There’s now Disaster Tourism for US Elections
Engage with politics for any amount of time and chances are you’re going to be inextricably drawn away from local politics toward the giant electromagnets of American elections. The American obsession is understandable of course; the trends of everything American politics has to offer leaks into every other Western democracy in one form or another. Keeping an eye on that circus makes a certain level of sense. It’s a bellwether of whatever mini version we’re going to try and drum up over here.
One company is taking advantage of this obsession of ours by offering disaster tourism packages to see elections live and in person. Started by Nicholas Wood, a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, the tours offer tourists a chance to “get under the skin” of a country. Tours have gone everywhere from Israel/Palestine, Hungary, Ukraine (in 2014), Russia, and most recently, the United States for the midterms.
“The tour takes in a wide range of places and views: from urban Philadelphia to industrial Pennsylvania and rural Virginia, from Black-Lives-Matter to conservative evangelicals, from white working-class communities swept up by Trump to liberal progressives bent on reform.”
“We’ll also trace the tumultuous events that followed last election culminating in the storming of the Capitol.”
Tours cost around $7,600 and offers a six day tour of key battleground states, following rallies, candidate appearances, and even polling stations on the day. Sounds about as riveting as watching paint dry to be honest. But if watching people scuttle into a box to sign some paper is your thing, then more power to you. I guess this is the consolation prize if you don’t get to be part of an insurrection and take home a couple nick nacks from the Capitol building.
The tours, or at the very least hungry internationals, have proven to be somewhat disruptive to the campaign this year, as a few electionaires have reported having a boatload of Aussies and Brits rolling up and treating everyone as their personal tour guides.
The reviews from over the years are glowing though, and all express that they got to see a country in a way you just wouldn’t if you were hitting tourist hotspots. “I gained insight into the daily lives of the people of Jordan and its refugees, their approaches and their aspirations and the economy in which these are played out,” says one after visiting Jordan in 2017.
Another expresses excitement of having had the chance to hang out with friends of the Che Guevar in Cuba. Yet another found that the Baltics and Putin’s Russia tour “gave me access, insights and an understanding of these countries I simply would not have otherwise… Political Tours is like a deep immersion study tour leaving your brain both stimulated and exhausted from all the information, sights and experiences. And this experience stays with you.”
Honestly, I’m kind of sold on it being an excuse to visit some interesting countries, apart from the watching people vote part.
