Why is my experience spoiled by sharing it with others who are after precisely the same thing as me?…It all has to do, I think, with the objective every traveler pursues: an authentic experience. The traveler looking for an authentic experience is looking for places that have retained their “character.” In practice, “authentic” often means untouched by modern life, by tourists and commerce. So it would be superauthentic to trek through the Sahara with a band of nomads and a camel caravan… But modern nomads aren’t stupid. They abandoned the nomadic existence long ago and now hire themselves out as guides and make good money putting tourists on camels. So that they can buy, say, a Mercedes and never have to ride a camel again themselves. Or, to put it another way, wherever you go in the world, sooner or later you run into other people, and then the party’s over.
–Jeroen Van Bergeijk My Mercedes is Not For Sale
(Global Postmark review of the book My Mercedes is Not For Sale)