Research pick: The wicked gaze of tourists in a pandemic - "The COVID-19 and the figure of the undesired guest: the right to travel in scrutiny"

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected lives the world over in unimaginable ways. Society has been disrupted massively as have the economies of nations as travel and commerce were restricted by various measures to try and control the spread of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, that causes the disease. The tourism industry and all its dependents has suffered immeasurably. Now, writing in the International Journal of Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, cultural theorist Maximiliano Korstanje of the Department of Economics at the University of Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discusses the figure of the “undesired guest” and our right to travel. Tourism is not a modern phenomenon and underpins culture in many parts of the world. However, tourism cannot exist without tourists, and specifically the “tourist gaze”, a term coined by British sociologist John Urry.

In the new normal, how do we reconcile the need for tourism and tourists, who were previously seen as agents of economic prosperity and wealth but are now perceived as putative carriers of a lethal virus. We might talk of controlling borders, COVID-19 testing, and vaccine passports, but we are in a world of high-risk decision making. The pandemic is pushing us towards a new paradigm in recreational travel, which may well never revert to the old, familiar opportunities that many people enjoyed in the boom years after World War II and well into the 21st Century.

At a fundamental philosophical level, are we to perceive the opportunity to travel as a human right, is the hospitality that might be offered a right too? Has the emergence of a novel and lethal coronavirus not changed all of this? It could be that our “right” to travel is largely an invention of the late 20th Century. Moreover, for many millions of people whether they have a right to travel or not is irrelevant because they live in a state of extreme poverty or under highly restrictive totalitarian regimes, or where resources and opportunity limit every aspect of their lives, tourism does not feature on their life agenda in any way. That said, education and opportunity in the developing world might allow them to dream of such a lifestyle.

It is a moot point. “Tourists who were historically marked as ambassadors of civilisation are now labelled as carriers of a lethal virus,” writes Korstanje. They are now undesired guests, their tourist gaze is now a “wicked gaze”.

Korstanje, M.E. (2021) ‘The COVID-19 and the figure of the undesired guest: the right to travel in scrutiny’, Int. J. Human Rights and Constitutional Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp.336–349.