What Happens When Politics Cuts Off Travel?

[0:00] One day a destination is trending on TikTok, the next day it's on a government travel warning list or on a list of countries you're not able to travel to. Travel feels personal, but borders are political. We often assume that travel freedom is permanent,

[0:17] that with our passport we're able to travel to the list of countries that our passport allows us to. But conflict can instantly reshape mobility. Travelers lose access, locals lose livelihoods or their main source of income, and entire cultural exchanges can disappear overnight. My name is Kiara and I'm the host of Put the Guidebook Down. In this episode,

[0:39] we're going to be investigating what happens when a destination becomes politically inaccessible overnight. We're going to explore how war, sanctions, political tensions, and instability reshape not only where we can go and who suffers when tourism disappears, but how to navigate this as a traveler. So let's just jump right into it.

[1:01] Travel is more political than we admit, or maybe than we want to admit. Whether you're new to travel or have been traveling for a long time, we know that most people don't choose destinations independently. Our destinations are usually chosen based upon media narratives, visa restrictions, safety perceptions, airline routines, government advisories, and most importantly,

[1:24] social media, or what our friends or colleagues recommend to us as a destination. But in this day and age, the US State Department travel advisories influence tourism demands significantly more than it has in the past. This is because, whether we want to admit it or not, politics is influencing

[1:43] how we travel and where we can travel, even if we choose not to participate. Governments shape where we feel safe going from these travel advisories. News and media. And the UN tourism data shows tourism collapsing in regions affected by instability and conflict. Which makes sense, right? So then why do travelers still pretend travel exists outside of politics?

[2:08] Maybe this is because people don't want to acknowledge or participate in the political discussion that's happening in different regions, or they don't want to acknowledge that their travel may be becoming limited based on what decisions governments are making, or they're trying to act independently, saying that while some governments may make decisions,

[2:28] people within that community are still able to make their own choices and dictate how they act to certain foreigner groups that are associated with that government. For example, there is a lot of trends going on in Instagram right now where people are saying, glad I didn't listen to the news and media or stereotypes, because I would have

[2:45] never visited X. And I have my own experience with that. I lived in Moldova. I worked in Moldova for two years and my move was relatively around the same time as the war between Russia and Ukraine had started. And I'll admit I was nervous to go over. My family was concerned. People were like,

[3:05] why are you going towards an area that is actively close to conflict and having some locals align with a certain side of the war? And when I got there... Sure, there was some relations and discussions and concerns around the war, but it was mostly unaffected.

[3:23] People were just staying aware of the news and the dangers that happened around it, but people were still safe, open, welcoming, and going about their day to day. And this happened again later when there was the whole political... scandal around some of the leaders in the Moldovan government being associated with

[3:43] one of the influences of Russia into their government and they had to resign from their role, which Western media said and started displaying it as the Moldovan government collapsing, at which point all my friends and people who knew I was in Moldova started messaging me if I was okay.

[4:03] To be honest, I didn't even know this was happening. So I was like, what are you talking about? And after a quick discussion with some of my local friends and looking at local news, I realized what happened. It was like, guys, don't worry. This is literally just someone stepping down. The government here is fine.

[4:19] They're still working through it. It just shows you the extremes that can happen when you're letting one side of an audience dictate how that narrative is told or news is conveyed to the external groups and environment. But needless to say, governments still shape where we feel safe going.

[4:35] This is a common thing with the US State Department travel advisories giving the different ratings and levels to different countries based on our relations or local conflict or global conflict, et cetera. But this is also where we start to see how our relations and conversations, but for our governments with other governments influencing where we may feel

[4:59] welcomed as a traveler or unsafe going. And it's not our fault necessarily, right? Because it's coming from above us with the government, but still as a citizen of that country, we're still aware that maybe those perceptions or we might not be as well received just because of our citizenship to those countries we're visiting. So

[5:19] this is all I need to say, that sometimes destinations don't become dangerous, they become politically inconvenient for us as travelers. So we need to then continue saying, then who suffers when the tourism stops to these countries or for people just in the industry as a whole? And the first thing we're going to say is, you know,

[5:39] local businesses, that's where our mind goes to, and the local economy that relies on it. So when travelers stop coming, you see a decline in the income from the tourism sector. Maybe some locals start losing their jobs or not being able to meet their quota for their travel,

[5:57] but then we're not necessarily taking to this whole other theme, which is we lose this untouchable currency of cultural exchange and sharing. So when travelers stop coming to a destination, we lose another outlet for people to engage with a local culture, narrative, and people, and let those external sources tell the narrative and story in their own perspective,

[6:24] removed from the environment where that conflict or where that travel would normally take place. So governments aren't necessarily the ones that hurt the most. It's usually the ordinary people that live in that destination. And if we need more examples, thinking about the Sri Lanka economic crisis, Lebanon tourism collapse, the, as mentioned earlier,

[6:46] the Ukraine tourism shutdown when it came to the war beginning and still continuing to this day, in other regions just experiencing a tourism decline as a result of conflict or just government sanctions cutting them off from the rest of the world. Tourism contributes over 10% of global GDP and many economies and small island and

[7:09] developing nations are especially dependent on tourism. So when borders close, it's not influencers or the travelers who suffer first. It's the locals. Which, that makes sense, right? But it feeds again into this bigger picture of are we becoming more disconnected globally when these types of situations occur? What does it feel like to lose access to cultural exchange?

[7:35] And... would say 100% that when we start to have these restrictions or blockades from certain citizens or countries being able to participate in exchange or tourism, we start to see closed communities develop which develops more suspicion of foreigners and maybe more closed mindedness to participating in discussions or exchange of people beyond their local community.

[8:02] And as a linguist, this is something that we have been trying to tackle with AI or talking about language preservation, is we have these isolated communities that still live in their own without external influence or interactions, which mostly is because of their languages. So because they don't necessarily know or have access to another language that has

[8:25] a greater speaking base, they remain closed into their own community where they only speak their local language and attract people from their culture, background, and area, which depending on how you look at it can be good or bad, right? So they're able to maintain their cultural identity and preserve their culture and heritage, but at the same time,

[8:47] it's keeping them closed off from interacting with other communities, which can limit their exchange of ideas and sharing of knowledge. And then so this whole close off can develop a suspicion towards foreigners and it can create fear, which then reshapes curiosity. It can...

[9:10] have a couple of different impacts in that fear from not wanting to connect with other people or being scared to go to another group of people because of the unknown, or maybe how external sources have shaped that narrative without actually being there,

[9:26] but it also can encourage some people to want to be more curious to go into the unknown and have that experience. I think one of the first destinations that immediately comes to mind for this is Papua New Guinea, which is just beginning to get some more exposure into the travel community because

[9:44] many of these groups that were once closed off and not very friendly to foreigners are now allowing or... I don't know if necessarily not allowing everyone, but more foreigners are making the attempt to go and see that region of the world and the local people to create more understanding and positive spotlight onto those

[10:05] types of communities that once maybe were not always interpreted to be the most welcoming to foreigners, or again shaped by other narratives that were not their own. So it creates more curiosity for people to want to visit that part of the world, but still with the fear as people try to overcome the stereotypes that were once

[10:24] portrayed from this Western media. So it really depends on how we let fear shape that curiosity as a result from this disconnection and closed off that comes from when these political changes happen. And if we think about it on the bigger picture and we zoom out, travelers then lose opportunities for language learning, intercultural connection,

[10:46] perspectives and just humanization as a whole. Because as humans, we need connection. Some might argue and disagree with that as we grow more and more into the technology era and have AI creating all of these other outlets for us to maybe find that connection in a different way.

[11:07] But at the end of the day, it's still connection and community that makes us human. And research shows that intercultural exchange reduces prejudice and increases empathy. And one of the bigger things, you know, is like why people want to study abroad, or schools and organizations push study abroad, is because of this, and it

[11:24] also links to higher global awareness. The less we meet ordinary people abroad, the easier it becomes to fear them. So bridging the gap into closed communities or parts of the world that were once not allowed to be visited allows us to create more understanding and space for conversations for that sharing of culture, perspectives, and language.

[11:47] So then how do we travel ethically during instability, right? Because while we may want to travel to a certain destination, we might not be permitted to because of government restrictions, visas, and passport restrictions as well, or just what we're not allowed to, or maybe because of the

[12:07] perception from people in that destination or boycotting of travelers coming to that area. So one of the things that really has started coming to mind, and there'll be another episode on this, is this whole idea of overtourism and how travelers are trying to go to like Barcelona, for example, and the locals are just unhappy with the high

[12:27] level of tourism, which is creating overcrowding, and they're starting to boycott having more foreigners come visit that city. That's a whole other situation. But what I want to talk about is more from the other side of, should travelers be boycotting unstable destinations? And this is especially with like areas of conflict or maybe where that there is a

[12:48] system, a country having conflict with another country. Should we be boycotting that? And I think that's a little too harsh to say, with like boycotting it. Because again, once we start having these negative actions and perspectives towards other cultures or regions, we're already starting that close mindedness towards them, and once the conflict is

[13:09] resolved, or they find some resolution in the best way that they can for reaching understanding, are we just gonna pretend that it never happened? Like that's just a hard on and off switch to go about, right? So the way I'd like to reframe it is, ethical travel is still possible during

[13:26] political tensions, and this really goes into the whole idea of being open minded as much as possible and being aware of your safety. So trying to remain open by having that understanding that just because one's government is having conflict with your country or other countries, or however the relationship is going,

[13:50] everyone that you meet in that country might not necessarily agree with it. And I feel a lot of people may agree with this or try to challenge it, which I welcome it, but I meet so many people who are traveling from one country that's having some disagreements or maybe closed

[14:04] mindedness to another area of the world, and they start by saying, I'm so sorry, like I don't agree with this. Or people try to jump into the conversation and say, so then what do you think about how your government is acting? Which immediately is like fishing for some kind of reaction or having automatically

[14:22] implemented that negative closed mindedness into the conversation when it wasn't even needed or even prompted. So having the open-mindedness and recognizing, giving people space to be the best, or being a good person before jumping to conclusions, and just being open-minded that not everyone necessarily agrees with what was happening in their country, right? So that's number one.

[14:47] Now number two is back to that safety component, right? So before planning your itinerary to a destination, really reading the news, travel restrictions, guidance, or even talking to people from that area, such as tour guides or tour companies and others who have visited a destination, before formulating your opinions about whether to visit a country or not.

[15:09] And this is, I don't want to say then like we're going to be doing exploitative crisis tourism, which I forget the term exactly people use now, but when people visit a destination because they want to capitalize on what's happening in the area to feed their own motives, or because they're like, well, there's conflict here,

[15:28] so it's gonna be cheaper, so we might as well go there. I think it's disaster tourism. So not, we're not talking about that, but we're saying that there is an ethical way to do it, and trying not to be exploitative on the crises or tensions that are existing in another area. So what can you do?

[15:44] You can research local perspectives, not just the headlines. Check at least three sources, have conversations with people in the local area, and be open-minded. The second is to support locally owned businesses. A lot of people may want to defer to larger corporations, especially if they're visiting an area with a little bit of instability,

[16:03] just because they may think logically, if the big company is still operating there then it must be okay. This isn't always necessarily true, and the locally owned businesses are going to actually know what's happening on the ground level. Those larger companies might not actually have someone locally operating there or from even the area working in that company.

[16:24] So talk to locals. Number three, understand where tourism money goes. So especially during conflict with people who are visiting those countries, where is that money going to go and where is it funding towards? Is it just funding towards

[16:45] the government's initiatives for fueling their perspective or approach to the conflict? Or is it truly going to remain with the locals and help them in their own business or local economy? The fourth one is what I mentioned already, avoid disaster tourism, where you're trying to capitalize on a destination's instability for your own content consumption or just to get like a better deal on the price. Like

[17:07] let's be respectful here. And the last one is to follow local voices and journalists. They're on the ground. They're trying to document it from a local's perspective, not feeding into a larger corporation's headlines, and they most likely have been living there their entire lives and have better historical context when writing their stories.

[17:27] Ethical travel starts when curiosity becomes responsibility. So when you're planning your next travel itinerary, reflect on the following questions. Are you avoiding destinations because they're unsafe or because they're unfamiliar? How much of your travel worldview comes from external media narratives? And on the bigger picture, what relationships disappear when borders close? As a fellow traveler,

[17:52] this last question has been one that I reflect on as I start planning more of my future travels, because with a lot of the global conflict that is going on and instability, we see places being added to the not allowed to travel list almost overnight, and it

[18:09] makes it really hard to plan your travel in advance, especially when you wanted to visit a destination just because of your own curiosity and looking to get more perspective and immersion into an area where maybe you never would have visited or don't have much information on, and it can be a difficult time. So let's have some

[18:29] more open-mindedness and grace when it comes to making your travel selections and when you're starting conversations with people who may come from different backgrounds, areas, other parts of the world. Travel doesn't just move people, it moves understanding. So when borders close or conflict restricts travel, we develop more closed-mindedness. We need to counter it with more open-mindedness,

[18:56] more conversations with more people, to fuel curiosity and not fear. If this episode resonated with you or anyone causing you to think deeper about how you approach your travel, please share and subscribe to our channel. If you have a story or like to share your thoughts on my last question,

[19:16] especially of how relationships disappear or what relationships disappear when borders close, please share it in the comments. Otherwise, thank you so much everyone and catch you on the next episode. Bye!