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Tourism likes to present itself as an economic lifeline. A benevolent industry that “brings jobs,” “injects money,” and “creates opportunities” for local communities. This narrative is repeated so often that it has hardened into common sense. But it is also deeply misleading. In most places that are now framed as “tourism-dependent,” local communities did not organically evolve into that condition. They were pushed there. Dependence on tourism is not a natural economic outcom

Platforms like Workaway and Worldpackers have spent years selling a comfortable fantasy to travelers: the idea that you can move freely through the world, reduce your costs, and still call it ethical travel by exchanging a few hours of labor for accommodation and food. Framed as cultural exchange or community building, this model has become normalized across the tourism industry, especially among young travelers who want distance from mass tourism without questioning the stru

Conscious tourism is not a trend, a lifestyle label, or a marketing concept designed to make travel consumption feel more ethical. It is a response to a structural problem that has been building for decades: the transformation of travel into an extractive industry that treats places as disposable backdrops and communities as secondary to visitor demand. Tourism has long been framed as an unquestionable good, driven by growth metrics, visitor numbers, and short-term economic g

Airbnb was once celebrated as a symbol of the so-called “sharing economy,” a promise of cultural exchange and supplemental income that seemed harmless enough. Yet in cities across the world, the platform has become an accelerant of a housing crisis whose consequences fall almost exclusively on the people who actually live in those cities. The combination of predatory tourism models and the rise of digital nomadism - marketed as a liberating lifestyle - has reshaped urban hous

It presents itself as neutral, cosmopolitan, even aspirational - an elegant label for people who choose to live abroad. But look closely, and the veneer cracks. “Expat” is not a synonym for immigrant. It is a  racial, economic, and geopolitical marker  - a linguistic loophole designed so that certain groups (almost always white, Western, and passport-privileged) never have to be mistaken for the very people they spend a lifetime othering. In practice, “expat” is the colonizer

To be clear: this isn’t about individual blame, but about systems. Digital nomadism exists within global inequalities it didn’t invent, but actively benefits from.

Hi. I’m Aurora! I’m Brazilian. I'm the Founder of The Better Place. I’ve been traveling this world for a while now. And I'd love to talk to you.

We need to talk. About that photo. You know the one: the wrinkled grandma sitting on a doorstep, the barefoot kid smiling at your camera, the dusty street with crumbling walls. All dressed up in a dramatic black and white filter and posted on Instagram with a caption like “Humbled by the simplicity of life here.” [LAUGHS IN LATINA]