The world in a selfie

What is recreation from everyday life for some, becomes a daily burden for others: worldwide, the number of tourists is exploding, in the last 15 years, the income of the industry has more than doubled, in Mallorca came in July 2016 1.8 million visitors to 900000 locals. These protested - disguised as tourists - in tennis socks and with a camera around their necks. In doing so, they picked up on two aspects that have always been central to the historically young phenomenon of mass tourism: aesthetic demarcation (badly dressed tourists are always the others) and the fascination of holiday photography. Following in the footsteps of Twain, Barthes and Enzensberger, Marco d'Eramo surveys our tourist age. Why do we contort ourselves in order to take pictures - if necessary with a selfie stick - in front of buildings that we find less impressive "in real life" than in the travel guide?