You’ve seen that genre of travel vlogging by foreign content creators. The slum tours, the ‘crazy crowded trains’ reels, and the random filming of strangers. Also read | Finnish couple that moved to Mumbai with two kids for work shares honest take on India: ‘We feel safe here…’
Dutch creator Ivana Perkovic, who lives in Mumbai and previously spent years in Bengaluru, is not doing any of it.
Captioning her post, she wrote, “I think this basic rule is not too difficult to understand, no? Share this with someone travelling to India for the first time. Her core message? “Basic rule: If I can be civil at home, I can be civil in India. Ivana began her breakdown by tackling one of travel culture’s most pervasive issues: poverty tourism. Ivana also called out the hypocrisy of sensationalising public transport or daily urban life for shock-value views. In conclusion, Ivana reminded travellers that respectful conduct isn’t a complex science: “It’s really not that hard to be civil in India. If you’re a civil person at home, be a civil tourist in India as well. Watch By holding up a mirror to common travel tropes, Ivana’s fresh approach served as a reminder: basic respect, privacy, and perspective should never be left behind at the departure gate.
In an Instagram post shared on September 28, titled ‘Things I don’t do in India to not embarrass myself as a foreigner’, Ivana dropped a simple rulebook for being a decent ‘foreigner’ in India. Also read | Dutch woman travelling solo in India gets stranded on highway after flat tyre, then 3 strangers step in.
“This includes not using poverty for entertainment,” she stated, drawing a direct parallel to her home country, Netherlands, saying, “The Dutch Voedselbank is not a tourism attraction, and neither is a slum in India. “I don’t travel during rush hour and pretend my country is chaos,” she pointed out, adding that safety and common sense apply anywhere in the world. Ivana said, “I don’t go into areas which are generally known to be unsafe to go ‘off the beaten path’.
