Where to spend our "Tourist dollars"

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Where to spend our "Tourist dollars"

14 yrs ago

In my retirement years, I find experiencing other cultures and travel generally to be one of my great joys. These days though, I am becoming more conscious of the countries I am willing to visit.
I just saw a program on TV regarding the "Balibo five" and was saddened to see that the perpetrators of this murder of our unarmed citizens (although identified by eye-witnesses) go unpunished to this day. In addition, when Indonesia was flung out of East Timor, they virtually destroyed that countries infrastructure in a systematic orgy of violence and vandalism. Likewise, Fiji is now governed by a military junta and some time ago I saw an interview given by the self-appointed Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarana. He indicated that the Fijian people were confused and lacked the knowledge to be able to vote responsibly. He further stated that he had no intention of calling elections until the populace had been educated in the correct way to vote.
I am sure there are many other similar examples and I would suggest that anyone who is travelling abroad should look at the country they intend to visit and ensure that their tourist dollars are not being used to shore up repressive regimes. Wile I enjoy travel in the Asia-Pacific region, I will no longer visit Indonesia, Fiji, Burma etc and I now do some serious research before finalising travel plans. I would be interested in hearing other views on this.

3 comments

Yaretzi

14 yrs ago

What you say is so true kfchugo. We all need to think before we travel.

I also applaud you in the fact you "can" travel if on the age pension as so many carry on the pension is so small they can barely eat, whereas I know many who do travel and enjoy quite a good existence on the Age Pension. This really is the lucky Country for oldies.

I know families with kids are battling especially with medical bills and prescriptions if a couple of children of a larger family are sick, but for the Age pensioner it never was so good.

Nice to see many Age pensioners doing Community work and giving back for everything given and happy and enjoying life.

YOURLifeChoices Staff

14 yrs ago

For any average Australian, it is incredibly hard to travel in this economic climate. Even though the prices to travel are incredibly cheap compared to previous years, it has taken me (Webmaster Drew) nearly a year to save up for a 17 day trip to Europe i am taking this month, which i have been planning for since November 2008, and is my first break from work since then and i doubt i will be planning another for a long time!

I will be spending no more than $50 a night (that will be England expensive prices) for a hostel non shared room and will be touring by myself. I may at the last minute book in a tour for a day or two but am looking to have the most fun and experiences on the cheap.

In regards to choosing where to travel carefully, i also agree there are a lot of places i will not visit. I have had the privilege to visit a number of places in the world such as China, Russia, Germany, USA, Canada and Fiji.

Of the places listed above, i felt the safest in Germany, Canada and Fiji, although i doubt i would revisit Fiji in its current state.

There are a number of countries i would be "scared" to visit such as most African countries, Bali, Israel, Palestine and a fair few more. I do have to admit Russia was part of this group, and i would be reluctant to revisit it alone, but admittedly had a great time when i was there!

Where to spend our "Tourist dollars"

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