How to Travel Beyond the Algorithm
Take a glance across the internet, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the globe has shrunk, that tourists have blanketed the world, and that there is nothing is left to astonish us.
All this is an illusion - the world was the same size it always was.
Increasingly, our journeys are steered by algorithms, funnelling us into just a few places – where everyone else on Instagram seems to be (usually queuing up at a selfie spot). This results in over–tourism and under–imagination: eroding choice and homogenizing holidays.
I used to travel with just a plane ticket, a guidebook and travellers cheques, while not many travel that raw now (except the woman who travelled without technology (link) here are things you can do to keep the discovery and joy of travel alive.
Ignore the algorithm, and don’t overthink it
“It was much easier in the ‘olden days’,” says Hilary Bradt MBE, founder of Bradt Travel Guides. “My first big trip was hitchhiking to the Middle East in 1963. The only information we had, and needed, was a map of western Europe including the Near East.” Bradt has encouraged travellers to go off the beaten path for more than half a century, long before any algorithm suggested 25 ‘must-visit’ ideas to cram into a weekend city break.
“For my three-month trip through Central and South America in 1969, I had a guidebook – the only vaguely relevant one – called How to Travel Without Being Rich, which just gave the main trade routes throughout the world and encouragement on taking local buses. It was enough.”
Look beyond Instagram
Get the atlas out (I did this) put a pain in (I did)
not everything has to becarefuly curated. or even go well. stuff goes wrong - greta that makes for a story you can tell when you get back.
rea da ppaer guidebook before you go (rough guides have a[rticylry good sections that spark curiously for me. places I imply must get to. mustch richer to discover it through reading than a listicle.
realise its ok not to see 25 must see sights on your Berlin trip. see 3, wander. back street find a bar thats not in listcle, that is yours despite maybe not appearing on any lists. vist the local hotel over the road from the on tin he guide line rover lunch or a cofeee.
get back agency form the influencers and he algoryms - by a ticket and just go.
The golden age of travel may be over – we can no longer see the Bamiyan Buddhas, experience the original Bali, or cross the Sahara by 4x4 – but the world is the size it always was and much of it is little visited.
This is the growing sense that as social media and marketing algorithms increasingly influence the destinations, experiences, and even poses tourists choose, people are losing agency in their own adventures.
However, there’s growing pushback from certain segments of would-be vacationers who are looking to put the originality, discovery, and even humanity back into travel. Let’s take a quick tour of algorithmic travel, unpack this pushback, and examine what brands can do to tap into this renewed spirit of adventure.
A little imagination and enterprise can take you beyond the queue for the selfie spot and into uncharted territory.
Such as my trip to Tibet, when I did not see another Westerner, and met just two non-Tibetan travellers — both religious pilgrims.
I visited the inner sanctums of monasteries, walked Koras around glistening Stupas that few Westerners have seen, rode on motorbikes with Nomads across green pastures, and meditated with a High Lama in a mountain cave. The stuff of dreams (mine anyway).
All of this is in a place that barely registered on Google. Read my Tibet story here.
These experiences restored my sense of wonder at the world.
They also got me thinking:
My most profound travel experiences have happened in the overlooked places, the in-between places, and the remote places:
The spent three weeks on an expedition in the vast, creaking expanse of the Greenland Icecap.
The quiet evenings spent by the less well known ruins on Inca Trail — not watching the procession of tourist coaches wind their way up the hill towards Machu Picchu.
As impressive as Machu Picchu and other wonders are, the experience of seeing these spectacular sites is often disappointing – as we dodge the hawkers and the selfie sticks.
The world has always travelled en masse – I only have to look at my parent's holiday photos to know that.
But increasingly, our journeys are steered by algorithms and influencers, funnelling us into just a few places – where everyone else on Instagram seems to be - resulting in over–tourism and under–imagination.
But venture beyond the digital noise, and we can encounter the true riches of travel - encounters where there is opportunity to learn, unlearn, and cultivate a sense of re-enchantment with the world.
So why not be an explorer for a few weeks? – reclaim agency in your own adventures. form the algorithms and in the influencers.climb the unknown peak instead of joining the circus on Everest.
Gather up your courage and follow your curiosity – join that adventure trip, buy that campervan, put that pin on the map, and go.
It just might transform you.
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