argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Venice syndrome and dissociation leakage
Miren Artetxe Sarasola 2017ko urriaren 10

Tourism as a concept is not fashionable. The arguments against mass tourism are already well known. We have learned that hyperturistification increases the prices of rentals in our neighborhoods, turns common shops into shops dedicated to tourists and the working conditions of those who work in services for tourists are precarious. We have seen the tourist banks winning the spaces of the city, that is, making us lose, in the two senses of the word, as our little daily customs have become a memorable experience for foreigners.

That is why, among other things, when we leave we do not want to be tourists. In tourist sites we make the mandatory photo – buildings, landscapes, smiling boys and girls – but in the rest we prefer not to move from the usual circuits. We turn to what the guide we have as an alternative to that of other publishers considers as an alternative neighborhood; as if the alternative itself had no speculative value; as if in these spaces tourism did not enter our path; as if the Venice syndrome and the flight of dissociation of non-tourists were not two sides of the same coin.