{"id":9045,"date":"2018-10-22T12:49:31","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T12:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/face\/?p=9045"},"modified":"2021-03-02T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-02T15:24:41","slug":"tourist-selfie-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/tourist-selfie-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourist selfie culture prompts questions about traveller conduct"},"content":{"rendered":"Approx read: <\/span> 3<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

Pulling out your camera phone for a quick selfie is one of the simple joys of travelling in the 21st<\/sup> century. What you do next is what counts.<\/h2>\n

Instantaneous, unpretentious and \u2013 crucially \u2013 able to be milked for sought-after internet points on Instagram.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not to love?<\/p>\n

But tourist selfies are increasingly becoming the battleground for an underlying tussle over how travellers should behave when visiting a country\u2019s most solemn sites.<\/p>\n

Whether posing for grinning pics at war memorials or baring too much flesh at sacred monuments, travellers have repeatedly come under fire in recent years for not showing adequate respect to their surroundings.<\/p>\n

So, do today\u2019s tourists need to recognise that not everywhere is appropriate for a shirtless \u2018YOLO!\u2019 pose to camera? Or do local communities need to loosen up and accept that not all visitors will be a paragon of virtue?<\/p>\n

Machu Picchu<\/h4>\n

Peru\u2019s mountain-top citadel \u2013 and one of the most recognisable ancient sites on Earth \u2013 attracts more than a million visitors a year, with the vast majority limiting themselves to a steep hike and some jaw-dropping views.<\/p>\n

But local authorities have repeatedly been forced to crack down on \u201cnude selfies\u201d and a trend for streaking among the ruins of this Inca site. The situation came to a head in 2016 when an Englishman and a Frenchman were arrested<\/a> for taking a series of naked photos with the ancient ruins as a backdrop.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not only the Peruvian Andes where tourists have been keen to disrobe.<\/p>\n

Cambodia\u2019s Angkor Archaeological Park \u2013 home to world-famous Angkor Wat \u2013 has seen similar nude escapades from visitors<\/a> despite repeated appeals by governing authorities that the site has sacred significance to local people.<\/p>\n

In an age of social media outrage, however, perceived perpetrators of cultural insensitivity have often found themselves outed publicly.<\/p>\n

Hashtag: backlash<\/h4>\n

In 2012, an American charity worker visiting Arlington National Cemetery \u2013 the burial site of thousands of service men and women as well as several presidents \u2013 posed for a \u201cdumb\u201d picture flipping the bird<\/a> in front of a notice requesting silence and respect.<\/p>\n

When the photo \u2013 which was uploaded to Facebook \u2013 inadvertently went viral, the outrage was immediate. A campaign to see the woman fired drew thousands of supporters as the image quickly spread amongst a community of conservatives, apoplectic with rage at this perceived slight to the military dead.<\/p>\n

In Germany, meanwhile, visitors to Berlin\u2019s memorial to Jews murdered in the Holocaust \u2013 which consists of more than 2,700 concrete slabs erected in a grid formation in the centre of the city \u2013 have not always been known to treat the installation with absolute reverence.<\/p>\n

An Israeli artist living in Germany \u2013 sick of seeing selfies taken at the memorial featuring cheesy grins, seductive pouts and yoga poses \u2013 decided to take matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n

In a project entitled \u201cYolocaust\u201d, Shahak Shapira superimposed images of selfie-taking tourists over horrifying concentration camp pictures<\/a> of piles of bodies and emaciated prisoners – generating press interest around the world.<\/p>\n

YOLO? Respect, bro<\/h4>\n

So, is public shaming the only solution to tourists who fail to observe a necessary level of reverence for sites such as these?<\/p>\n

With more than 10,000 visitors a day to Berlin\u2019s Holocaust memorial, those who seriously overstep the mark are in a tiny minority.<\/p>\n

And perhaps mandating exactly how someone should behave \u2013 or indeed feel \u2013 is somewhat missing the point at a memorial which understandably only commands utmost solemnity in the majority of people.<\/p>\n

As a new generation comes of age who have only ever known selfie culture, it would be worth allowing them to make their own mistakes \u2013 with or without clothes on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instantaneous, unpretentious and \u2013 crucially \u2013 able to be milked for sought-after internet points on Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":10149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1136,1053],"class_list":["post-9045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insurance","tag-machu-picchu","tag-selfie-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9045"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10085,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9045\/revisions\/10085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.battleface.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}