Because we can

Mountain Gorilla is “the only great ape whose wild population is currently growing“.

Apparently, money brought into the ‘system’ by the (right kind of) tourists have made the difference.

In other places, ‘tourist money’ doesn’t seem to elicit much enthusiasm any more…

What’s going on here? Why money is OK in some places while others shun it?

Simple. Most tourists trekking gorillas in the bush actually get in touch with the visited reality while too many of those involved in mass tourism are herded along some ‘places of interest’ without actually getting the temperature of the places where they spend the money.
The first learn something while the second only feel good. ‘Feel good’ because they have been told that places which they have been herded along were ‘cool destinations’, not because of what they had actually experienced…

What?!?

No, I’m not censuring anybody for how they spend their money.
I’m just asking myself what does that guy get for that kind of money.

Does he learn something interesting?
Does he have a meaningful interaction with the locals?

After all, what is this space tourism really about?
Experiencing things?
As in becoming ‘high’? There are cheaper alternatives, you know…

For the time being, let’s recap the consequences of different kinds of tourism.

The ‘old fashioned’ one helps local communities preserve their ways of life. And widens the minds of the travelers.
Mass tourism alter the places which had made it possible to such an extent as to change their very nature.
Space tourism burns a lot of fuel to make some very rich people even richer.

Meanwhile, on the same planet,

“You can walk across the street and see a Rolls-Royce, but you can walk down the street and find someone without clothes,” Motsepe said. “What you are seeing is a situation where the disgruntled society finally found an opportunity to express themselves.”

People concerned about the global warming keep talking about ‘sustainable growth’.
On the longer term, they are absolutely right.
If we keep burning fossil fuel – which had been accumulated during hundreds of thousands of years, we’ll turn back the flow of time. We’ll actually recreate the atmosphere which had existed during the Carboniferous Period.

But I’m afraid the circumstances which have given birth to ‘mass tourism’ are far less sustainable than our addiction to burning things.