Beyond the Instagram Post: A Travel Journalist's Call for Conscious Travel
When I sat down with Yulia Denisyuk for the Type 2 Travel podcast, I knew we were going to have a different kind of conversation. Yulia isn't just a travel journalist—she's a storyteller, photographer, filmmaker, and community builder who's unafraid to ask the hard questions about what travel really means in today's world.
Born in Kazakhstan, raised in Estonia, and now based in the United States for 24 years, Yulia brings a unique perspective to travel journalism. But what struck me most about our conversation wasn't just her impressive background or her work with publications and brands—it was her unflinching honesty about the problems within the travel industry and her commitment to doing something about it.
The American Dream Deferred
Our conversation took an unexpected turn early on when I asked about her experience as an immigrant living in America today. Her answer was brutally honest: "I don't want to be here anymore."
Yulia explained how the promise that brought her and her mother to America—that hard work and dedication would lead to a better life—no longer feels attainable. "When I came to the US in 2000, it wasn't like that. I really felt this huge promise and this huge opportunity... I just don't feel this way anymore."
As someone who travels extensively, she's witnessed firsthand how people live in other countries, and the contrast is stark. "The level of stress that I return to when I return to the United States is just... I don't see it in other places as much," she shared. "Everything is so expensive, I have to constantly think about how I'm going to pay the bills, what if I get sick, how I'm going to afford my healthcare."
It's a perspective that many Americans might not consider—how the country looks through the eyes of someone who chose to come here and now questions that choice.
The Problem with "Frictionless" Travel
One of the most compelling parts of our conversation centered on what Yulia calls the "frictionless" nature of modern travel. She argues that platforms like Airbnb Experiences have commoditized what used to be serendipitous, meaningful encounters.
"With Airbnb experiences, you can now order an experience when you go travel without any friction," she explained. "You don't even have to do any work of saying hello to that person, maybe striking up a conversation, maybe seeing them over a couple of days and then they invite you to their home—because that's how relationships used to happen."
This removal of friction extends beyond just booking experiences—it's changed how we approach travel entirely. We want instant gratification, perfect Instagram shots, and seamless experiences without having to work for genuine connections.
The Tourism Leakage Reality
Yulia brought up a concept I often talk about on podcasts: tourism leakage. "Most money comes out of communities and doesn't stay there because of the dynamics of mass tourism," she explained. "It's these big brands, multinational corporations that own the land or own the hotels."
While tourists feel good about spending money in destinations, thinking they're supporting local communities, the reality is often quite different. Local people might work as cleaning staff or front desk employees, but they rarely hold ownership positions or receive the bulk of tourism profits.
This connected to examples from my own travels—like a glamping site outside of Havana, Cuba owned by someone from the Middle East, or Yulia’s example of the plastic bubble tents popping up in Jordan's Wadi Rum desert because they photograph better for Instagram, despite being horrible for the environment.
The Media's Role in Perpetuating Stereotypes
As a journalist, Yulia is acutely aware of how media shapes perceptions of places around the world. She traces much of the problem to how headlines are written and stories are framed.
"When we consume this day in day out for decades, we start to form unconscious biases about these places ourselves," she said. "‘All those poor kids in Africa,’ or ‘there's civil war in Sierra Leone,’ or ‘the Middle East equals terrorists.’"
Her motivation for traveling to stereotyped destinations comes from wanting to play a role in dismantling all those misperceptions. She's never been to a place where she hasn't found incredible people and incredible kindness—amazing places that are just deeply, stereotyped and misunderstood.
Travel Journalism's Surface-Level Problem
Yulia doesn't hold back when critiquing the current state of travel journalism. "A lot of what travel journalism puts out is so surface level and so, again, at the service of the traveler that it actually perpetuates that mindset that we have."
Pick up any top travel magazine, she says, and you'll find stories about travelers experiencing personal transformation, luxury hotels, and premium experiences. But these stories rarely acknowledge the social and political context of destinations or give voice to local people and their struggles.
This frustration led her to create Going Places, an independent media platform where she can publish stories that legacy publications won't touch—stories that go deeper than surface-level travel content.
Standing Up in a World on Fire
The most powerful moment of our conversation came when Yulia and I discussed her recent panel at the Women in Travel Summit in NYC, where she wore a Gaza t-shirt and spoke about the fact that more journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last two years than in all of World War II.
"We are not used to speaking like that in public spaces. We don't bring our full selves to public spaces. We don't acknowledge what's going wrong in public spaces because we are all afraid to speak up," she said.
Her message was clear: we're past the point of being afraid to lose contracts or followers because of how much loss there is in the world right now. "I think we're losing our humanity if we're not acknowledging any of this."
Yulia’s words that day in NYC brought me and many others to tears, and it was a glowing example of how leaders in the travel space need to show up and set an example—it’s important now more than ever before.
The Capitalism Connection
Throughout our conversation, Yulia drew connections between how we live our daily lives and how we travel. "The way we behave when we're traveling is an extension of how we behave when we're at home," she observed.
Our society is built around quick consumption, instant gratification, and extremely online lives. When everything from food to relationships can be ordered on demand, it makes sense that travel would become commoditized in the same way.
"Apathy is so easy in capitalism," she pointed out. "Everything is frictionless. I can order everything I need... And I live in my world, and I don't need anything else."
What Gives Hope
Despite the heavy topics we covered, Yulia ended our conversation on a note of hope. What keeps her going? People.
"I meet so many incredible people who are working on really important projects," she said, mentioning individuals like Vinci Ho, founder of Rice Travel Institute, who's bringing social justice lens to travel, and Palestinian peace activist Aziza Busara.
"The more we can learn about these stories of people doing incredible things in the world, I think the more hopeful we can be about getting out of this mess that we're in right now."
A Call to Conscious Action
Yulia's perspective challenges all of us who work in or consume travel content to think more deeply about our choices. Whether we're booking trips, creating content, or simply scrolling through Instagram, we have the power to either perpetuate harmful patterns or push for something better.
Her message isn't that we should stop traveling—quite the opposite. Travel remains "incredibly powerful" for fostering human connections and breaking down stereotypes. But we need to approach it with humility, consciousness, and awareness of our impact.
As she put it: "We need to exercise that [privilege] accordingly. We need to be more humble when we come to people's places."
Yulia Denisyuk is an award-winning travel photographer, writer, Telly-Award-winning filmmaker, and podcast host who turned to travel and culture journalism after serving in the US military and working as a Fortune 500 brand manager. Yulia's work appears in The New York Times, National Geographic, TIME, Conde Nast Traveler, BBC Travel, and more. For past assignments, she’s shared a roof with nomads in Mongolia and learned the art of Imigongo with artist collectives in Rwanda. Yulia is the founder of Going Places, an independent journalism initiative cultivating hope with stories, community, and trips. She teaches and consults through her Travel Media Lab platform, frequently speaks at conferences and events, and leads storytelling workshops around the world. She is based in Chicago with her pup Leo.
Instagram: @insearchofperfect
Website: goingplacesmedia.com