It all begins with, “‘There is nothing strange in a strange land, as the stranger who comes to visit.’”, which in such video, Cannibals Tours, plays a large role. There were an abundant amount of positives and negatives going into account for aspects of indigenous tourism in both perspectives both being from tourist and locals. Though ideally both tourist and locals gain benefits through encounters, you are able to come to an understanding through the opinions and examples stated that ideally, tourist are the ones who benefit from any of the encounters throughout the trip. Interesting, conflicting, amusing, were all adjectives that immediately popped into my head, throughout the movie and on particular actions, spoken language, comments rather than others.
Right off the bat, I believe there was no general negative aspect in indigenous tourism in the eyes of tourist. However, numerous of positive and negative factors come into place in indigenous tourism through the eyes of locals and tourist. Tourist are individuals who are traveling or visiting a place for their own self-interest and/or pleasure, causing them to have more of a positive attribute to their aspects of indigenous tourism. The German tourist stated, “We arrive…after three days of navigating this magnificent river”, exemplifying that to him it was no bother due to the fact that it was as he explained, “beautiful”, “marvelous”, concluding to a positive aspect of his indigenous tourism experience. Also, the German individuals who are on the native land took masses of amounts of pictures, also demonstrating a positive attribute to indigenous tourism because they will be able to go to their home and display those picture to friends, family etc. and brag about their experience. Unlike the tourist and their positive aspects of indigenous tourism; through the locals eyes, indigenous tourism was by and large, negative. Though they did earn money by selling their carvings, hand-made jewelry, and charging for photos taken in certain residences, it wasn’t enough. Tourist would on the odd occasion pay the original price the item was offered for, they would ask for the second price, and if still not satisfied, they would ask for the third price, creating it a negative aspect for the locals. For example, in the middle of the video, a young lady was beholding all carvings on display, her attention was soon caught as she seen a carving she became interested in, and by doing so she asked for the price. Even though she was aware the asking price was cheap, she still inquired for a second price, and was soon satisfied, yet, the locals were not. Most importantly, an older local woman was shown though out the video stating the negative aspects of indigenous tourism, stating “tourists don’t really help us”, also proving a negative aspect.
Ideally both tourist and locals gain benefits through encounters, nonetheless, tourist gain an additional amount compared to the locals. Tourists have an advantage in gaining because they have intellectual knowledge to outwit the locals. For instance, tourist having the knowledge of the labor locals had to go through to create their carvings, they are still able to reduce the price to benefit themselves, and get a cheaper price. Contrasting from tourist, locals, who do not really benefit from the encounters in a positive subsidy, are indignant in a negative way. For example, in the very end of the video a German older woman offers one of the locals a cigarette, which might have looked like a good deed in the beginning till the intention was mentioned; which was to reduce the price of what she was interested in. Locals are also deprived form their dignity and identity, moreover evidencing how locals do not in fact encounter any benefits.