TOW #12 - Tourists Gone Wild

Over the last few decades, Chinese tourists have become accused of running rampantly when they travel. However, it seems that other groups of tourists have been disliked, too – not just the Chinese. In his piece, “Tourists Gone Wild,” Tony Perrottet uses examples of other “obnoxious” tourists, as well as lighthearted sarcasm, to argue that the Chinese are doing nothing new – they are just the next nationality to claim this title.

Perrottet provides examples of other nations’ tourists “running wild,” such as the Romans, British, and French, in order to demonstrate a theme throughout history, and that the Chinese are not the first group to misbehave when traveling. When explaining an instance of old Americans, Perrottet explains that “the city slickers of the 1870s washed their socks in hot springs, carved their names on fragile volcanic rocks and chipped off fragments for their mantelpieces. And they gunned down any wildlife they could find.” Giving a concrete example allows Perrottet to give evidence of past groups of tourists running wild. This particular instance pertains to American tourists, and this shows that at least Americans have created a bad reputation for themselves. However, since Perrottet is able to give examples for many groups of people, it is clear that the Chinese are not alone in terms of their supposed obnoxiousness.

In his conclusion, Perrottet used some lighthearted sarcasm to show that the “tourism running wild” isn’t that major of an issue. He claims that if we are so worried about misbehaving in public, then maybe “none of us should be allowed to travel. Then we can all just misbehave at home.” Such a sarcastic remark almost suggests that tourists “running wild” is inevitable. It would obviously be ridiculous if nobody was allowed to travel – this is the first significant piece of his quote. He follows that up with the claim that we could rather just misbehave at home, arguing that people are going to act a certain way, whether they are in their own bedroom or halfway across the world. In this sense, Perrottet argues that the Chinese are doing nothing new in the way that they are doing what they have always done: be themselves. This is not meant to be taken negatively, but rather it is meant to demonstrate stagnancy.

Ultimately, Tony Perrottet is successful in making his argument. Through exemplification and sarcasm, he was able to prove that the Chinese tourists are not the first to cause outrage – tourism has caused problems for many years, among many different communities. Not only that, but a lot of what is angering residents has existed in their own communities for years – they just were not aware.