There is a new breed of travellers known as the “anti-tourist”. Instead of going to beautiful places promoted by tourism, these free-spirits love to visit areas that are not just discouraged by travel advisories, but are also deemed “forbidden”.
The anti-tourists find thrill primarily from the difficult and dangerous experience, rather than from being in the new environment.
The more the media makes a great fuss about the place, the more the trip becomes exciting. With no police assistance or ambulance to a local hospital, they want to encounter danger, up close and personal.
A travel psychology expert named Michael Brein identifies this behavior as “macho tourism”. When danger is being reported in a particular part of the world, the anti-tourists are agitated to come to that place in order to prove that nothing perilous will really happen to them.
Facebook may have contributed to this anti-tourism behavior. When people are able to travel to the baddest badlands around the world without being harmed, they are most likely to brag about it on their social networking sites.
Remember the time of your childhood when your mother told you not to go to a seemingly creepy place, but you went on anyway? And then you came home safe and said “Look Mom, I made it”? The anti-tourists are said to be relieving that early feeling of triumph.
When visiting the forbidden, the anti-tourists risk being kidnapped for ransom or held captive by terrorists; get caught in wars and strife arising in unstable territories, get lost and killed in deadly terrains, encounter wild and deadly animals, get robbed and or murdered by opportunistic local serial thieves and killers, or be infected with diseases and maladies that may have spread out in the local community.
But for as long as the craving for excitement exists and there are economic resources to support the journey, the anti-tourists will continue to ignore overly cautious travel alerts and will take critical travel advisories as a “go” signal.
There are also anti-tourists who risk their lives for a “personal mission”. Maria Rychlicki, a municipal government worker in Los Angeles, has spent time in Lebanon, Egypt, Israel and Columbia when these countries were on State Department alert lists. She knows she has been picking trips that are on advisory list, but she sees this as an opportunity to represent America.
“Visiting countries on the advisory list means I am not spending money to meet other American tourists. I have often felt I am a good ambassador of the American people. I have been, at times, the first American that people (in a foreign land) have met.”
We’re not encouraging people to travel to the “forbidden” and risk being kidnapped or killed, but if you are one of the few travelers who love to go to places that other people are afraid of, then these dangerous areas are paradise for you. Enter at your own risk.
TOP 10 WORLD’s BADDEST BADLANDS:
1. Mogadishu, Somalia
Civil War, Terrorist Attacks, Cross-Border Warring, Street Crime, Absence of US Embassy. In 2004, Somalia’s minister of tourism has claimed that the country hadn’t had an officially-acknowledged tourist in 14 years.
2. North Korea
Cold War, Nuclear Crises, Absence of Mobile Phones and Internet (que horror!). All tours are controlled and escorted by the totalitarian government.
3. Middle East – Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Israel
Terrorist Attacks, Bombings, Hostility To Foreign Nationals (especially Americans)
4. Bogota, Colombia
Drug-related Crimes, Murders, Kidnapping, Robbery, Pickpockets. Narco-terrorist attacks lurk in this capital city of the country with one of the highest violent crime rates in the world.
5. Caracas, Venezuela
Drug-related Crimes, Murders, Kidnapping, Robbery, Pickpocketing. Caracas is one of the most dangerous cities in the world today.
6. Grozny, Chechnya, Russia
Political Unrest, Terrorist Bombings, Murders, Kidnappings, Rapes. In 2003, UN labeled Grozny as the “Most Destroyed City on Earth.”
7. Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Rapes, Robberies, Carjackings, Active Seismic Zone. Crime is a serious concern in this capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. Aside from crimes, tsunamis, earthquakes and landslides can occur any time of the day.
8. Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Kidnapping, Murders, Death Threats, Drug-Related Shootouts, Car-jacking, Armed Robberies and Home Break-ins
9. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Drug-Related Crimes, Kidnappings, Sexual Homicides. This city is noted as the most violent zone in the world outside of declared war zones.”
10. Mt. Everest
The breathtaking mountain is nature’s femme fatale. Mt. Everest annually claims experienced climbers, many of whom can be seen in their frozen dead bodies before reaching the first overnight basecamp.
