I recently went on a weekend trip, where I counted each time that I interacted with a person who was a citizen of the country I was visiting. I did not include any interactions with individuals at the airport prior to landing at the destination, nor once I reached the airport to return. Non-verbal interactions were not considered, e.g., making room for someone on the sidewalk, or gesturing for a car to go first at an intersection.

Out of 29 interactions, only 3 did not include a purchase. 2 of the 3 interactions which did not include a purchase, notably, were asking questions about making a purchase (what a type of food at a stand was, and if a person was leaving a table at a beach that we could sit at). The third was talking to the front desk attendees about entrance to a free cultural center and an art exhibit of Joan Miro. I only had to log our entry in a guest book.

Of course, many of these exchanges could be classified as cultural learning or engagement - history and art museums, ruins of ancient civilizations, tour guides of haciendas - but others were for tequila , dinners, or marquesitas (get it with the cheese; it really is delicious). Sure, call eating locally made desserts cultural engagement, but it still is defined by a purchase.

On our last vacation, we did meet a local couple and had a few lunches, dinners, and drinks with them (over a two week period), but that is the only recent instance I can recall that was not defined by a commercial exchange.

How, if at all, are cultural exchanges affected by being offered as paid services to tourists?

Other notes:

  • What are those enormous paper guest books that log name, nationality, age, and number of guests used for? Does someone go through each day to aggregate the data for future funding?

  • It would be nice if countries had “contemporary history museums:” places where tourists could go to interactively learn more about very recent history that explains current political and social tensions, from locals rather than international news. Why are things they way they are? What are the social forces that are having practical effects on people’s lives in the country? What are people concerned about?