The eye of the tourist

I am not a tourist. Yet I travel to a lot of the places where tourists travel to. I have been to the Taj Mahal, to the Eiffel Tower, to the Empire State building. There is a reason why the Great Wall of China is one of the most visited tourist attractions in China. These places are beautifully created and worth visiting. But, and there is always a but, you can now often not see the site without people in the way, people with cameras or smart phones out to capture what you, as someone who might have travelled hundreds of miles, or even thousands to see. Gone are the days of exploring hidden deserted temples. The Eye of the Tourist looks at how travelling has changed in the modern era. How the photograph of a famous location void of tourists is no longer reality and how the modern tourist has made their stamp over every possible iconic site. In this series I look at tourists in different environments, how they impact them as well embracing them and how even I, who asserts that I am a traveller is still in fact, a tourist.