I was walking through Bacalhoa Buddha Eden in Portugal one of the most quietly extraordinary places I’ve visited in all of my trips to Portugal when I saw them. Two tourists, just a few feet ahead of me. They took in the scenery like all of us and in a moment when they thought they were alone, they decided to leave their mark. As casually as signing their name on a birthday card. They took out a marker and wrote something on the statue. This went against everything I have ever known about responsible travel. So I took my camera out and started filming.
I wish I could say this was shocking. But after traveling to more than 60 countries, I have seen this kind of thing more times than I can count. People have a way of destroying everything that matters. And then are upset when countries or monuments limit visitors.
I wrote about responsible travel some time ago (read Responsible Travel 101) but this incident helped me to understand why repeating this message is more important than ever. Let me tell you what I know.
A Garden Built From Grief
Bacalhoa Buddha Eden is the largest oriental gardens in Europe about an hour outside Lisbon. It holds over 6,000 tons of marble Buddhas, 700 hand-painted terracotta warriors, African sculptures, pagodas, and contemporary art from artists around the world. My friends introduced me to this place on a visit to Portugal not long ago. I went for the wine but it was so much more than that.
After spending the afternoon wandering the grounds and enjoying an amazing sangria, I decided to learn more.
Turns out in March 2001, the Taliban destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan. These were two 6th-century monumental statues that had stood for over 1,500 years in the cliffs of Afghanistan. It was a deliberate act of cultural destruction. Portuguese businessman and art collector José Berardo was so disturbed by what happened that he made a decision: he would give something back. He commissioned an entire garden of peace as a tribute. A living monument to what happens when humanity chooses preservation over destruction.
A place built specifically because someone else destroyed something irreplaceable. And a visitor decided to deface it anyway.
That is not a small thing. It is the exact opposite of responsible travel.
This Is Not Isolated
Portugal is not the only place I’ve witnessed this. Not even close.
Years ago I visited the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, one of the most remarkable structures in human history. A building that has stood for nearly 1,500 years and has served as a cathedral, a mosque, and a museum. It is one of the great architectural achievements of any civilization.
And I watched tourists treat it like it was meaningless. Chipping off parts of the gold flakes that adorned the ancient walls, touching surfaces they were asked not to touch, carving initials in places that had survived empires. Utter disrespect.
It also changes the experience of everyone that follows. You can see in this image the entire bottom of the mural has been destroyed and vandals seem to be working on removing even more.
In Israel, there are clear rules about not removing stones from historical and sacred sites. The stones are part of the site, physically and spiritually. They have meaning. They have context. And yet people take them anyway, slipping them into pockets like souvenirs, as if a piece of someone else’s heritage is theirs to carry home.
I could keep going. The pattern repeats itself across continents, across cultures, across centuries of human achievement. Somewhere in the world right now, a tourist is doing something at a sacred or historical site that would bring the locals to tears. And most of them don’t even realize they’re doing anything wrong.
When Social Media Makes It Worse
Now that we are in the age of everyone doing the absolute most for views and likes, there is a specific kind of disrespect that has emerged. Everything that we’ve learned about responsible travel goes right out the window as soon as there is an opportunity to boost views.
It is no longer enough to simply visit a place influencers are constantly on the hunt for content that will stop a scroll, generate engagement, go viral. And in pursuit of that moment, they are willing to do things that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Your photos are no longer just for you, they are for the millions of people out there that can make you an internet sensation.
I have walked into places of worship in multiple countries and watched tourists position themselves for photographs while people were actively praying. In a space where someone else was trying to connect with something sacred someone was adjusting angles and lighting to get the best shot. And don’t get me started on the tourist that illegally climb sacred temples or even worst destroy it all for views.
This is the part that I find most troubling as a travel content creator. I film in these places too. I share what I see. But there is a line between documenting a place and exploiting it and that line is crossed the moment your need for content overrides your respect for the space you are standing in.
Here is how to know which side of that line you are on: ask yourself whether what you are doing serves the place or serves your feed. If the answer is your feed, put the camera down.
No photograph is worth the destruction of something irreplaceable. No viral moment justifies disrespecting a community, a culture, or a place of worship. And no number of likes is worth being the person who closed a sacred site to future visitors because you needed content.
Travel is a privilege. So is the platform to share it. Use both accordingly. 🖤
The World Is Pushing Back
What happens when millions of individual acts of disrespect accumulate? The world starts closing its doors. These are not hypothetical consequences they are happening right now, at some of the most beloved destinations on earth.
The list is long and growing:
Machu Picchu, Peru – strict daily visitor caps and timed entry tickets have been in place for years due to erosion caused by overcrowding.
Athens Acropolis, Greece – daily visits are now capped at 20,000 to protect the ancient site from further damage.
Mount Fuji, Japan – daily visitors during peak season are capped at 4,000 with a mandatory entry fee after overcrowding caused serious environmental damage.
Trevi Fountain, Rome – a reservation system now limits access to 400 visitors at a time. Rome has also introduced strict behavioral rules like no eating near monuments, no removing pieces of the fountain, no love padlocks on bridges.
Venice, Italy – after daily visitor numbers regularly exceeded 100,000, the city introduced a day-visitor entry fee and banned large cruise ships from the historic lagoon entirely.
Dubrovnik, Croatia – implementing a booking system limiting visitors to 10,000 at any one time. In previous years the Old City regularly had up to 40,000 visitors simultaneously which is nearly four times its sustainable limit.
These cities are not closing their doors to tourism. They are closing their doors to irresponsible tourism. There is a difference and which side of that line you fall on is entirely within your control.
When you travel internationally you are entering spaces that belong to other people. Other cultures. Other histories. Your presence there is a privilege, not a right. And that privilege comes with a responsibility to arrive with some basic understanding of what you’re seeing and why it matters.
The tourists at Bacalhoa Buddha Eden almost certainly did not know that the garden was built as a response to cultural destruction. If they had known, would they have still written on the statue? I would like to think not.
What Responsible Travel Actually Looks Like
If you are planning your first international trip or your fiftieth here is what I have learned about moving through the world with respect:
Do the research before you arrive.
No one is asking you to do a full academic study. Just enough to understand what you’re visiting. Know the basic history of a site before you visit.
Your job is to understand whether it is sacred, historical, or culturally significant to the people who live there. Even if it’s not, you should still respect it. Ten minutes of reading changes everything about how you experience a place.
Follow the rules… even the ones that feel inconvenient. Rules at cultural sites exist for reasons. No touching. No photography in certain areas. And do not remove stones or artifacts. These are not bureaucratic obstacles. They are protections for something that cannot be replaced. If a sign says don’t touch it, don’t touch it.
Understand that your visit has an impact. You are one of thousands, sometimes millions, of people who visit a site every year. The cumulative impact of millions of people who each think their small action doesn’t matter is the destruction of things that took centuries to build. Your individual behavior matters more than you think.
Leave it exactly as you found it. The simplest rule in travel. Whatever you find when you arrive, leave it that way for the person who comes after you. That is the entire philosophy of responsible travel in one sentence. In some places, preservation rules are in place and taken very seriously. In other places, they are a bit loose yet require personal discipline. And simple respect. Don’t carve your initials in the stone. Don’t pull out your sharpie and write anything. And don’t trash it.
The Difference Between a Tourist and a Traveler
I have been saying for years that there is a difference between being a tourist and being a traveler. A tourist moves through a place consuming it. A traveler moves through a place learning from it and leaving it better, or at least unchanged, for having been there.
That distinction shows up in small moments. In whether you read the sign before you walk past it. Whether you put your camera down for a moment and just stand in the presence of something extraordinary. In whether you consider, even briefly, the people whose culture you are visiting: what this place means to them, what it cost to build, what it would mean to lose it.
Bacalhoa Buddha Eden was built because someone cared enough about cultural preservation to turn grief into something beautiful. The least any of us can do when we walk through its gates is honor that intention.
My Perspective
The world is extraordinary. It will show you things that change how you see yourself and everyone around you. But only if you arrive willing to receive it with curiosity, with humility, and with enough respect to leave it exactly as you found it.
That is what travel is supposed to do. And that is what it will do…if you let it. 🖤
Frequently Asked Question About Responsible Travel
Q: What is responsible travel? Responsible travel means moving through the world with respect for the places, cultures, and communities you visit. It means doing basic research before you arrive, following the rules at cultural and sacred sites, leaving every place exactly as you found it, and understanding that your presence has an impact on the destinations you visit.
Q: What are examples of irresponsible tourism? Irresponsible tourism includes defacing cultural monuments, removing artifacts or stones from historical sites, entering sacred spaces disrespectfully, climbing structures that are closed to visitors, and prioritizing social media content over cultural sensitivity. All of these behaviors have been documented at destinations around the world and have contributed directly to sites being closed or restricted.
Q: What destinations are limiting tourists because of overtourism? Many destinations around the world have implemented visitor caps and entry fees in response to overtourism. These include Machu Picchu in Peru, the Athens Acropolis in Greece, Mount Fuji in Japan, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, Cinque Terre in Italy, Venice, Barcelona, and Dubrovnik. The list continues to grow as cities push back against irresponsible tourism at scale.
Planning your first international trip? TwoBlackTravelers exists to help first-time international travelers build the confidence to see the world. Browse our travel tips, destination guides, and resources at twoblacktravelers.com.
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