As many bios on Instagram state, travelling is undoubtedly one of the most beloved activities of our time. Billions of people every year move around the world for leisure, spiritual and cultural purposes. Concomitant to these huge numbers, however, comes much pressure: cities, beaches and natural destinations are exceeding their maximum physical, ecological, social and economic capacity, meaning the quality of locals’ lifestyle and the tourist’s experience is negatively affected. The tourism industry – supported by globalisation, the availability of short-term home rentals, and the rise of low-cost airlines and cruise ships – is hence responsible for polluting, depleting ecosystems, and commodifying cultural heritage, just to mention a few.

Once acknowledged which industry’s factors are responsible for triggering negative repercussions in the social, cultural and environmental sphere, the thesis delves into practice-oriented research aiming to understand which language and structure of design could reveal the social and environmental contradictions that come with the pleasure of travelling.

The visual experimentation led to the creation of an artefact that, according to critical design methods, instead of proposing a solution to the problem, provokes the audience by making them face the matter. For this very reason, the artefact transcends the constraints of functionality and doesn’t meet market standards, confirming its purely speculative nature.

The resulting project, by stimulating people’s imagination, is a visual expedient designed to communicate a relevant issue for today’s society. Its goal is to initiate a critical reflection and debate on which responsibilities derive from our travelling choices, no matter if we adhere to the mass tourist offer or identify as more “culturally sensitive travellers”.

The website liketourist.com serves the purpose of booking vacations: unlike other conventional e-commerce websites, the user is invited to purchase based purely on other people’s experience. Pictures of pristine landscapes, romantic scenarios and delicious food are therefore replaced by people’s reviews of ideal stays.

Just as the tourism industry commodifies vulnerable ecosystems, spiritual practices and lifestyles, this project treats individual experiences as goods to be sold. By choosing to buy certain items over others, obstacles will influence the shopping experience to a greater or smaller degree. Only by reaching the check-out, the consumer faces the full picture of their holiday impact.

The digital space becomes the platform for sharing a different form of visual storytelling of a compelling topic, hoping to make the issue reverberate and hopefully inspire a conversation. To apply the above, the design uses interactions and aesthetics to tease the audience, by making them feel responsible for the discomfort inflicted on themselves and their surroundings. Regardless of the intentions that move someone to book a trip, those who call themselves travellers are no less to blame than tourists, since they share a tendency to deny the environmental and sociocultural consequences of their choices.