Who am I?
I am 30, live in Berlin, female, in a partnership, am self-employed, like to travel and am actually quite nice.
Dear M.,
We haven’t seen each other for far too long. I really wanted to come and visit you in Australia this year, but unfortunately I haven’t found the time to prepare for the tourism test. Besides, I’ve already reached my sustainability quota and I’m not allowed to fly this year. Maybe it will work out next year – the fact that I know you means that I at least only have to take the minor test, which doesn’t require quite as much preparation. But especially the reflection test makes my stomach ache – also because I still know so little about Aborigines and would have to deal with the privilege of my skin color and origin in a fundamental and detailed way first.
I don’t have a stomach ache because it doesn’t interest me or I wouldn’t consider it important – quite the opposite. However, it is a topic where I might even have to take a preparation course and time-wise it just wasn’t possible this year! But even if I’m a little sad now about not being able to visit you, this topic and especially the topic of sustainability is very close to my heart and I know that I’m refraining from traveling for a good cause (apart from the fact that I’m just not prepared enough to be a good tourist).
Let’s holophone soon, even though I actually find the retro trend of writing letters quite fun too, but it’s hard to handwrite instead of type. My muscles are not really used to it.
Hugging you from far away and thinking of you, always! Yours, L.
– Original version: German –
Wishes and hopes behind the image of the future:
1. “For the future of tourism I hope that…”
German tourists will generally fly less and travel more sustainably.
2. “If I could wish for anything at all, I would…”
like to see a future in which German tourists would better reflect on and use their privilege – and also better prepare themselves culturally for traveling to an unknown country.
3. “If I were a powerful politician, I would…”
make tourism or tourist travel more difficult: People would have to show/prove beforehand that they have intensively studied the culture and history of the country they are going to – and that they also generally have a “clean conscience” as far as their climate footprint for that particular year is concerned.
Further images of the future of tourism:
