its usefulness
Theodore Roosevelt
"This will significantly reduce the opportunities for progress that we enjoy for our children, and which we are obliged to hand down to them - larger and more developed."