Travel Shame, Your Next Vacation, and You

By Robert McGarvey

Think twice – maybe thrice – before clicking post on that image of you in Merida with an icy margarita in one fist and a carnitas taco in the other.

Be similarly circumspect before posting that image of you sitting in the Ephesus stadium looking holy.

Or maybe you are in Belarus living out a LeCarre fantasy, dodging Karlas pro and anti government and you want to memorialize that moment with a Facebook post.

All three countries are on the short list of international destinations heartily welcoming US passport holders and, yes, it’s a list dotted with destinations you probably don’t want to go to (Tunisia anyone?).  

At least there are places you can get in on hols but what you probably don’t want to do is publicly brag about any of this. Because we now have entered an era of travel shaming, a status corroborated by articles on the topic in both the New York Times and the Washington Post.  Even trade pub Travel Weekly shrugs that travel shaming is on the rise.

The basic idea: there simply is something wrong about non essential travel in a global pandemic that already has killed 850,000 of us, will likely kill over one million by Thanksgiving, and where there is no end to the sickness and death in sight.

Add in the economic ruination in much of the globe – and especially in the US which has an economy that is the worst US economy in 90 years – and where hundreds of millions lack the money for proper shelter, medical care, and nutrition, it just seems the worst kind of flaunting to travel to luscious locations and brag about it in social media.

Sure, travel has always been about conspicuous consumption, a term coined by American economist Thorstein Veblin, and simply put means buying stuff to impress the Joneses and Smiths. You know about the dreaded 1950s vacation slideshows. But now social media – especially Facebook and Instagram – have made it terribly easy to post pix, even videos, from trips and we have responded by posting acres of the stuff.  

But now is not the time.  Post and you just may trigger a tidal wave of acrimony, accusing you of being an ugly American and worse. Indeed, two thirds of the 4000 of us surveyed in June by Ketchum, a PR agency, said they would judge travel content posted before such a trip was considered safe, according to the New York Times.   

Half added they would self censor their posts to avoid travel shaming.

And just a year ago we were merrily posting our trips and expecting kudos from our neighbors and friends.

What a difference a year makes.

But there was a hint this might happen, even pre Covid 19.  About a year ago flygskam entered the public conversation and that’s flight shaming, a movement embraced by Greta Thunberg, a  Swedish teenager. The pitch is that the eco consequences of non essential flying – global warming for instance – make it justified to pillory those who fly. And so posts about long trips suddenly were met not with envy but with calumny and shaming.

There’s now a doubling down on the wrongness of non essential travel and thus we have entered the era of travel shaming.

The more exotic and distant the trip, the more the travel shame. Live in Phoenix and post pix of the Grand Canyon and you just may escape travel shame.  It’s an instate national park – outdoors! 

But post photos of you cavorting on the beaches in Brazil and buckle up because the brickbats are heading your way.

What’s wrong with distant travel?  Partly it’s driven by a belief that our non essential travel endangers locals in the region we travel too – and then endangers those in our environs when we return home. The CDC puts it plainly: “Travel increases your chance of getting and spreading COVID-19. Staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.“

Partly too it’s just that a lot of us are plain angry about lots of things – so why not diss an acquaintance about an exotic, non essential trip?

And really there’s also the reality that non essential travel is, uh, unnecessary so just don’t do it right now.

What are your choices? Don’t travel and avoid the shaming potential.

Travel, post and suck up the abuse. You’ll survive it.

Or – and this is my preference – just don’t post images of the trip.  I rarely have even pre Covid-19.  You’ve read the stories, social media posts bring thieves to your door. I have long believed that’s true. So I rarely have posted personal travel photos. I didn’t pre Covid. I don’t in the pandemic. And I won’t afterwards.

I have not traveled in the Covid-19 era but if I had, you wouldn’t know about it.

Color me travel shaming free.