The world is full of beautiful places, we don't need to encourage gentrification

Last night I was watching a tiktok video of a Japanese woman talking about her trip to the Philippines. She was talking about how cheap the food was, how delicious it was and how healthy it was. She talked about how amazingly clean it was. She talked about how cheap the hotels were. And I was there thinking, yes it is all of that. But she was a Japanese person and it really hit me - she is from a rich country, what is she doing in a poor country? Why is the food cheaper for her than for Filipinos, who make less money? Why is she taking up space in our economy in a place where Filipinos can barely afford to live because our government is corrupt? Why is she traveling when many of our citizens don't even have the money to travel in their own country?<br><br>I have been to other countries in South East Asia and it was the same there. We all know how Thailand works. So much gentrification and so many stories about people getting kicked out of their homes because their rent is too high. These places are dirt poor in terms of money and it is really a shame how international tourists are comfortably traveling in SE Asia without any regard for the people living there.<br><br>I believe in the importance of international tourism and creating friendships through travel, but I don't think it should be the rich (developed countries) travelling to the poor (developing countries) to get cheap food and hotels. I think it should be a fair scale of countries with similar economies, for example Americans going to Europe and Europeans going to America. There should be a fair amount of money being exchanged and traveling back and forth to both countries. I also think that it is not fair that people from rich countries get to travel but many people from poor countries cannot afford to leave their own country, let alone even get a passport in the first place. <br><br>It's ironic because if you talk to Americans or Europeans, they will tell you that the world is a scary place and they will never travel to developing countries because they are unsafe. But why do travelers from these countries think they can live in these countries comfortably and safely but the citizens cannot? Why are travelers from these countries travelling now when they have been told by the government that these countries are unsafe? Why do they think they are better than the people who live in those countries? I just don't understand it.