When Travel Forgets Its Roots

By Jacquie Chandler

What if the most important shift in travel today isn’t where we go, but how we go?

For centuries, every destination was home to people who lived in deep relationship with the land, water, plants, wildlife, and sky. They understood that survival depended on six inches of topsoil and the miracle that it rains. But as modern cultures erased that relationship, destinations were rebranded as scenery, resource, or playground. The result? Overtourism, ecological strain, and a generation of travelers disconnected from the places they visit.
It’s time for a reset.

In Lake Tahoe, where I’ve worked for nearly two decades as a geotourism liaison, I’ve seen both sides of the story. The “Keep Tahoe Blue” bumper stickers tell a tale of clarity lost to traffic, trash, and congestion; problems rooted not just in visitor behavior, but as a direct result of how we market, welcome and guide travelers to experience the destination. When we invite tourists to consume a place, they do. When we guide them into relationship, something different happens: they begin to care.

That shift, from seeing nature as an it to relating to nature as a living being, changes everything. Travelers who feel connected don’t just take photos; they take responsibility. They slow down. They give back. They become the type of visitor destinations welcome.

My forthcoming book, Until the Water Sparkles, is both memoir and roadmap. It chronicles how I learned to re-story travel at Lake Tahoe, blending the original instructions of this land with practical strategies for hosting visitors. But more than that, it offers a way forward for the industry, for students of tourism, and for travelers themselves: a blueprint for transforming awe into belonging, and belonging into care.
Because when travel remembers its roots, it has the power to inspire us, and restore the places we love.