The Politics of a Girls' Trip

Somehow I'm between noticing all the love in the world and managing my political rage.

Recently, I've come across a trend of Instagram posts as summer is approaching:

• Top 10 summer destinations you can visit next month.
• A quick Europe weekend getaway.
• A crazy cheap ticket for a next day flight to "this place"

Don't get me wrong, these posts look beautiful and give a sense of whimsy when I imagine where could my next trip be. 

Pretty colors, cinematic aesthetics, a fitting soundtrack.

But what hits me like a truck the moment trip planning gets serious, is the visa processes. 

The fact that my girlfriends' visa application are still held on pending, halting our June girls' trip. 

Here we are ever since February, discussing bank statements, proof of return, hotel bookings, and endless bureaucratic complication so we'd get a 3 month viable plastic paper stapled to our passports saying: "Hey, you see me as eligible to visit your country!"

Only later to be questioned at border control with questions like:

• Why are you visiting [insert country name]?
• What is the purpose of your trip?
• Where are you staying?
• Why are you staying?
• When are you leaving?

God has it always been that hard to eat a Gelato in Italy? To dip in the Carribean? To walk the Wall of China?

Some hold passports that open doors others cannot. The visa system and passport inequality are some of the biggest injustice within the travel industry.

What is the VISA system?

According to the passport index website, a visa is an official document that allows the bearer to legally enter a foreign country. 

So in simple terms: No Visa? No Entry. Passport Useless. 

I recently read this article on Substack discussing travel, social media, life... the true meaning of travel. The contrast of what it is to be a traveller or a mere tourist.

And it's opening line was: Who deserves to travel?

Refusing to instantly elaborate on such a statement, the article leaves us to sit with the question till the very end.

The article questioned the true benefit that 'trickles down' to the local communities as tourism rates increase, pushing locals out of their houses exchanging them with short-term rentals that further drives up travel accommodation options but also local housing costs. 

but, the further I read through the more I could see this hidden assumption. The assumption that one could simply... fly to another country.

Who actually benefits? The airline that offered the airfare at a price so low that the journey required no particular commitment, no particular preparation, no particular sacrifice?

While the notion behind such a statement is in its right place. It still stings.

Some have already proved to the formal authorities that they are indeed worthy of travel. Do these people have to also prove to strangers that they are true travellers not tourists? 

Are they to blame for the exploitative natures of social media algorithms and greedy landlords?

Not everyone is going to be able to travel... and those of us who DO travel? Are privileged. 

We get to experience something most people in the world will never get a chance to do.

And that is a huge responsibility. 

We can no longer be persuaded by glossy marketing speak. If we are lucky enough to cross borders, then we hold a responsibility to travel better.

When we pack our bags and choose our itineraries, we need to ask ourselves the hard questions:

• Is this hotel actually 'Green'? Or are we greenwashing some messed up scheme of depleting some hidden resource written in small text in our booking contract.
• Is this tour led by locals? Supporting locals? Hiring a new generation of locals? 
• Are we supporting the community who get to live, laugh, love there long after we finish visiting their homes? Is our presence helping fund their communities? Or are we driving up their rent and gentrifying their neighborhoods. 

It is not easy to find answers to questions like these, but asking them is the first step towards acknowledging our privilege and travelling responsibly. It shows our intention and willingness to look past the aesthetics and travel responsibly.

Travel shouldn't just be an escape or a backdrop for our social media feeds. It should be a conscious act of connection.

We need to travel more sensitively. We need to honor the land we set foot on, respect the communities hosting us, and pay homage to those who came before us. If the visa system proves anything, it's that the world is not our frictionless playground—and we should start acting like the grateful guests we are.