I’m writing this, sitting in my daughter’s apartment in Juneau, Alaska.
My first trip of 2024. And perhaps my last trip this year. I’m not big into tourism.
Nevertheless, the title of an article by travel writer Rachel Dixon, posted in The Guardian last month, caught my eye:
Be a better tourist! 28 ways to have a fantastic holiday – without infuriating the locals…
The lede:
“From badly behaved travelers to horrendous carbon emissions, summer holidays aren’t always an unmitigated good. Here’s how to travel responsibly and still have a great time…”
I don’t often read ‘travel’ articles, possibly because I rarely travel, and rarely have the urge to travel. Typically, I don’t even think about travel. Pretty much everything I need and want is available in my home town of Pagosa Springs, now that we have a Walmart, and a Thai restaurant.
But every now and then, distant places beckon me. And this week is one of those occasions, so I thought I should document the experience. As Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor in the recently-concluded Trump “hush money” trial so eloquently stated: “Documents don’t lie.” And presumably, an editorial in the Daily Post could reasonably be considered a “document”.
According to travel writer Rachel Dixon:
Tourism is almost back to pre-pandemic levels – which is good news and bad news. However much holiday destinations rely on them, no one wants badly behaved tourists, blocking views, partying wildly in the streets, or pricing local people out of their own cities. Overtourism, carbon emissions, nature depletion and plastic pollution are all huge concerns. But that doesn’t mean you have to cancel your holiday…
In much the same way that all politics is local, so all tourism is local. In some places around the globe, the idea that tourism is “almost back to pre-pandemic levels” refers to the fact that tourism nearly dried up in some locations during the COVID crisis. The opposite effect occurred in Pagosa Springs. As plane travel was curtailed, Americans escaping their COVID-plagued cities took to their automobiles, and resort communities in Colorado saw a spike in visitors.
The result, in Pagosa Springs, was what Ms. Dixon calls “overtourism”. The financial effect was a dramatic increase in Lodging Tax collections in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The social effect, meanwhile, was crowded streets and sidewalks, packed restaurants, full parking lots, swarming hot springs pools…
Not the kind of town we had grown accustomed to.
There are various ways to be a tourist, and there are better ways to be a tourist. There might even be 28 ways to be a better tourist.
Whether Archuleta County will return to “pre-pandemic levels” in the future remains to be seen. But the “success” of Pagosa’s tourism industry has caused some of us to seriously consider taking extended summer vacations.
Possibly… to Juneau, Alaska?
Tourism impacts have arrived here as well, thanks to the numerous cruise ship companies offering tours of the Inside Passage. But my family and I didn’t come on a cruise ship, and we didn’t come as ‘tourists’. We came for a different purpose. More like a “cultural family reunion”.
My grown children and my young grandchildren have an Alaska Native heritage. Approximately every two years, since 1982, the Alaskan Native cultural organization called Sealaska Heritage Foundation has hosted “Celebration” — a tribal gathering in Juneau, Alaska, similar to the Native ‘Pow Wow’ gatherings hosted by various tribes throughout the ‘Lower 48’ and Canada. It’s been described as a Native ‘folk life festival’.
“Celebration 2024” is taking place June 5-8. All three of my children, and all nine of my grandchildren are here, in Juneau.
From the Sealaska Heritage Foundation (SHI) website:
For four days every other June, the streets of Juneau fill with Native people of all ages dressed in the signature regalia of clans from throughout Southeast Alaska and beyond. There is traditional song and dance. Arts and crafts. Food. And people speaking local Native languages. This is Celebration, our biennial festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures.
Celebration is one of the largest gatherings of Southeast Alaska Native peoples and is the second-largest event sponsored by Alaska Natives in the State of Alaska. The event draws about 5,000 people, including more than 1,600 dancers. Thousands more watch the event online…
Most of the Native people in southeast Alaska belong to the Tlingit Indian tribe, and also identify with various small villages scattered among the 1,000 islands in the Alexander Archipelago.
Additionally, living in each distinct village are various family groups that, historically, functioned as economic units. During the “folk life festival” known as Celebration, many of these family units bring their songs, dances and ceremonial regalia to Juneau for a four-day festival.
These Alaskan Native visitors to Juneau are not tourists. They are celebrants, and performers.
The event begins with the Grand Entrance.
Nearly 1,600 dancers from 36 dance groups are participating this year.
Along with dance performances, Celebration features associated events, including a Juried Art Show and Competition, a Juried Youth Art Exhibit, a Native Art Market, Native food contests, a Toddler Regalia Review, a parade through downtown Juneau, an Everyday Indigenous Fashion Show, a Juried Film Festival, the premiere of a film called ‘Tlingit Macbeth’, an Elder photo booth, a blanket toss and a cultural orientation that will include a viewing of two Chilkat robes recently acquired by SHI.
A few of the dance groups represent other Alaskan tribes, from beyond southeast Alaska. This next photo shows a group of Aleut performers, from the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska.
Once again, these are not tourists.
But a fairly large number of tourists were taking photos of them. I, among them.
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.