Isn't it time for Tourism and Entertainment in the Western World to imagine (new) Righteousness practices?

I have an ethical issue.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to attend in Manhattan RTO Summit East, an event which facilitates the connection between Receptive Tour Operators (RTO) and service suppliers of the US tourism industry.

Suffice to say that between having a Ukrainian born business partner and having many members of our development team residing in Ukraine, RTO Summit was no longer a top priority. But I was still there and committed to make the best out of this great opportunity.

Attending educational sessions and business appointments provided a good distraction from the continuous flow of shocking news from Eastern Europe. And surprisingly enough, nobody at the Summit seemed to acknowledge loudly that there was a conflict, a war, on the other side of the world with the potential to shift the fragile balance of the free world.

All the while, I was having long lost echoes of words which had been uttered by a French Tour Operator client of mine back in 2011, when I was working as a Receptive Tour Operator: "Lucky you, because of the damn "Arab Winter" happening in Syria (and Libya), I have to substitute those destinations with New York weekends and West Coast tours, for my long haul clients". Back in the present, a few hours later, I was to hear one of the guests on the Receptive Tour Operator panel discussion use the same formulation, with Arab Winter being replaced by "War in Ukraine".

This echo turned into an absurd alignment of equations in my head: French groups enjoying historical tours in Persia (a.k.a. Iran), Russians sunbathing in Majorca, Chinese contemplating the Grand Canyon, Canadians winter flocking to Havana, Americans sightseeing in Dubai...

Tourism happens to be the strangest of commodity, inbound and outbound visitors corresponding to positive and negative signs on the balance sheet. And all of us operators and suppliers - traders of its stock - had been encouraged for years to help indiscernibly the flow of visitors and goods; made to believe that inbound visits to our western world shores or outbound visit to their not-so-free lands would most certainly help the cause of freedom and democracy in the world, while moving currencies and creating fun hospitality jobs along the way.

For the last 25 years, Destination Marketing Organizations and Tourism Ministries everywhere have embarked on a "peaceful" trade war to lure and satisfy the needs and wants of all the tourist hordes on earth. In the natural course of things, getting a chunk of the 140+ annual millions of Chinese globetrotters (pre-Covid) became the most coveted prize, the greatest bounty in the tourism spheres. Each converted dollar/euro/yen/peso those visitors spend would equate an "Obliviate" spell, à la Harry Potter, cleansing them (and ourselves) of their own geosocial responsibilities. How noble.

In retrospect, I realize there was just too much wishful thinking on our part. This is not the 80s or 90s anymore: by the 2000s and 2010s, being able to buy a Louis Vuitton bag in Sydney was no longer going to persuade a Chinese national of ever becoming a dissident. A new aggression on Taiwan's sovereignty or another Uyghurs genocide would not likely turn into another Tiananmen Square protest because of/thanks to Tourism.

With the exception of some jihadists, autocrats and dictators have figured out how to play a Machiavellian game, a new "Panem et Circenses" formula: let's use your bread, your circuses and your technologies to strengthen our hold and sophisticate our brainwashing on our plebe. Let's drive your cars, cheer your sports, wear your suits and ties, like a wolf in granny's clothing; our manufacturing and our resource trades (and nuclear threats) will safeguard us from your nosiness. We'll maintain the most important say on our narrative with propaganda to counter every message you put out there. This way, we'll maintain virtual chains on our populace and a leash on your attempts to mingle in our affairs (not to mention we'll occasionally tangle yours).

Although I'm outrageously oversimplifying things, it seems we were still made, in no small parts, complicit in perpetuating a myth and I wonder how my peers and I can extricate ourselves from this moral dilemma. In my mind, this problem supersedes all the other problems our empathetic industry has courageously and repeatedly addressed in the free world: gender parity, LGBTQ+ acceptance, sustainability, accessibility, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) norms adoption... Always looking towards social progress, increasing our share of collective responsibility. Mind you, I am not saying that we've fully resolved any of those issues; but they no longer suffer from lack of awareness and positive discussions are happening.

Yet repeatedly, our fight to ensure our acceptance of collective responsibilities has been weaponized and turned into a ridiculous farce because we lack the context of our visitors and we could never spend enough time to explain our own.

Our travel sector is ill-fitted, unprepared and incapable today of dealing with efficient ways of conveying the values we hold dearest, to those who look at them with the simplest of indifference.

Indifference is the start of failure (French proverb)

I can't remain silent or turn a blind eye to the situation in the world and continue using an invalidated myth, complacency or greed as reasons for our inaction.

On Wednesday March 2nd 2022, in the early hours of the morning, President Zelenskyy made an impassionate call to all the Jews in the world: "don't you see what's going on here? And that's why it's important that millions of Jews around the world do not remain silent to these sights".

And I thought to myself, perhaps further than the boundaries of Zelenskyy's plea (which I still intend to honor): "How did things go so wrong in tourism and what could I, what could we have done differently?", giving birth to the above reflection.

Expedia announced the same day that it was stopping the sale of travel into and out of Russia. AirBnB did the same 48 hours later. But is that enough? Too much? Too early? Too late?

Now I'd like to ask you this simple but honest question: isn't it time for Tourism and location-based Entertainment in the Western World to imagine (new) Righteousness practices?