Travelling All Inclusive is becoming more and more popular. Many people find it convenient to have everything paid for and ready within the walls of the hotel: food, swimming, entertainment. Personally, we think it's boring as hell, and that the very idea of travel disappears. There is no room for cultural meetings or interesting events. At the same time, we can understand that families with children, for example, find it practical and convenient.
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ShareDisadvantages of All Inclusive
But All Inclusive tourism has more downsides. According to a study presented by Vagabond, All Inclusive tourism impoverishes local businesses. The tourists spend most of their time inside the walls and do not consume anything from the local entrepreneurs. The owners of the All Inclusive hotels also do not order from local suppliers.
So we're travelling more and more, but not allowing our money to reach the local population. Isn't that a problem?
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Krister i Beijing says:
Since restaurant visits are a main attraction for me when travelling, it is out of the question that I would buy All Inclusive. Finding new restaurants every day is a big part of the travelling experience. The same hotel buffet every day is not very appealing.
However, I can well understand that for a family with three children and tight finances, it is a psychological strain at every restaurant visit, which has certainly ruined a few holiday trips.
If it is the case that the All Inclusive resorts do not use locally produced products, the only way to address this problem is probably for us travellers to seriously start demanding it. There is probably no other way.
27 March 2011 - 0:45
Ninni says:
Yes I wouldn't want to travel like that, I want to see the surroundings. Walk around, maybe rent a car and drive around and look around not just be around the hotel and the pool and ride in the supposedly nice water park.
To try new small restaurants every day (almost every day anyway, sometimes you find a favourite that you just have to visit again) and maybe shop at some market, maybe buy some crafts from a local woman in a small alley, etc. is so much fun and enriches the trip a lot!!! Talking to some old inveterate fisherman can also make the trip memorable - it probably sounds like pretty boring and trivial things but it is the EXPERIENCE itself and the whole that makes it as well.
A pool is a pool with palm trees and slides and maybe an ice cream parlour no matter where you are. Personalities, nature and behaviour and food can be so incredibly different...
27 March 2011 - 5:24
admin says:
Krister, perhaps it is we consumers who need to be clearer about what we want. But I guess it's difficult to implement on a broad front.
Ninni, I don't think that sounds daft at all! I agree, it is often the small experiences along the way, and the unexpected meetings, that provide experiences from a trip! Then I can have some understanding that not everyone is looking for the same thing as me, and that there is a difference when travelling with small children. But somewhere it must be wrong if all your money gets stuck with some rich big businessman who may not even come from the country in question...?
27 March 2011 - 10:53
Ama de casa says:
We've never travelled that way, but I can see how it might attract some people.
We are looking to see the country we are in and meet the locals - not just other tourists.
27 March 2011 - 17:28
Agneta says:
well, that's kind of the point of travelling...to see how societies and life works a little more real. I could never imagine an AllInclusive trip ... or well, maybe if I just needed to get away to get sun and heat and not experience anything more than total rest. But that will probably never happen, and definitely not now that I got a different view of it as it does not benefit the resort where you live.
31 March 2011 - 20:48