Do people who leave their brains at home deserve to be ripped off?

We’re very lucky. The devastating earthquake that struck Japan last week caused only minor damage here in the States.

The most high-profile casualty was Dustin Weber, a 25-year-old man in Crescent City, Calif., who was swept out to sea as he tried to photograph the tsunami.

(Before I go any further, an important note about the photo I used to illustrate this post. It is not from a real tsunami. It’s from an event called a “tidal bore” which took place in Hangzhou, China in 2002, and it is not real.)

I was little surprised when I talked about this event privately with colleagues. Some half-jokingly suggested that the California photographer deserved to die, because he obviously hadn’t heeded the warnings about the waves.

Darwin Award finalist, they snickered.

The discussion quickly broadened to a more general discussion about tourists and the tourism industry.

Let me be perfectly clear: I don’t think Weber deserved to be swept away. He was a young man, and people of that age can easily misjudge a situation.

I have a close relative who, at about that age, went to the beach to get a closer look at the remnants of a hurricane. She was almost pulled out to sea.

I also had a brush with the Japanese tsunami on Friday, and it was seriously frightening.

I’m not going to turn this post into a “tourists do the dumbest things” post (done enough of ‘em already, and I’ve made plenty of dumb mistakes, too).

But as a consumer advocate, I was curious about what comes after the, “People who leave their brains at home, deserve …” statement.

Deserve what?

It’s a pretty well-documented fact that people on vacation behave differently than they do at home. I’ve lived in tourism-dependent places, so I also know that this reckless behavior is sometimes given as an excuse for taking advantage of visitors.

You’ll find stores, restaurants and hotels in popular destinations that think 1) tourists are stupid; and 2) because they are stupid, we might as well take advantage of them.

I rarely get complaints about this low-level scam — and yes, it is a scam — because people are normally too embarrassed to tell me about it.

Yeah, they bought an overpriced T-shirt. They paid $50 for lunch at that dive, and they even tipped the rude server. They also paid a confiscatory $350 a night, plus a mandatory $20-a-night resort fee. Chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Who knows, maybe it’s not stupidity. Maybe they’re just thinking, “Hey, I’m on vacation. Might as well splurge”?

I believe a tourism industry that sees its guests as walking dollar signs isn’t sustainable. It is caught in a cycle of taxing guests so it can spend more money on promoting itself, constantly searching for new suckers to shake down.

I’m troubled by that. As troubled as by anyone who says a daring photographer deserved to meet his untimely demise.

(Photo: astan hope/Flickr Creative Commons. Not a real photo. Repeat: Not a real photo.)

  • http://www.ffocus.org Bruce InCharlotte

    He didn’t deserve to die and anyone who says differently is a cold and miscalculating ass. That said, there is no way to protect people from their own stupidity. Dumb people climb over the fences at the Grand Canyon and they jump into gorilla pens to get a better picture and yes, they go down to the water’s edge to get a better picture. There are warnings signs posted that should keep people from going there. But they do, and there is nothing that we can do for people who insist on not thinking though.

    I feel bad for this man’s family. He didn’t know and he has now paid the price for his ignorance. Is there anything that can be learned from this? I’m afraid not and the next tsunami will still have people trying for pictures that don’t know better.

  • Tom

    In a perfect world, tourists and travelers would be treated like honored guests.

    However, in the real world, merchants earn their profits by overcharging people who won’t provide return business anyway. Corporations use computers to guage just how much you will be willing to pay. And government turns a blind eye because they jack up taxes on those who don’t vote to the highest level before there’s a substantial drop off.

    Tourists in general lack information about what things should cost and where the best prices are. Since individual tourists may not return to the same restaurant or hotel, they have less leverage than a local who might return often. And everybody justifies the overcharging because tourists are rich, or reimbusrsed by rich corporations or are just foolish.

    Your best hope for avoid being ripped off is to have a good local guide.

  • Phil

    Most tourists do leave what brains they may have at home when they travel. Just watch them when they board an aircraft, most of them don’t know how to, or how they behave at an airport, or in line at the security check point. Look at them in restaurants and at tourist attractions in other countries. I think people should have to take a course in travel and until they pass it they are not allowed to go anywhere. I once saw a guy in a very nice restaurant in Vienna, where the menu was in German, get up walk over to a table next to theirs, point to the food on one of the plates and then said to the waiter, I want whatever this is. No, tourists don’t deserve to be taken advantage of, but then perhaps they do deserve what the get. Stupid is, as stupid does.

  • BillC

    The title of the article and the question are completely different.

    Tourists do not deserve to be taken of advantage of but some people who leave their brains at home are ripe targets for scams.

  • SirWired

    I think that there is no one good answer to this question.

    We can all agree that dishonest, lying, and outright theft have no place in the tourist industry, and inflicting tourists with it does no favors for future business.

    But I think many people would lump the “overcharging” for tours, souvenirs, taxis, etc. into the mix. If the price has been negotiated up-front, then I don’t see the issue. If a tourist pays seven dollars for a taxi ride that would have cost a local a buck, has the tourist really “lost”? Yes, they maybe did not take local cost into account when negotiating a price, and they could have paid less, but what harm has been done? If both parties go away thinking they got a fair deal, then it is a case of no more than particularly robust capitalism.

  • JulieD

    I don’t think anyone “deserves” to die. Did this young man act recklessly? Absolutely. There is a feeling of invincibility that comes with youth. But we ,as a society, encourage this. If he had survived, the footage he captured most likely would have been played over and over again on TV. When it becomes stickier is when rescuers have to put their own lives at risk to save someone who purposely did not heed warnings.
    The tourism question is a bit more difficult. It certainly doesn’t seem right to run a business where you charge the maximum amount possible, just because there will be someone who pays it. However, I as the consumer, bear some responsibility in this. I do not live in an area of high tourism. When we go on vacation, I try to do as much research as possible to see what most of the hotels are charging, and what you get for your money. In some areas, to get a better deal, we would really be inconveniencing ourselves. If all the hotels in an area seem to be charging an exorbitant rate, what do you do? I don’t think of it as a “we’ll splurge” as much as “I guess this is what it costs to go here”.
    When we go to Disney, we always stay on Disney property. I KNOW we could save a ton of money staying off-site, but we prefer the whole mouse experience. I don’t consider this a scam since I am willingly participating in it.
    The overpriced dinner, t-shirt, sailing trip…- yep, I’ve made those mistakes. And learned from them. My husband will always ask our server, “Where do you go to dinner when you go out?” We have had some of the most fabulous dinners at local, hole-in-the-wall places that are affordable. In the Keys, our waitress told us about her family’s Cuban restaurant on a back street in Key West. It was a small building with one tiny sign. It took awhile to find it, but it was amazing. Lesson learned – ask the locals.

  • Roxie

    You’re using the incorrect version – “taken advantage of” is not correct in this sense.
    – Advertising one thing, then hitting people with extra charges when they have no means to advocate is taking advantage of someone.
    – Overpricing things in a tourist region is simply supply and demand. Those nice hand blown glasses in mexico may only cost a dollar to make, but I can’t buy them cheaper than $50 in the US – so them charging me $50 is almost reasonable. (Not that it doesn’t piss me off).
    – The idiot who BLATANTLY ignored “clear the beach” warnings so that he could get a “shot of a lifetime” is a simple case of someone thinking they are better/smarter/more important than someone else (those that warned him). Did he “deserve” to die? Well…it *is* a case of natural selection. If you think you can run away from herd and be ok, then you die – there ya go.

  • http://bidontravel.com/blog/ Don Nadeau

    Of course, no one deserves to die for stupid mistakes, but what are we to do about people who put fire, first responder, lifeguards, police, and other emergency personnel in danger because of their ill-advised behavior?

    The Dutch parents who supported (one finally reluctantly) their 14-year-old daughter sailing solo around the world in a boat seemingly not up to the voyage come to mind.

  • Michelle B.

    People who consciously put themselves in high risk situations do not *deserve* to die, but they should not risk the lives of others by their behavior.
    As for stupidity of tourists, I think there is a part of your brain that also takes a vacation. From responsibility, and occassionally common sense. Not the worst thing in the world.

  • http://www.sanibel-rentals.net Sylvia

    Although we sometimes joke about the really dumb things a few of our vacation rental guests have done and say they forgot to pack their brains, no one “deserves” to die from the human errors made. No one even ever deserves to be injured. At worst, they deserve to pay a monetary penalty when their ignorant action translates into greater cost for us in maintaining our condo and house on Sanibel.

  • http://naomishapiro.com Naomi Shapiro

    I want to say that there are so many distractions when traveling that it’s hard to keep track of everything — your money, your purse, your suitcase, yourself — and not knowing how things are done — where to leave your baggage, with whom, how, why? A friend coming from another country in a time of confusion (delayed flights, extra security) got off the plane in MSP with his carryon, and then gave it to the uniformed man who said, “don’t worry, I’ll see that it gets to Madison.” So he handed it over. No tags of where it was going, no receipt, and no carryon arrived with him. After a few go-rounds with TSA, Delta (one very bad customer service; one excellent customer service, the carryon was located in MSP and sent on the next plane to Madison. I just want to say that it’s easy to get distracted when you don’t know the drill and you’re confused, and barely enough attention to figure out where you’re going and what you’re doing. Thieves take advantage of this. Hospitality services can figure in the costs, but shouldn’t take more advantage than that. May be off topic here, but I think the photog’s really bad judgment should not have led to endangerment of others who had to search for, and find him.

  • http://www.moulinos.com peter

    We all deserve some slack and don’t deserve to be ripped off no matter how dumb we are.

  • Dave

    I think that the overabundance of ridiculous “warnings” (“Do not leave in place while driving” on a windshield sunshade, for example) have had a “Boy who Cried Wolf” effect on us all in the US.

    We’re used to dismissing all the ridiculous warnings. We’re used to the overcautiousness (wait, change that to extreme foolishness) of public officials who would, for example, lodge felony charges against a student because a dinner knife was found in her car at school (see http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2058220,00.html) in the name of “public safety.”

    Therefore, when a real warning of real danger comes, we tend not to pay sufficient attention to it. Officials need to think about the fact that their surfeit of warning messages may have contributed to this poor man’s death, though he of course bears primary responsibility for his own safety.

  • Suz

    You absolutely can not blame the victim. It happen much too often in our culture.

    Regarding the tsunami warning – the warning unfortunately brought more people to the beaches, at least in California.

    My heart goes out to the friends and family of the young man swept to sea. It is a heartbreaking tragedy.

  • http://caroundtheworld.com Chris @CAroundTheWorld

    I’ve been thinking about that guy for a while now. On one hand, he did act stupidly by going against the warnings. On the other….well, I know plenty of news photographers who have taken similar risks on the job during natural disasters to get shots. Maybe the difference is that they know what they are getting into and understand the risks?

  • http://theinfamousj.livejournal.com Little J

    I tend to observe that tourists – as a separate distinction from travelers – value their experience on the same level as its financial value. So a tourist would think that the same restaurant/souvenir/tour/tshirt was less good if it cost them less to pay for. As such, I think tourists demand the higher prices they pay.

    Travelers eschew the high priced stuff and are looking more for experiences, anyway. Travelers can easily avoid tourist trips, so no traveler is ever stuck (unless a time crisis of their own making) with having to endure tourist crap.

    Just my $0.02.

  • Philip

    I am the proverbial “experienced traveler,” having gone around the world four times. I buy a lot of art. In India I grew a full beard, wore khaki shirt and shorts, and high top scroungy shoes. A dealer will peg the country a person comes from as soon as he walks in the door by the way he dresses: American, German, British, whatever, and fix his prices accordingly. I bought a few hundred dollars worth of art after bargaining for each piece (it is expected). Got real bargains now worth thousands. My mistake was not that I paid with American Travelers Checks (when he found I was American the dealer said the prices would have been double) but that I did not sell my checks on the black market where I would have gotten twice the dollars.

  • Flip

    I am the proverbial “experienced traveler,” having gone around the world four times. I buy a lot of art. In India I grew a full beard, wore khaki shirt and shorts, and high top scroungy shoes. A dealer will peg the country a person comes from as soon as he walks in the door by the way he dresses: American, German, British, whatever, and fix his prices accordingly. I bought a few hundred dollars worth of art after bargaining for each piece (it is expected). Got real bargains now worth thousands. My mistake was not that I paid with American Travelers Checks (when he found I was American the dealer said the prices would have been double) but that I did not sell my checks on the black market where I would have gotten twice the dollars.

  • Flip

    My cousin asked me to buy her a diamond in Singapore where she had heard prices were the lowest. I went to a dealer who showed me a two carat diamond, and was honest about “the small imperfection on the edge.” I went to a second dealer to compare prices. He showed me a two carat and pointed out
    “the small imperfection on the edge.” A third dealer did the exact same. Seems there was only one two carat diamond for sale in all of Singapore (they passed it around).Did not buy.

  • Vivi

    No one deserves to be taken advantage of whether on vacation or at home. But on vacation sometimes people are willing to pay more for convenience than they would be at home. If you accept a rate, even if you could find a cheaper one, no one has taken advantage of you. For example, staying at a beach hotel and paying the premium price for the area vs. a hotel several blocks from the beach. It is the hidden charges: you arrive at your hotel only to find out there “resort fee” on top of your $350 night rate or the recently discussed (but not in use in the US yet) housekeeping fees that are a problem.

    As for the young photographer, no one deserves to die for foolish choices or many, many of us wouldn’t be here. A 17 yr old kid jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge last week b/c he “likes jumping off bridges.” Thank God he lived, wasn’t serious hurt and didn’t hurt the surfers below, a true miracle. Is the kid beyond stupid? Absolutely. Stupidity can cause loss of life but, again, if it did there would be a lot less of us walking around.

  • Carrie Charney

    This video show how a devastating tsunami can start out looking fairly harmless but end up causing mass destruction.

    http://video.l3.fbcdn.net/cfs-l3-snc6/81489/34/1605260179420_2624.mp4?oh=ac31b4d8738221641ba490396dc
    video.l3.fbcdn.net

  • Carrie Charney
  • bodega

    The young man killed by the wave in Crescent City was not being taken advantage of. He took advantage of the locals but placing himself in harms way and having local responders risk their lives trying to help him and his friends. Tsunami warnings were out from early morning to yesterday, yet on one SF new station, they showed a woman standing, ankle deep, in the surf. Stupid is as stupid does, but the inoccent who try to help them often are the ones to get hurt. I hope the other men who made it back to shore get billed for any rescue efforts for their stupidity.

    The young man from Windsor, CA who jumped for fun off the the Golden Gate Bridge got ripped into by a surfer who almost got clobbered by the young man. He could have killed the surfer, along with himself. Can you image what emotional toll is taking on his teacher and classmates.

    My first visit to Mexico where I made a purchas using Pesos, I was shorted change. Another patron of the store looked at my change that I was trying to count, took me back up to counter and made the clerk give me correct change. Our last trip to Mexico, we ate a nice meal at the hotel’s restaurant that overlooked the bay. The bill arrived and was in USD and we charged it to our room. When we went to check out the charges were divided into food and drive and were in Pesos. After we stood there looking at the bill and trying to figure out if we were being screwed, I noticed on the bill a charge for our room key. When I question that, I was told they remove it when the key is returned. I asked, “So like now since you currently have my key in your hand?” “Oh yes, I’ll take care of that right now.” No tourists shouldn’t be taken advantage of, but they are every minute of every day!

  • Joe Farrell

    The simplest form of negotiation with locals in a tourist area is to have them name the last price – then pretend to think about it – and then turn around – you’ll save 20% immediately. Does not matter what it is.

    These days – there is no excuse for not knowing the game when you arrive someplace – the Internet levels the playing field – the cost of a cab from the airport, the cost of a widget or whatever you buy.

    The amazing thing to me is going to a destination and seeing people shopping in make believe shopping areas that have the same stores they could shop in at home – remember Benetton being everywhere? Its like going shopping at an outlet mall when you are on vacation. . . you can go to an outlet mall near your house –

    As for getting ripped off by travel providers?

    Cruise customers are just really beginning to see the reality of being treated like cattle and that cruise companies could care less – the press reports the horror stories and true lack of concern.

    Airlines have lost the respect of their customers and thus get no respect from them most of the time as a result. When the airlines treat you like a bus why should they then not expect to be treated like a bus company – at least bus companies for the most part could care less about cancellation penalties and thirty five thousand different fares. You miss the bus at a stop and they just put you on the next one.

    I”m not going to comment on stupid is as stupid does for the young man who lost his life – because the press reports on a disaster in Japan from a tsunami wave, and he runs out to see what could be the same thing – ignorance was not the problem.

    Yeah, sometimes [most times] tourists are brain dead, hence the LOOK LEFT markings on the streets in London . . .

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    When it rains in the Phoenix area, flash flooding is common due to the topography. There are permanent signs posted as well as temporary barricades; however, drivers will drive around the barricades and disregard the signs and their cars will get stuck in the water. A few years ago, the County started to charge these drivers for the costs of their rescues.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Tom – “However, in the real world, merchants earn their profits by overcharging people who won’t provide return business anyway.”
    - – - – - — – - – -
    You are correct…there are hundreds if not thousands of individuals that purchase ‘antiques’ on their vacatons only to find out it that it was a reproduction, fake, etc. I have watched too many espiodes of Pawn Stars where the individuals that wanted to sell or pawn their ‘antiques’ turned out to be fakes, reproductions, etc.

    One problem is that some people are trusting. One person purchased a cowboy hat from a store in Prescott, AZ that the store owner claimed was worn by John Wayne in a movie. There was no written documentation with the hat. The size of the hat was wrong. The hat had some feature that wasn’t available back in the 50′s or 60′s. The hat didn’t match any hats that John Wayne worn in his movies. Yet, the person that purchased the hat believed that the hat was John Wayne since there was a ticket with the name of ‘Duke’ stuck inside of the hat and he believed the store owner.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    Do people who leave their brains at home? Yes.

    Back in 2003, my wife and I took a 22-day tour of Europe. When we crossed the border into Italy, our tour director told us to be extra carefull with our possessions, etc. When we were leaving the hotel in Venice, there was a couple from Austrailia that went onto the bus while it was being loaded (the driver nor tour director was on the bus) and put their small bags which contained their passports, money, airline tickets, etc.) on their seat and left the bus to walk around the hotel. A thief must have been watching the bus and went on the bus and took their small bags while the driver was occupied with the loading of the luggage.

    Another couple from Austrailia started to take up a collection from the other passengers for this couple so that they have some money until their new money was wired to them. Most people were giving $ 5 or $ 10 Euros (there were 53 passengers on the tour). This couple that was doing the collection asked a couple from Austrailia (my wife and I were the only Americans on this tour) for a donation and this old guy said ‘No’ and started to rip the couple for leaving their money on the unsecured bus, etc.

    Of course, the bags of the couple shouldn’t have been stolen. How many people at home will leave a purse or wallet with money on their carseat in an unlocked car?

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Flip – ‘A dealer will peg the country a person comes from as soon as he walks in the door by the way he dresses: American, German, British, whatever, and fix his prices accordingly.’
    - – - – - – -
    Most tourists do not ‘dress’ to the local norms. The first time that I went to England (it was summer). I was walking to a local convenience store to pick up some bottle water, etc. On the way to the store, an old gentlemen in his 80′s said ‘a damm Yankee’ as I walked past him. He knew that I was an American because I was wearing shorts and the English (as well as some other foreign countries) do not wear shorts.

    When we do travel outside of the US, we tried to dress to the local norms. Yes, it sucks to wear long pants during the summer in Europe, Singapore, etc. but it helps you to fit in.

  • http://www.thetravelinggiraffe.com Crissy

    In regards to the guy who got swept away, did he deserve to die? No, but that was a real threat when he went out there. If he was 12 I would feel bad, but by 25 years old he should have enough common sense to understand that risk. Maybe he did and he decided to take it. But if it’s just because he thought he was invincable – then I feel bad for his friends and family. At the least I hope this stops someone else from making the same mistake.

    For tourists, of course they shouldn’t be taken advantage of. But I don’t think it’s all about leaving your brain at home as it is about being out of sync with your surroundings. Would anyone at home go to the gas station where they charge twice the price, probably not – they know what gas stations offer the best prices without giving much thought to the matter. Same with restaurants and shops. But when you’re not at home you can’t totally reprogram your mind to look for the gas stations with the good prices and know how to look at a menu to see if they’re pulling a scam. The things you do at home without much thought require active thinking on vacation to avoid scams. The more research you do at home before going the easier it is, but you can’t prepare for every situation. And even the most experienced traveler can put their guard down and over pay for a dinner or at a shop. It doesn’t mean your dumb, or you left your brain at home, it means your human and if a human mistake only costs you a little money, then in the grand scheme of things you’re doing ok.

  • Brooklyn

    Let’s not forget that some of us take vacations because we’re exhausted, overworked and brain-dead so naturally we are likely to do stupid things, whether we stay at home or go away. The problem is compounded by the ordeal of travel itself: the TSA is leading more and more people to just stay home while those who travel are irradiated, groped, humiliated, crammed into small seats and shipped like cattle without food, blankets or, in some cases, access to a toilet.
    As for Chris’s article: I never cease to be amazed at the number of posters to this site who rejoice in others’ misery and yak on and on about how they would never have been so stupid. Even the death of this young man – some of you actually sound happy about it because “he got what was coming to him”! You must have very sad, small lives….

  • MeanMeosh

    First off, nobody *deserves* to die because they acted dumb. Stupid actions do have consequences, and it’s unfortunate that one of the consequences of the photographer’s reckless actions was the loss of his life, a consequence that his family and friends will now have to live with every day. But to say he deserved his fate seems awfully callous to me (and to those of you who feel this way, let’s see how your tune changes when someone close to you gets killed or seriously injured by their own reckless behavior).

    As far as tourists getting ripped off – no, tourists don’t deserve to get ripped off, either, but the problem is, “ripped off” is a relative term. In many cases, you can make the argument that you’re paying for convenience, which for some people is worth more than for others. Or other times, maybe you figure you could haggle and get an extra $5 off that trinket, but then realize, the wasted energy isn’t worth $5. Did you get ripped off in that case? Depends on your point-of-view, I guess.

  • Ed

    Hmmm….I see this person in the same way I see people who participate in extreme sports. If you aren’t prepared for anything, then you deserve the consequences…One of the most important tenets about the ocean is Never turn your back on the ocean…And for someone who lives in California, this should have been his mantra!
    But yes, people on vacation do stupid things. Case in point this vacationing couple in Hawaii!
    http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14003284
    Talk about stupid, but lucky!

  • DFW ROAD WARRIOR

    No one “deserves to die”. No, I take that back there have been a few, now that I think of it, but they were not tourists.

    People get “ripped off” when travelling because they do not take the time to plan. They plan where they are going to go and what they are going to do and see but they don’t plan the things necessary to travel. The cost of transportation from airport to hotel, the type of transporation available, local customs, etc.

    As many have mentioned in earlier posts there is no reason to be a stranger in a strange land when the Internet is available and you can find answers to basic questions and learn about local customs before you travel so you don’t look and act like the tourist you are.